Frank Gehry’s plans for a $1.8 billion downtown development in Los Angeles are impressive, yes, but Christopher Hawthorne says that the first draft’s “attitude toward the city is laid bare in these models, and, stripped of architectural flourish, they reveal a project a good deal less public-minded than many of us had hoped… Particularly on its lower levels, the design is clogged with retail space — 250,000 square feet of it in total above a labyrinth of underground parking. As a result, the project is shaping up as something of a commercial cul-de-sac: a place that’s designed, like a casino or a mall, to make getting in easier than getting out or walking through.”
Tag: 04.24.06
Refco Collection To Hit The Block
A world-famous photography collection owned by the bankrupt brokerage firm Refco is to be auctioned off at Christie’s New York. “Photographs in the Refco collection, known to art experts worldwide, have had pride of place on the walls of the company’s New York and Chicago offices for decades… Highlights include Richard Avedon’s photograph Andy Warhol, Artist, New York City, August 20, 1969, which has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. And William Eggleston’s Memphis, from 1969-70 has an estimated price of $40,000 to $60,000 on it.”
DaVinci Riles Up The Faithful Around The Globe
As release date approaches for the film version of The DaVinci Code, Christian activists worldwide are launching websites, issuing pronouncements, and generally doing whatever they can to denounce the story, which speculates that Jesus may have married and had children, and delves into the mysteries surrounding a certain secret sect.
UK Public Opposes TV Fee Hike (Even To Help The Elderly)
A plan by the BBC to cover the cost of providing digital TV access to disadvantaged groups such as the elderly and infirm with a hike in the country’s television license fee reportedly has nearly half of UK viewers opposed. (The BBC is funded through collection of an annual fee – currently £131.50 – charged to anyone owning a TV in the UK.) UK broadcasters are supposed to convert completely to digital signals by 2012, but the government wants the BBC to help cover the cost of switching viewers over to the new technology.
Scottish Arts Advocates Look For Funding To Match Their Ambition
In Scotland, where public arts funding has been awfully hard to come by in recent years, there are fears that the arts are increasingly being seen as an unnecessary frill, even as Glasgow and Edinburgh make strides in the effort to expand and develop their respective cultural scenes.
You Can’t Judge A Drunk By His Symphonies
“The characters and life stories of composers are as varied as those of any other group – schoolteachers or greengrocers, farmers or soccer managers. It is true that some lived flamboyant bohemian lives, but just as many carried on like accountants… Does knowing about the composers help us to understand their music? It is tempting to think that there is an obvious connection between the way a composer lived and the music he wrote (and most of them were ‘he’). Sadly, this isn’t the case.”