Word: taniguchi
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...Once he'd committed, Taniguchi spent a year studying MOMA?its history, how it had selected architects in the past, anything that could provide an insight into the museum's inner character. "Like a medical doctor, I need to know the nature of an institution so I can make a proper diagnosis," he says. Taniguchi then crafted a proposal that offered both an expansion and a continuation of the museum's identity: the fundamentally conservative worldwide arbiter of serious, modern fine arts. In doing so, he created a radically understated counterpoint to the increasingly hyperbolic, maximalist trends in museum architecture...
...Instead, Taniguchi created an elegant, understated jewel box of a structure true to one of the guiding principles of his career: as a place for people and art to interact, the museum building should all but disappear. "Architecture is essentially a container for people and what's inside," says Taniguchi. "My architecture should not compete for attention if it is trying to fulfill that mission. Also, this is the Museum of Modern Art, one of the finest collections of art in the world. How do you compete with that? I don't think you should compete...
...flashy iconoclasts, a subtle traditionalist like Taniguchi may be the true radical. Indeed, his final presentation in 1997 to MOMA's seven-member Architect Selection Committee was so low-tech?so unlike anything seen in architectural pitches in decades?that Riley remembers it as a near disaster. "Taniguchi is not what you'd call trained in the art of salesmanship," he says. "There were no special effects, no flip-books, no PowerPoint presentations. What you had was a rather shy man talking about his philosophy of architecture. It was probably one of the worst presentations I've seen...
...most controversial decisions Taniguchi made was to retain the famous amalgam of fa?ades along the museum's West 53rd Street side. The product of five separate building campaigns, the streetscape features successive fa?ades by Edward Durrell Stone and Philip Goodwin, Philip Johnson, and Cesar Pelli. Taniguchi argued to keep them intact?as a kind of history of modern architecture. This fueled early mumblings that the renovation was an opportunity lost, a glorified embalming rather than a genuine rebuilding. Dismissing such complaints, Taniguchi says: "Unlike many museums, MOMA faces a street, not an avenue, so even if I did something interesting...
...emphasis has become abundantly clear now that the doors have been thrown open. Other than the familiar fa?ades, nearly the entire museum has been disemboweled; inside, it unfolds into something quite extraordinary. Completely reorganizing and expanding the gallery space (from 7,900 sq m to 11,600 sq m), Taniguchi has transformed the museum from what used to feel almost like a mall into a rare temple of calm and a reinvigorated setting for viewing great art. With its crisp lines, smooth materials and minimalist d?cor, the museum offers an instant shelter, an oasis in a gritty, insomniac urban center...