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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

What’s Going On At Slate?

posted by on May 16 at 16:20 PM

Today the online mag posted a piece called “The best (and worst) of Seattle’s architecture,” and yikes.

The writer, Witold Rybczynski, profiles all the notable buildings in the city—with nary a mention of the new Seattle Art Museum, which opened downtown less than two weeks ago to national coverage in the press. (Editors didn’t notice the oversight?)

Making matters worse, Rybczynski mistakes Richard Serra for Anthony Caro, twice.

It’s not only that Serra is famous and that Serra and Caro are impossible to mistake for one another, but that Serra’s works are among the most architectural in the history of sculpture—well within the bounds for an architecture critic.

Ouch.

RSS icon Comments

1

Ouch, yeah, I'm glad I didn't see that. the P.I. this morning had a good Northwest section on events for the summer. Calder's sculpture park thing looks great on the front. Did you know the Times/PI, one of em, was a pioneer for color pictures in newsprint? The Center fountain pic with pink umnbrella is very cool.

Posted by Garrett | May 16, 2007 4:51 PM
2

Holy crap, Slate.com still exists?

Posted by Peter | May 16, 2007 4:55 PM
3

That article sucks...they didn't even cover my favorite building, architect Steven Holl's Chapel of St. Ignatius or the many many other libraries going up or the amazing court house...D+

Posted by bob | May 16, 2007 5:05 PM
4

I like how he called the Bourgeois sculpture "wonderful." Fag.

Posted by frederick r | May 16, 2007 5:59 PM
5

Slate not only still exists; it also still sucks.

Posted by Jay | May 16, 2007 6:30 PM
6

Jen, the URL was repeated in your hyperlink -- twice

(No biggie. Just a slight yuk from dumb ol' me)

Posted by matthew fisher wilder | May 16, 2007 7:05 PM
7

@6: Should be fixed. Thanks.

Posted by annie | May 16, 2007 9:21 PM
8

i find the new SAM building neither the best nor worst of Seattle architecture. maybe tending towards the worst because of the loss of potential. The rest of the article, despite its flaws and perhaps lack or investment (research), seemed to echo most of my sentiments regarding local projects.

seattle doesn't have much in the way to be proud of when it comes to architecture. there is also, as the article points out, no distinctly seattle aesthetic. and please, please, don't prove the article correct and agree that the INSIDE of the library is what northwestern architecture is supposed to be about. those colors, materials and exposed elements remind me of a mall. or at best, a college building at western.

Posted by infrequent | May 17, 2007 11:05 AM
9

Without any criteria for determining "best" or "worst." a discussion like this is silly.

Against what standards are we each judging Seattle's buildings? Without making the standards crystal clear, it's impossible to know if any of our opinions make any sense.

Posted by David Sucher | May 17, 2007 11:28 AM
10

Maybe I'm not critical enough, but I actually found the slide-article to be rather complimentary of the direction architecture is going in. Granted, it had harsh words for the EMP - who doesn't agree with that assessment, and was blah on Benaroya - I disagree with it here, Benaroya is beautiful, especially inside, but overall it seemed to give OK marks to our city.

PS why would there be a mention of the new SAM when everyone here in Seattle has downplayed the new SAM building?

Posted by Brad | May 17, 2007 1:02 PM
11

Such oversights and mistakes come as no surprise to me. This is typical of how art and architecture writing is ghettoized in many mainstream publications, both print and online. Who is this writer anyway? It read like something written by an intern.

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