Nicolai Ouroussoff is unimpressed by New York’s preservation board decision to save two brownstones next to the Whitney Museum. “Essentially, for the sake of preserving a humdrum brownstone facade on Madison Avenue, the commission embraced a substitute design for the museum that transforms a generously proportioned public entrance into a more confining experience. The architect, Renzo Piano, drafted the alternative – which would save that brownstone, while demolishing another – when the museum realized that the addition was in danger of being voted down by the commission. Aside from weakening a promising design, the commission’s stubbornness proves that it is unable to distinguish between preserving the city’s architectural legacy and embalming it.”