MIT Sues Gehry
This is easily the story of the day. MIT has sued architect Frank Gehry for negligence, "charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up."
In a soon-to-be-published interview I did with former Boston University boss John Silber, he flat out calls Frank Gehry a "fraud." Silber and I were talking about the whole starchitect movement, in relation to his upcoming book, "Architecture of the Absurd: How 'Genius' Disfigured a Practical Art." In the book, he singles out MIT's Stata Center as starchitecture gone bad. Never mind the look, which Silber doesn't appreciate. The roof leaks!
Here's what Silber told the Globe for today's story:
"It really is a disaster."
After learning of the lawsuit yesterday, Silber said Gehry "thinks of himself as an artist, as a sculptor. But the trouble is you don't live in a sculpture and users have to live in this building."
