Monday, August 20, 2007

Barnes Business

My secret mission last week failed, but here's a good overview of where things stand. And more here from Bloomberg architecture critic James S. Russell:

"Moving poses its own perils. Judge Stanley Ott requires the new structure to reproduce exactly the galleries from the Cret building and Barnes's arrangement of the works. The collection can neither grow nor shrink. It's got to be the most peculiar major architectural commission in years. ...

"To make things messier, the Barnes can't be sure when it can move. The city of Philadelphia has offered a perfect 4.5- acre site along the Parisian-style Benjamin Franklin Boulevard that leads to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The city is supposed to move an overcrowded juvenile jail now occupying the site to a new facility by next May, yet it has failed to take the necessary steps. Assume the replacement will take a minimum of four years."