Lord Fossie does a Posh Spice.
Sir Norman Foster has done it again. He's designed some massive glacial phallus to perch like a wart on the face of the beige-coloured masses. Some love it, others hate it. But it was this quote that I found rather fitting of Fossie's fantastical form for a project in New York:
Following that, another resident of the area likens Sir Norman to a heavy-metal punk rocker invited to play with the philharmonic. Something tells me that there is not much of a punk rocker in Fossie.
This week I was having dinner with Sha, and the subject of Sir Norman Foster comes up. Chris, Sha's mate, sings his praise for Lord Foster, who, in the public eye is quite the man. Sensing my distaste (or rather- him being on the recieving end of my 'oh-god-not-him-please-not-fossie-the-architecture-sl*t' spiel) Chris asks me why don't I like this world renowned British Architect. He has done some awesome projects, no? On the spot I could not think of any way to describe my feelings, and came up with some lame-o thing about Donald Trump not necessarily being a figure to look up to, when really I should have swollowed my words as quickly as they came out. I should have said something like this:
'The Spice Girls were massive when they were at their peak. Yet, not everyone liked them. They were successful, produced chart topping pop tunes and appealed to the masses. Yet not everyone liked them. In fact, many musicians worth anything thought they were just a bit of a joke really-surely?! This, is why Sir Norman Foster doesn't do it for me.'
I'm sure in some ways he's brilliant and worthy of his title, but as for me, he's still just singing the same old zig-a-zig-ah. xxw
p.s Check out the entire article on the New York project on businessweek.com
Teri Slater, co-chair of Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side, called the building an “oversized, ovoid, glazed conceit of a project.”
Following that, another resident of the area likens Sir Norman to a heavy-metal punk rocker invited to play with the philharmonic. Something tells me that there is not much of a punk rocker in Fossie.
This week I was having dinner with Sha, and the subject of Sir Norman Foster comes up. Chris, Sha's mate, sings his praise for Lord Foster, who, in the public eye is quite the man. Sensing my distaste (or rather- him being on the recieving end of my 'oh-god-not-him-please-not-fossie-the-architecture-sl*t' spiel) Chris asks me why don't I like this world renowned British Architect. He has done some awesome projects, no? On the spot I could not think of any way to describe my feelings, and came up with some lame-o thing about Donald Trump not necessarily being a figure to look up to, when really I should have swollowed my words as quickly as they came out. I should have said something like this:
'The Spice Girls were massive when they were at their peak. Yet, not everyone liked them. They were successful, produced chart topping pop tunes and appealed to the masses. Yet not everyone liked them. In fact, many musicians worth anything thought they were just a bit of a joke really-surely?! This, is why Sir Norman Foster doesn't do it for me.'
I'm sure in some ways he's brilliant and worthy of his title, but as for me, he's still just singing the same old zig-a-zig-ah. xxw
p.s Check out the entire article on the New York project on businessweek.com
posted by Widarchitect at 6:49 pm
3 Comments:
i cannot agree with your view on N.Foster. Some of his building are so-so and yet just becos his name or firm is attached to it, make it woo wahh.. wateva!
hving said tat, one got to give credit where credit dues; he does have a couple of rather fascinating piece of architecture.
like ur comparison of him and spice gal. haha!
rrr...: The Foster has been knighted, awarded the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and I'm sure several other numerous awards and prizes. He's obviously a force to be reckoned with. That, no one can deny.
However, you re-iterate my feelings for him exactly rather than disagreeing (perhaps this was your point). But to spell it out for you: I care little for his projects and find his penchant for glass and steel distasteful, crass and quite frankly, a bore. The fact that he carries more awards under his than you can shake a stick at does little to deter my opinion of him. Therefore the idea that his projects get more publicity, as you say, than deservered, is simply evidence of architecture sl*ttery gone mad. xxw
well well well...u seems to gather quite a bit of info on him i say. that proved that with the right marketing and publicity, anything can be heard and evidently noted by everyone.
so i guess (correct me if i m wrong) from ur footer on ur blog, u are an alsop. to me, he is another example of right time, right publicity, that got him where he is now. again, you either love or loathe his work.
Architecture is like hmm...everything really; exposed to scrunity and taste of everyone. To me, i would rather have someone disliking my work & some 'cannot get enuf' (haha) of my work; rather than all of them: yeah yeah yeah all the time.
btw, what master topic are u writing about or doing? works of alsop vs foster? haha!
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