Brook Hazelton, president of the Americas for Christie’s, notes that “there was a natural affinity toward wHY’s design. And a real comfort level in working with the architect and team—it was a natural fit.” Read more at Robb Report.
The two-story space, which has been designed by the Los Angeles- and New York-based firm wHY, will host private selling exhibitions, public exhibitions of touring auction highlights, live-streams of auctions from Christie’s 12 salesrooms worldwide, social events and educational programmes. Read more at The Art Newspaper
Los Angeles’ ever-expanding museum landscape spreads a little farther come spring with the opening of the Marciano Art Foundation. The contemporary art museum from Guess co-founders Paul and Maurice Marciano will show painting, sculpture and photography along with installation, performance and multimedia works in a renovated former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Boulevard near Koreatown. The big question: Just how hungry is Los Angeles for contemporary art? Read the full piece here.
wHY’s redesign of Kentucky’s oldest art museum consists of what the firm calls acupuncture architecture—a series of precise interventions meant to modernize and bring new life to what was a rather predictable, if noble, institution. It’s not predictable anymore. See the rest here.
“One thing we realized, unlike many museums or large park projects at this scale, is we knew we couldn’t do it from the client top-down master plan perspective,” Mark Thomann, head of wHY’s landscape workshop, Grounds, said. “It had to be ground up. It had to be a long-term collaborative project.” wHY’s plans integrate much of Olmsted’s original vision while adding new amenities. The most ambitious of these is a sweeping music pavilion and visitors center in the heart of the park. The first major addition to the park, though, will be a new sculpture by Yoko Ono entitled Sky Landing. The sculpture will be unveiled in October near the Garden of the Phoenix on Wooded Island, the original site of the Columbian Exhibition’s Japanese Garden. The Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes Fishery & Ecosystem Restoration (GLFER) program has also been working to remediate the park’s ecology with native plants and wildlife. Read the full article here.
AGH | That LEED-certified Grand Rapids Art Museum your team did sounds great. Are environmental standards in architecture getting enough attention? KY | It’s unfortunate that environmental thinking and solutions were separate from mainstream architecture, because environmental conscience must be the backbone of architecture and design thinking. Just as we cook food that delights the palate, enhances health and sustains the world, we should build to delight the senses, enhance quality of life and sustain our earth. AGH | What makes a client desirable to work with? Are you drawn to forward thinkers? KY | Clients are desirable in the same way that friend are; having a forward-thinking, intelligent mind with a visionary focus is a plus. I am drawn to unusual people, people with uncommon ideas, challenging thoughts. But I think it’s important to see a project as a relationship and/or a collaboration, and you need clients who are collaborative, not combative, and someone who loves the unknown as much as the known. AGH | What about the architecture of food? Is there a theme there, something you see happening? Something you talk about in lectures? KY | I see food as a great example and metaphor for architecture; both gain value through the way people interact with them. Food should not be consumed through pictures; same with architecture. These art forms possess an intrinsic and intimate relationship with people and their happiness/quality of life, and I want people to have a great sense of understanding and expectation towards architecture, just as they do with food. >>> http://www.aspiremetro.com/design/dinner-guest-kulapat-yantrasast/
