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| Tue Jun 22 23:46:51 2010 The Idiocy of Chasing Genius |
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| Tue Jun 22 23:46:51 2010 The Idiocy of Chasing Genius The Seattle Center's strange obsession with Chihuly |
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| Lately, the
Seattle Center has been ripping out some older (and faded) attractions, and plans to replace
them with a
Chihuly glass exhibit for which it will charge an admission fee.
For those who don't know, Dale Chihuly is a local glass-blowing artist who is fairly famous world-wide. However, he has a bit of a reputation as a self-promoting gas bag who has other people do all his work. In fact, the whole Seattle Center Chihuly Exhibit idea was due to Chihuly himself. That plus the admission fee have Seattleites up in arms over the proposal. Is a Chihuly glass exhibit, proposed and promoted by one of the era's most self-promoting and over-exposed artists, really the best use of public space in the center of the city? (Hopefully by now you've realized I'm not an impartial observer.) Because of the uproar when the Chihuly exhibit was announced, the Seattle Center said it would solicit proposals for other ideas. They announced their list in early July, you can see it here. Really, none of the other proposals are that great (giving KEXP a cool studio, or a "Museum of the Mysteries"--is that the best we can do?). My favorite from that list is probably the Northwest Native Cultural Center Initiative , which would include a building housing the center, as well as an outdoor area with cedar trees (very Northwest!) and winding paths. Not bad! In announcing the proposals, the Seattle Center re-submitted Chihuly's proposal, and upped their ante, announcing they would give a free field trip for every eighth-grader in the Seattle school district. I like the focus on education, but really, this is just busing in kids to drink the Chihuly Kool-Aid, and it's a one time gimmick. Although I wasn't blown away by the other proposals, the Seattle Center only gave the community a few weeks to submit ideas. I think they could have done better! Also, they don't appear to have learned from their greatest mistake: the Experience Music Project. The EMP is just the latest chapter in Paul Allen's ambitious personal quest to lose as much money as he can in a short amount of time. [Side note: did you see that Paul Allen recently put his yacht up for sale? A mere $162 million.] In addition to being a spectacular money-loser, the EMP is also ugly. Very ugly. When asked, most Seattleites voted to destroy it. When Paul Allen decided to inflict the EMP on Seattle, he asked for the most famous architect at the time: Frank Gehry. Paul Allen picked a recognized genius. How could he go wrong? Well, the main lesson is that just because someone does something great once, doesn't mean they will do something great every time. Frank Gehry isn't perfect. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is suing Gehry over a building they commissioned from Gehry in 2004. Certainly Gehry's overall reception has been mixed, with the Economist noting
...but that's just nitpicking. Haven't people noticed that Gehry's works mostly look alike? Haven't people notice that great debut albums are often followed by poor sophomore efforts? Don't you think Andy Warhol was over-rated? One of the cities to get architecture right is Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago had to rebuild. Rather than follow the Paul Allen/Seattle Center strategy and try to commission self-promoting geniuses, Chicago had many lesser-known architects provide great buildings. The result was a city that defined an entire era of architecture. One of the most famous competitions was the Tribune Tower design competition, which not only resulted in a great building but the competition itself spurred new ideas in architecture worldwide. When the Chicago Tribune decided to build the world's best office building, they didn't pick a genius and declare that anything that person produced would be brilliant. Instead, they had a worldwide competition and judged each entry on its merits. That strategy works! [Yes, there is a Gehry in Chicago, and it's ugly too.] So I recommend that the Seattle Center, and Paul Allen, stop trying to chase self-proclaimed geniuses. If they really want great ideas, sponsor a real design competition, and give people time to submit! Comments |
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