Ouroussoff's State of Starchitecture: 40 Bond Nay, Gehry Yay!

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New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sometimes takes heat for being too soft—or downright fawning—toward any namebrand project, and his massive starchitecture piece in Sunday's paper will do nothing to quell that criticism. Sure, Ouroussoff takes some shots at a few buildings—notably 40 Bond and 48 Bond—but for the most part he presents the current crop of high-priced celebrity-designed condo buildings as "gorgeous additions to the skyline, a relief from decades of creative stagnation." He does devote a large chunk of the piece to taking developers to task for uninspired interior spaces, but that's mostly out of the starchitect's hands, of course. Ouroussoff saves some of his kindest words for Frank Gehry's coming downtown rental building, the Beekman Tower, writing: "its crinkled stainless steel is a wonder; as light flickers across the facade, it will seem to dissolve into rivulets of water." Quenching! He also reveals that those wacky wrinkled walls will extend to the building's interior. Despite the rave, Ouroussoff couldn't coax a new rendering of the top secret project out of developer Forest City Ratner for publication, perhaps because of his slam last week that Gehry is now too good for Ratner's Atlantic Yards.
· Nice Tower! Who’s Your Architect? [NYT]
· Gehry Calls in the Crane on Secret Beekman Tower [Curbed]
· Gehry's Secret Building Will Be Rentals; Still Secret [Curbed]

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