Controversy Over Bush Presidential Library Continues

The concerns about the site of the Bush library and museum have raged on from early last year and are beginning to reach a feverish pitch in Texas making the apparent homecoming for bush not as welcoming as one would have expected. First, historians and archivists complained about censorship. Next, professors and scholars objected. Now, pastors and church leaders have joined the protest against Bush's presidential library. Southern Methodist University (SMU) is slated to host the George W. Bush Presidential Library on its campus in Dallas, Texas. SMU's leaders are warmly welcoming Bush's library. The Bush library foundation has formally approved SMU as the location.

But all is not well. The United Methodist Church's (UMC) Quadrennial General Conference is the UMC governing body. Earlier this month, that governing body voted overwhelmingly - 844 to 20 - to refer a petition to its South Central Jurisdiction, urging it to reject Bush's presidential library, preventing it from being housed at SMU. Signed by 844 Methodist leaders.

Church leaders say that Bush's library does not belong at SMU because the UMC should support instead a separation of church and state. Some leaders have explained that if the Bush library goes on the SMU campus, it could appear to the country and the world that the UMC endorses George Bush and his policies.

Bush is attempting to raise $500 million for the project and has hired Michael Van Valkenburgh, principal of a New York- and Cambridge-based design firm to be the lead architect for the library. Van Valkenburgh, a professor at Harvard University's graduate school of design, has won numerous awards for his work, which also includes a number of urban parks, such as the Brooklyn Bridge Park.



By Lucy Belnora.
Image obtained from: images.google.com
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Another Gehry Monstrocity

Princeton University's science majors started classes on Thursday the 11th of September but they also got a tutorial on how Frank Gehry seems to always throw up all over a site, totally disregard budgets and still wins acclaim and gratitude for it.
The $76 million dollar (and counting), 87,000 square foot project houses the University's collections for astrophysics, biology, Geo-science, chemistry, math, physics and statistics, student classrooms and lecture halls.

Taking slightly over four years from ground breaking to top-out, this building required 90,000 pounds of embossed stainless steel and 620 pounds of clay brick which were combined with glass, steel and stucco to "attempt" to reflect the design of surrounding buildings. The atrium, just inside the front door expands into a wide open space, giving the visitor views of all parts of the building with walls painted all sorts of colors from tangerine to blueberry. The group study room on the top level looks out onto the building's roofs and the rest of the campus through a prism like array of windows.

In putting up its new Gehry designed "Lewis Library," Princeton endured its share of challenges. It paid to construct models of the building to give the subcontractors a chance to practice, it fired a contractor halfway through the project when the building was already past due and recently learned that some contractors bribed their way onto the job site.

But the project has finally been completed and Princeton is very satisfied though I can't imagine why. This building looks like it was thrown together to see just how many completely different materials could be connected together without having the entire ensemble come crashing down. The concept of using glass, steel and stucco was to have the building relate with those surrounding it but when did you ever see a Gehry design blend in with its surroundings? You would have a better chance of seeing Ray Lewis participating in the cirque de soleil, than a Gehry design that didn't look like it was just dropped there from outer space.

The main questions I want to ask are, how energy efficient is this building and will it withstand the weather? I think these are very relevant questions for Mr. Gehry especially in the aftermath of his designs for the Ray and Maria Stata Center at MIT that leaked once the rains began.
Well, Gehry has done it again and I guess I shouldn't be whining about it. That's his trademark design and if Princeton got it then they specifically asked for it.


Images obtained from arcspace.com, chronicle.com/blogs/architecture