Attacking the MoMA Monster: Community Board 5 Nixes Nouvel Tower

Rendering of Jean Nouvel's design for 53 W. 53rd Street, NYC
Unanimously approved last month's by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission (despite community opposition), Jean Nouvel's design for a soaring glass tower, contiguous with the Museum of Modern Art, hit a snag last week when Manhattan Community Board 5 voted against the project, 30 to 9 (with one abstaining and another "not entitled to vote"). The board's input, forwarded to New York's Department of City Planning, is purely advisory.
The 82-story, mixed-use building would contain nearly 52,000 square feet for another expansion of MoMA, increasing its gallery space by 39 percent. It would be built on land sold by the museum to the developer.
Wait a minute! Did the community board say this building was 82 STORIES? In the original announcement, back in November 2007, it was a mere 75 stories, which seemed monstrous enough for that location.
In its resolution addressed to City Planning chair Amanda Burden, the community board argued that, at 1,250 feet, the proposed tower would be "one of the tallest buildings in the city" and would be "simply too large for its site." The board also took a direct swipe at MoMA, alleging that "it has generally developed very bad relations with its residential neighbors and is not perceived to treat residential concerns seriously."
In any event, it seems doubtful that the developer, Hines, could be in any rush to break ground on the mega-project in this gloomy real estate climate.
I'm not saying that I don't want MoMA to expand any further---just not in this manner. There are many goals yet to be addressed that I had hoped would be fulfilled by the recent Taniguchi-designed mega-expansion, but weren't.
My own guess is that City Planning will insist on some modifications of the project and then approve it.
For the last word (in this post, anyway) on the Nouvel project, let's go to the doyenne of architecture criticism, Ada Louise Huxtable, who writes for the Wall Street Journal. She recently told the NY Times:
I am so weary of these stupid alliances between developers and cultural institutions in which the cultural institution is given a block of space and the developers overbuild the rest and make an enormous profit.NOTE TO CULTUREGRRL DONORS (and prospective donors): This post marks the inauguration of my Heads-Up Club: I'm giving advance notice to my financial supporters of the topics of upcoming posts. All of my existing donors, regardless of dollar amount, will be automatically bumped up to Premier Donor status and be grandfathered into these alerts. (All donors of $5 and up have already been receiving e-mailed links to my posts at the time of publication. Such links will also be sent to all future donors at that level.)
The Museum of Modern Art has become a real estate operation. I admit a certain amount of nostalgia: I remember a street that was once one of the best streets in New York, 53rd Street. Watching it change over the years, I can't help but view their new Nouvel tower as the last destructive nail.
For future donors, the gift that gets you into my Heads-Up Club (for advance notification of most upcoming posts) is $25 or more. There will inevitably be some posts, however, for which I may give little or no advance notice, so as not to scoop myself or be scooped.
June 22, 2009 12:30 AM
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CULTUREGRRL , aka Lee Rosenbaum, is your award-winning "best blog" guide to the artworld, consulted daily by the most important museum directors and curators, art dealers and auctioneers, collectors, scholars, critics, journalists and art lovers.

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LEE ROSENBAUM
I'm a veteran cultural journalist who writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal's "Leisure & Arts" page. I've been a regular cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC). I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and the annual conference of the Museum Association of New York, and on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University. more
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LEE ROSENBAUM
I'm a veteran cultural journalist who writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal's "Leisure & Arts" page. I've been a regular cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC). I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and the annual conference of the Museum Association of New York, and on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University. more
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