31 Comments
UTS President to Retire, Gets Normal Sized Headline
Showdown Over Kung Fu Club’s Funding Fails to Result in Kung Fu Showdown
Manhattanville, Shmanhatanville, No Ugly Buildings Here
Five Titles, But We Got To Start in the “Elite Eight”
An Actual Book About Coffee Table Books! (Idea Stolen From Kramer)
Loading …
31 Comments
@interested viewer bwog, how is it none of your staff have scowered the internet for free samples of sanchez porn…
@BWOG!! today’s flaxman email was one of his best – advise you post
@Umm If by best, you mean getting the URL of wikicu.com wrong 5 times….
@banner headlines only go for cool people that we like
@I'd like to drill Matt Sanchez.
@ummmm UTS =/= JTS
@... UTS?JTS
@SCANDAL normal sized headline for UTS president’ts retirement = anti-semitism
@wow. http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2006/02/17/News/University.Presents.New.Science.Facility.At.Cb9.Meeting-2028441.shtml
“When University President Lee Bollinger announced the architect’s appointment in September, he emphasized that Moneo’s prior work showed “an extreme sensitivity to context”-ostensibly an important asset when fitting a structure into the tightly-bound northwest corner.”
“But Moneo emphasized that the architectural style of existing buildings would be the determining factor in the building’s design. “The campus is strong enough for helping you to figure out what to do there,” he said.”
hahahahaha…oh man…
@Spec was, in fact, at the CB9 meetings (http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2006/02/17/News/University.Presents.New.Science.Facility.At.Cb9.Meeting-2028441.shtml), but I promise you they didn’t solicit much meaningful feedback or take much of it to heart. If you think community input isn’t important in this case, fine, but don’t pretend like it was collaborative.
As far as the departmental meetings, I wasn’t there for any of them, but I assume they were there to get feedback about floorplans and lab schematics—which no one is challenging—rather than the architectural narrative of the building.
It’s Columbia’s decision, obviously, but I think it’s fair to say that they’d do well to get more and more meaningful input on the appearance of the thing. This school’s recent history is littered with shitty, shitty buildings that should have been scrapped on the drawing board.
@classical buildings were built by extremely well-trained artisans who were paid jack shit. the result is that the structures are made of very beautiful, very refined materials. the newer stuff is built poorly out of crap materials, and it shows. look at the brickwork, and you can see how much the physical materials matter to beauty
@wirc 1. Columbia’s campus is in a Renaissance style.
2. Plenty of historically sensitive buildings have been built in a modern form.
3. A lot of the later McKim buildings are ugly, think of Pupin, John Jay, and the towers planned for the Northwest Site in the 1920s.
4. Broadway and CSEPR are eyesores. Let’s not lobotomize out buildings as well and get that watered-down misshapen classicsm.
5. All of the modern buildings on campus, except for Sultzberger, are mediocre.
@history http://www.wikicu.com/History_of_the_Morningside_Heights_campus
@okay point taken about renaissance (except low). still, NW corner building is NOT historically sensitive. lerner, crap that it is, is far more attuned to its surroundings. also, I think you’ll find many don’t share your opinion re: pupin/john jay…and, jesus, sulzberger isn’t mediocre? it has to be the most watered down bare brick box this side of mudd.
@please If you are a Columbia you, you probably think that Sulzberger (note correct spelling) is not mediocre because it houses hundreds of Barnard girls.
@Alum Fairchild and Computer Science are very good modern buildings. So is the Warren building (the narrow one on 116th, not the one at 115th and Amsterdam). Sulzburger and Broadway are also pretty good. Schapiro CEPSR isn’t great but it’s far from an eyesore. Te southwest facade of Havemeyer Extension is also quite well done, though the more visible sides disappoint. The Kraft Center has its charms, too.
A great modern addition is the underground Avery Annex. The expansion and renovation of Greene (the main law school building) is spectacular compared to what that building was like before. Then there’s the rare book library on the 6th floor of Butler, which is far more appealing than a space with such bizarre proportions has any right to be.
There’s plenty of architectural dreck as well, but let’s give credit where credit is due.
@right, but shitty architecture=shitty prestige
@hairs http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2007/04/25/Opinion/Whose.Choice.Is.It.Anyway-2879499.shtml
“…speaking as a former fetus myself, I’d like to become a positive role model for all those who are aspiring, one day, to be born.”
-Matt Sanchez
@which one is that the gay porn scandal matt sanchez or just some guy with the same name?
@hairs pretty sure it’s the same guy, hence the crushing irony of his wanting to be a role model…
@I get it! “crushing irony”!
Iron is heavy, so it crushes! I’m smart!
@wtf who’s the retard who writes spec editorials?
“The University should halt construction and engage the community in its plans for the development before it makes another mistake that will hurt Columbia’s prestige ”
Architecture = Prestige!!!!
@so? it’s not a completely nonsensical idea. princeton and yale traffic a lot on their unitary gothic revival campuses…columbia trashes its neoclassical aesthetic legacy with mudds and urises.
@the proper plural is Uri.
@grammaticus poor, ignorant pleb.
it’s clearly URES
@Scriba Salve, magister grammaticorum!
@Third declension “Ures”?
@umm …decent points.
Also, the community WAS involved– meetings with stakeholders in sciences and CB9. But I guess the Spec was too busy to notice or attend.
Check out the website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/neighbors/construction/current/Northwest_Science_Building/index.html
Strikes me as highly ironic that self-styled progressives champion anachronistic architecture styles.
I guess we should redo all the classrooms and auditoriums to the oh-so-comfortable, pre-modern styles in Fayerweather and Havemeyer…that’ll sure help our “prestige.”
@actually the big auditorium in havemeyer is famous…it makes it in all the films. you don’t see people admiring columbia’s campus because of all our 417 IAB -like classrooms…
@McKim where is my facebook revolution? come on, I’m sending out the email asap and I need a link to attach to…
@Umm Why was there an opinion piece by a Maoist economist?