Bad News Days for Renzo Piano

W. 131st Street and Broadway, looking south, today

Brave New Columbia: W. 131st Street and Broadway, looking south

In case there were any doubts that Renzo Piano is no longer the darling of the critics, Paul Goldberger and James Russell have just cast cold eyes on two of his latest New York City projects.

In the Aug. 6 New Yorker, Goldberger, a former NY Timesman, expresses far more admiration for Cesar Pelli's two-year-old headquarters for Bloomberg than for Piano's just completed NY Times headquarters (although he ascribes most of the faults of the Times building to the Gensler firm that designed the interior).

Meanwhile, over at Bloomberg, Russell today trashes Piano's design for Columbia University's planned annexation of Manhattanville, to its north.

Russell asserts:

The plan now making its way through New York City's arduous approval process looks more like a dumbed-down real estate deal than a vision for the future.

For a discussion of the disappointing arts-related component of Columbia's $7-billion Manhattanville plans (from this Columbia Journalism School alum) go here.

I wonder how Piano's plans for the Whitney on the High Line are progressing. Russell was previously very dubious about those too.