George Lindemann Journal by George Lindemann - "Architects Mourn Former Folk Art Museum Building" @nytimes by ROBIN POGREBIN
Scaffolding on the former Folk Art Museum building on West 53rd Street. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
As scaffolding went up around the former Folk Art Museum building on Tuesday, one of its two architects broke his silence to say how devastated he and his partner are about the Museum of Modern Art’s decision to tear down “one of our most important buildings to date.”
“Yes, all buildings one day will turn to dust, but this building could have been reused,” Tod Williams said in his first interview since the Modern announced the demolition of this West 53rd Street building, completed in 2001. “Unfortunately, the imagination and the will were not there.”
Until now, Mr. Williams and his partner, Billie Tsien, have declined to be interviewed about MoMA’s hotly debated decision. Instead, since January, when MoMA confirmed its conclusion that the neighboring Folk Art Museum building could not be salvaged, this husband-and-wife architectural team had let a prepared statement speak for them.
Mr. Williams and Ms. Tsien issued another such statement on Tuesday, in response to the appearance of scaffolding around the building, which MoMA bought in 2011 when the folk museum vacated it because of financial troubles.
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“A building admired, visited and studied by so many will now be reduced to memory,” the statement said. “We understand the facade will be put in storage, but we worry it will never be seen again.”
MoMA declined to comment. It has defended the demolition as necessary for its expansion. The museum plans to extend galleries through the Folk Art Museum site and into new exhibition space that will be part of a tower to the west, designed by Jean Novel for the Houston developer Hines.
In response to protests, though, MoMA agreed to preserve the Folk Art Museum’s 82-foot-high facade, which is being removed ahead of the rest of the building; its future is unclear. For now, it will be transported to one of the museum’s storage sites. An ensemble of 63 copper-bronze panels, it was the most celebrated architectural feature of the building.
Some new homes for the facade have been floated, Mr. Williams said, including MoMA/P.S. 1 in Long Island City, Queens. This idea was proposed by Nina Libeskind — chief operating officer of the architectural practice of her husband, Daniel Libeskind — and Fredric M. Bell, executive director of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
“I believe strongly that the facade of that building was an integral part of the New York cityscape and that it should have, and could have, been incorporated into MoMA’s plans,” Ms. Libeskind said in an interview. “It’s a valuable piece of architecture that should be kept.”
Ms. Libeskind said she and Mr. Bell are scheduled to meet with MoMA about their proposal next week. “Whether or not they accept that, I have no idea,” she said. “I think it is a reasonable, very intelligent alternative.”
Asked why he and Ms. Tsien had not addressed the facade’s future earlier, Mr. Williams said, “We held out hope, even when we knew there was very little hope, that the complete building could be saved.” He added, “We were focused on saving the building so we did not think of the facade as a separate piece.”
Mr. Williams said he appreciated recent proposals to reuse the most publicly recognizable portion of the building, though he and Ms. Tsien have always maintained that the facade and the building were
That said, Mr. Williams explained that during the construction process, the facade was attached to the building as a separate element — “as an architectural mask.” Though fragments of buildings have been preserved at places like the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Williams said, “the idea of installing a few panels somewhere doesn’t interest me.”
When asked whether MoMA had contacted him and Ms. Tsien, Mr. Williams said, “Only when we were notified that the building would be torn down.”
He declined to address the personal issues involved; the situation has been particularly thorny because the Modern’s expansion plan involves another pair of architects with whom he and Ms. Tsien were friends: Elizabeth Diller and Ric Scofidio. That husband-and-wife team are part of Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the firm hired by MoMA to evaluate whether the existing folk art building could be integrated into the Modern’s expansion plans. Ms. Diller declined to comment.