Hasta La Ideas

Just a few weeks into the new year and already Frank Gehry has walked away from a project. Following his rough year in 2009 with the Atlantic Yards debacle, he has now decided to remove himself from the Museum of Tolerance building in Jerusalem. There have been troubles with the project from the start, largely over the fact that the proposed site was an ancient Muslim cemetery. You’ll recall as recently as last July we were telling you about Jewish and Muslim groups were joining forces to try and get the project stopped, and now it seems to have worked, as it’s been made official that Gehry has pulled back, no longer letting the museum’s planners use his plans for the building. But was it all just a move away from the controversy and other difficulties? According to the NY Times, maybe it was about something else entirely:

However, according to the architecture firm Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, part of the initial planning team, Mr. Gehry resigned after rejecting a request by the center to reduce the scope of the plan, the cost of which has been estimated at $250 million.

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