Hasta La Ideas

Every year it seems that the directors of major art museums in the two cities playing against each other in the Super Bowl have made good-natured wagers against one another based on the outcome of the game. We always write about them because they’re fun and it’s nice to see a museum be something other than stiff and somber for a change. However, we rarely hear any follow up on those wagers, finding out if the losing team’s hometown art museum really does lend one of their pieces to the winner. Well now we finally have an answer. The AP reports that the Milwaukee Art Museum will soon be receiving Renoir‘s “Bathers with Crab” from the Carnegie Museum of Art, loaned after the Packers beat the Steelers this past February. The painting will appear as part of the museum’s Impressionism: Masterworks on Paper, an exhibition set to open on October 14th that will run through early January.

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If you thought the battle between museums over space shuttle ownership being over with had long since ended, you are sorely mistaken. Though NASA announced back in the spring which museums would receive the now-decommissioned space craft, and then offered a very thorough report back in August about how it came to pick which lucky museums would get one, late last week the fight revved back up again. The issue began with a story published in the NY Times about New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum and how they’ve only just now begun trying to figure out where to house the shuttle. Their current concept involves creating a massive new building atop what’s currently a parking lot. The only catch is that they don’t own the lot, it isn’t zoned for museum use, and they haven’t designed plans for a building yet, nor have they started raising money for it. This has angered the already reportedly infuriated Texans who were one of the most vocal groups in vying to get a shuttle for the Johnson Space Center in Houston. That anger also looks to be transforming itself into action in trying to now convince NASA to scrap its plans to give the ship to the Intrepid and instead send it to Texas, where they feel it better belongs. The Houston Chronicle reports that a number of the state’s congressional representatives have grabbed hold of the issue, offering statements requesting that NASA reconsider their plans.

“It seems like New York has blown up the entire bid they used to get the space shuttle in the first place,” said Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose district includes JSC. “NASA needs to put the brakes on this.”

…Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, spied fresh opportunity. “You work really hard on something and if you’re lucky you get a break,” said Green, dean of the Houston-area delegation. “These problems may be the break we need. It opens a window for us to take action.”

Thus far, NASA doesn’t appear to be budging, once again restating their belief that it’s best for the organization and for developing interest in space travel that the largest number of people see the shuttles, hence the New York location.

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It appears that the masses have gotten their way, so far as “masses” refers to “people in London.” As we wrote about back at the start of the month, several grassroots movements had sprung up following the closure of the Met‘s record-setting Alexander McQueen exhibition, calling for it to start touring. At that time, there were rumors that it might actually happen, with a first stop possibly at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Now it appears that’s inching closer to reality. The Art Newspaper reports that the V&A is in talks with McQueen’s company (owned by Gucci), with new director of the museum, Martin Roth, mightily pushing to try and make it happen. Here’s a bit:

All options are being explored, even the idea of putting it on at another location if space is unavailable in South Kensington. On Roth’s first day at work in September he began contacting the key players. Although nothing has yet been arranged, he is determined to press ahead.

However, Gucci has told the paper that they’ve been in talks with several organizations in London about a show, but nothing has been decided of yet. Still, that comment seems to indicate that the move to the UK is more than likely imminent, at the V&A or otherwise. We’d imagine that every museum in London must at least be thinking about trying to land it, considering what a smash success it was in New York, and McQueen being a native of the city.

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New York architect Daniel Libeskind has driven a pointed steel and glass shard through the heart of the war museum in Dresden, which reopens on October 14 after a 22-year closure.

The five-storey triangular wedge extends the existing galleries of the Museum of Military History, making it the largest museum in Germany.

The sharp tip of the structure points eastwards, to the source of firebombs dropped during the war, while a 30 metre-high rooftop viewing platform provides a view towards the city skyline in the west.

Inside the building, exposed concrete walls separate the new exhibition areas from the historic galleries.

Lectures and screening will take place inside the building’s auditorium.

Daniel Libeskind also recently completed a media centre for the University of Hong Kong – see our earlier story here and see all our stories about Libeskind here.

Photography is by Bitter Bredt.

Here’s some more information from Libeskind:

“It was not my intention to preserve the museum’s facade and just add an invisible extension in the back. I wanted to create a bold interruption, a fundamental dislocation, to penetrate the historic arsenal and create a new experience. The architecture will engage the public in the deepest issue of how organized violence and how military history and the fate of the city are intertwined.”—Daniel Libeskind

The redesigned Dresden Museum of Military History is now the official central museum of the German Armed Forces. It will house an exhibition area of roughly 21,000 square feet, making it Germany’s largest museum.

