On Jul 15, 2006, at 1:04 AM, Matt Gorbet wrote:
>
> Just a quick note about 7WTC - I believe the piece was designed by
> Marek
> Walczak and Jakub Segen (for James Carpenter Assoc.). More detail plus
> a demo is here:
> http://mw2mw.com/show/pages/c01-7wtc.html
>
>
Thanks for the link. Marek mentioned that he worked on it but he wasn't
credited on the 7 World Trade Center web site, which brings up some
interesting questions about authorship in public projects. Jenny Holzer
certainly gets top billing for her work as does Jeff Koons for his
ironic "turd in the plaza" sculpture in the garden in front of the
entrance. Even the landscape designer gets a plug. While the LED
project works quite well with the building there is also the question
of its status as art rather than an architectural element.
I've been interested in the integration of art and urban design for a
while, especially the "new urbanism" that's causing some controversy
with the rebuilding of New Orleans. I lived in Florida for a few years
partly to witness the Master Plan project of the small resort town
where I lived. Unfortunately it took so long that I had to leave before
it got very far but what I saw was interesting, and troubling. I
attended one of the charettes where the locals met with the planning
firm and the results are here:
http://www.stpetebeach.org/crd/crdinfo.asp
There's no corruption like a Florida real estate land grab (see John
Sayles film "Sunshine State") and though I was totally unprepared for
the task I did think about getting involved in some way and lobby for
new media projects. The town actually has some quite good architecture
from the 'fifties and 'sixties but has turned into a glut of mini-malls
and high rise condos. In the end I thought it would be best to leave
the planning to the skateboard kids with their iPods etc. since they
are the ones who will live with the results. Unfortunately the
skateboarders didn't have much clout (yet).
Has anyone else been involved in working with New Urbanism firms on
master plans that include artists?
Robbin Murphy
http://post.thing.net
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