[holladay]

YOU GUYS DONT LIKE THIS BUILDING!?!

Man this is evidence of the divide between the world of really energetic and visionary architects and the general public. I hate that the public really doesn't GET architecture.

I'm a young architect and definitely a Modernist at heart. Please try to hear me out on what this building offers that you may be overlooking.

Holl was given a unique program with this building. He was asked to design an extension of the Neo-Classical museum that already existed. He didn't want to imitate the old (where is the point in that, after all?) and wanted to create a dialogue with the existing building. Whereas the original museum is sited as an object set atop a very ordered lawn, Holl proposed a building that would be integrated intoit's site as a series of fragments. Each 'pavilion' is connected by a sinewy thread of passages beneath the ground that are flooded in light.

Please take a second look at the material of the walls. The translucent panes capture a very exciting opalescence and change constantly in appearance with the light of the day. Keep in mind that Holl wanted to achieve both an interesting relationship between building and landscape and a very good quality of natural light on the interior for the viewing of art.

Evergrey, I agree with most of your posts, but on this you're wrong. Holl did not want to baffle or confuse the public. He sought to give us a new idea of what a building can be. His work is both playful and imaginative and seeks to stimulate and excite users much more than to disrupt them psychologically. It is an architecture that is very much about personal experience and offers a new perspective on a way to envision new realities within exisitng cities.

I'm not crazy guys, and neither is the architect. I just hope you can start to see a little of what I'm talking about. Please try to be less dogmatic against Modern architecture. The best architects of today are not destroying the city like the old ones did in the 60s, they're actually trying to propose some new solutions to the problems we discuss on here. I'm one of these architects and I speak to encourage you towards a greater openness in this area.