Starchitect Rejected, A New Compromise Rises
With Harvard's plan to build a Renzo Piano-designed art museum rejected, the university took a new tack and built student housing, a park and an underground parking garage -- a "satisfying outcome", says Anthony Flint.
The site is the old Mahoney's garden center site on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. The Renzo Piano plan was so unpopular that locals threatened to bomb it if it was built. Flint says that the opposition's point was valid: "was this really the best place to put an art museum?" And Renzo Piano ended up still being part of the plan, with a renovation to the nearby Sackler Museum.
Pictures at Anthony Flint's new Boston Globe blog, This Land.
Published on Thursday, July 1, 2010 in
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