Since its 1897 founding, the Dresden Museum of Military History has been a Saxon armory and museum, a Nazi museum, a Soviet museum and an East German museum. Today it is the military history museum of a unified and democratic Germany, its location outside the historic center of Dresden having allowed the building to survive the allied bombing campaign at the end of World War II.

In 1989, unsure how the museum would fit into a newly unified German state, the government decided to shut it down. By 2001 feelings had shifted and an architectural competition was held for an extension that would facilitate a reconsideration of the way we think about war.

Daniel Libeskind’s winning design boldly interrupts the original building’s symmetry. The extension, a massive, five-story 140-ton wedge of glass, concrete and steel, cuts through the 135-year-old former arsenal’s structural order. A 98-foot high viewing platform provides breathtaking views of modern Dresden while pointing in the opposite direction toward the source of the fire-bombs, creating a dramatic space for reflection.

The new façade’s openness and transparency contrasts with the opacity and rigidity of the existing building. The latter represents the severity of the authoritarian past while the former reflects the openness of the democratic society in which it has been reimagined.

The interplay between these perspectives forms the character of the new Military History Museum.

“The dramatic extension is a symbol of the resurrection of Dresden from its ashes. It is about the juxtaposition of tradition and innovation, of the new and the old. Dresden is a city that has been fundamentally altered; the events of the past are not just a footnote; they are central to the transformation of the city today.”- Daniel Libeskind

1. CHANGING PERSPECTIVE – The MHM offers different perspectives on German military history. The architecture, the new thematic exhibition and the redesigned permanent (chronological) exhibition represent both traditional and new forms of perception and expression. The juxtaposition of tradition and innovation, of old and new interpretations of military history, is the cornerstone of the new approach.

2. CULTURAL HISTORY OF VIOLENCE – The MHM offers visitors a history of the German military. But it goes beyond uniforms and weapons in its investigation state-controlled violence, offering new ways of assessing that history and the culture of violence that gave rise to it.

Click above for larger image

3. THE CENTRAL THEME IS THE HUMAN BEING – The central theme of the MHM’s architecture and exhibition design is an anthropological consideration of the nature of violence. The museum closely examines the fears, hopes, passions, memories, motivations and instances of courage, rationality and aggression that have precipitated violence and, all too often, war.

4. MUSEUM AS FORUM – In addition to presenting current and historical topics in special exhibitions and events, the MHM will host screenings, lectures and international symposia.

Click above for larger image

5. A NEW MUSEUM DISTRICT – Once a prosperous and heavily visited area, Dresden’s Albertstodt district, in which the museum is located, , has been deserted for some time. The new MHM will be the catalyst that turns the district into an international destination, a cultural center and a museum district. Made add’l change

See also:

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Creative Media Centre by Daniel Libeskind	Jewish Museum Extension by Daniel Libeskind	Royal Ontario Museum by Daniel Libeskind

The California Academy of Sciences already had a lot of green, earth-friendly things going for it, chiefly that a) it’s science-based and therefore concerned about such thing, b) it exists in a building designed to be super extra green by starchitect Renzo Piano, and c) it’s located in the Bay Area, which is the epicenter of all things green and caring about conservation. But now it just feels like they’re rubbing it in everyone’s faces. This week, despite already having received Platinum status through the U.S. Green Building Council‘s LEED system for rating sustainability, it was awarded a second Platinum nod for continuing to be sustainable after its three years in its new home (falling under the “Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance” category), something we’ve heard is much more difficult to do than just building something new and green. This “Double Platinum” makes it not only the world’s first museum to receive the rank, but it’s also the world’s largest building to hold the double, A+ rating. So okay, we get it already, California Academy of Sciences: your grass roof, your recycled denim insulation, and all those other clever sustainability things you’ve done prove that you like the earth. Now stop making the rest of us look so bad (particularly those of us part-time design blog editors who use an aerosol jet pack every day to get to the coal factory where we work). Here’s a bit from the announcement:

The Academy’s operations and maintenance practices were evaluated and earned points across six different categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. Based on a wide range of green practices and performance metrics, including transportation, purchasing decisions, and waste disposal, it was awarded a total of 82 points, exceeding the threshold for a Platinum certification (80 points).

“Our LEED Platinum building is a marvelous example of sustainable architecture that has wowed millions of visitors since we opened three years ago,” said Dr. Gregory Farrington, Executive Director of the Academy. “However, it is more than just a building. It is also a stage — one that has allowed us to host a wide variety of programs and exhibits about the history and future of life on Earth. Delivering these programs as sustainably as possible helps us inspire our visitors to make sustainable choices in their own lives.”

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