What Should We Do With
2 Columbus Circle?
Four views on whether a much-reviled
Manhattan building should be saved
BY PHILLIP LOPATE, ROBERT A.M. STERN, THEODORE H.M. PRUDON, AND WITOLD RYBCZYNSKI
Few works of architecture have been
more reviled than 2 Columbus Circle, erected in New
York City in 1964. Edward Durell Stone (whose credits
include the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.) designed
the 10-story building for the heir to the A&P supermarket
fortune, Huntington Hartford, who wanted a space in
which to display his extensive art collection. Thus
was born the Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern
Art. Stone's creation was unabashedly ornate,
the famous ground-floor arcade among its most striking
features. Although these flourishes amused or puzzled
some people, many critics of the building were merciless,
including Ada Louise Huxtable, who famously likened
the arches to a series of
gigantic lollipops. After Hartford's museum left
2 Columbus Circle in 1969, several tenants came and
went. Today the building is vacant and owned by the
city.
New York has now agreed to sell 2 Columbus Circle
for $17 million to the Museum of Arts & Design.
Before the museum moves in, there will be a renovation,
overseen by architect Brad Cloepfil, that will essentially
destroy Stone's famous facade. Though the National
Trust placed 2 Columbus Circle on its 11 Most Endangered
Historic Places list this year, the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission has argued that
the building does not "possess a special character or special historical or aesthetic
interest or value as part of the development, heritage,
or cultural characteristics of the city, state, or
nation."
Does 2 Columbus Circle indeed lack these qualities?
We put that question to essayist Phillip Lopate, architects
Robert A.M. Stern and Theodore H.M. Prudon, and architectural
historian and critic
Witold Rybczynski.
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