NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/architec/245

Text File | 1992-11-20 | 1.8 KB | 38 lines

Newsgroups: alt.architecture
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From: [e-mail] (raymond Chung)
Subject: Salk Institute problem
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Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:27:32 GMT
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For those of you who haven't heard, there's been a great noise over in La
Jolla, CA, where one of Lou Kahn's masterpieces (the Salk Institute) is
located.  Apparently Dr. Salk wants to make an addition to the laboratory
complex (a design proposal that would drastically alter Kahn's idea), but
architects across the country are trying desperately to change his mind.
It's a funny question: does the man for whom the Institute was built and
dedicated have the right to alter what many architects have agreed to be
one of the best architectural spaces in America?  Most of us, I think,
would quickly say, "no, not in this case."  But this is, of course, a
special situation; not every building is so wonderful.

So I would like to (cynically) say that Dr. Salk and the Salk Institute
represent a certain rare moment in the history of architecture, where
architects convene upon a building, not to scorn it but to preserve it.
When on the attack, words of theory crackle with the electricity of
revolution, but here, on the defensive, they simply pose heartfelt
suggestions to one man who has the legal right to do whatever he pleases.

Maybe the saying applies best here, that loving something is so much more
difficult than hating something, for you must understand the thing you
love.


                                 ? = ! > .
                              raymond  Chung