Hasta La Ideas

A big start to 2011 for the architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Late last week they unveiled, to much fanfare, the long-awaited plans for Eli Broad‘s new museum in Los Angeles, adjacent to Frank Gehry‘s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Now they’ve made another big splash closer to home, in their native New York, with the announcement by Columbia University that the institution has selected the firm to build two buildings to serve as the new home for their business school. The structures will go up in West Harlem in an area called Manhattanville, in which Columbia has been cultivating the 17 acres they have there. It’s still early days, given that the commission is just being announced now, so no word yet on what the buildings will look like or when construction will start or (plan to) end, but word will undoubtably come soon enough. Where the money for the project is coming from, however, is known. University board member, alumnus, private equity firm founder, and War on Greed documentary fodder, Henry Kravis, has pledged $100 million for the project, which surely has to be a nice way to start. Here’s from Columbia’s president, Lee Bollinger, about the commission:

“Diller Scofidio + Renfro have repeatedly demonstrated a deep understanding of how people live and work in a dynamic urban environment,” said President Bollinger. “They have achieved beautiful, important architectural successes that have been thoughtfully integrated into the surrounding urban fabric. This is the essence of what we are trying to create on Columbia’s new, open campus — bringing together different areas of teaching and research, and enhancing the connections between the University and surrounding community.”

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