October 2020 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold: the New Princeton University Art Museum! Or is that the box that it came in???

Yeah, I know, an old gag, but it still works. What you get here is just another exercise in fake originality. How many of these floating boxes are there in the world? Thousands upon thousands? There’s no scaled detailing. It doesn’t satisfy human cognition. Rather, lacking that neurological correspondence, it repels the human brain. Notice: the rendered figure (blue sweater) in the left foreground looks over her shoulder fretfully at it as she steals away in the gloaming. The architect himself, Sir David Adjaye, says: “[It is] a space of genuine inquiry where the exhibition of diverse practices, learning as a synthesis of knowledge and cross-cultural connections weave together into a singular experience that encompasses a multiplicity of ideas and peoples.” He must have taken that course in anodyne metaphysical bullshit at London’s South Bank University. Below is the view from the rear, even more boring, pointless, and joyless than the front.

Shoutout to Derek Markovic for the nomination.