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Kimmelmania

By Matt Chaban 11/20/12 12:26pm

Kimmelmania

London has had barriers on the Thames since 1984. (Getty)

Four Out of Five New Yorkers, Including Michael Kimmelman, Want Billions Spent on Storm Infrastructure

It’s starting to seem like Mayor Bloomberg is the only one who doesn’t think storm barriers are a worthwhile investment. Not only do Governor Cuomo, MTA chief Joe Lhota and both Jerry Nadler and Chuck Schumer think it’s a good idea, but so do 80 percent of New York City voters, according to a new Quinnipiac poll out today.

They were asked, specifically, if it was worth spending billions—no exact amount, or source of funds beyond the federal and state governments was given—on new waterfront infrastructure. Only 14 percent thought it was not worth the cost. Support was even higher when the pollsters asked if the cost was justified it if the storm protections could “reduce the cost of disruption and restoration.” Then, 88 percent supported the new infrastructure, compared to 6 percent who did not support. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/19/12 4:18pm

Kimmelmania

Mr. Dolan, tear down this arena. (MAS/Twitter)

Michael Kimmelman Calls Madison Square Garden ‘the Worst Arena in Town’ [Update: Paul Goldberger Calls It 'Worst Arena in the World']

The MAS Summit has been going on for the past two days, and it has been a cornucopia of delights for the city-obsessed, full of zany proposals for affordable housing, green buildings, starchitecture, community-based development and a giant floating doughnut hovering over Grand Central. But so far the most thrilling moment was deliver by The Times‘ architecture critic Michael Kimmelman during a discussion capping day one with the Municipal Art Society’s president, Vin Cipolla.

The two of them basically meandered through a bunch of Mr. Kimmelman’s columns from his first year on the job, and the first question was about Penn Station, when the critic had the audacity to tell the Dolans to scram. He still believes it is one of the most pressing planning issues in the city all these months after he wrote the piece. “I think there’s a hunger to do something about this site, which I think is a blight on millions of people’s lives every single day,” Mr. Kimmelman explained. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/24/12 11:17am

Kimmelmania

Medellin, hotbed of architecture. (ArchDaily)

In Colombia, the Kimmelman Thesis Laid Bare—and a War on Starchitecture?

It’s been more than a month, so that must mean time for another Michael Kimmelman column.

But the latest from The Times’ architecture critic is also his biggest yet—literally and figuratively. We learned back in March, via Twitter, that Mr. Kimmelman was headed to Colombia, to investigate the much-talked about transformation of the once-and-still-somewhat-drug-addled South American country and the critical role good design had played in the changes of the past two decades. On March 31, after five days in Colombia, Mr. Kimmelman declared, “Winding up eye opening trip to Bogota + Medellin—compels total rethink of familiar stories about both. Great architecture to write about.”

Indeed. On Sunday, atop the Arts section, a 2,500-word opus appeared on the state of design in Medellin and the health of a city as synonymous with Pablo Escobar as public architecture. The result is the most clear declaration of what could best be considered Michael Kimmelman’s Grand Unifying Theory of Architecture, or The Shortcomings of Popular Design Today. One passage in particular seems to sum it all up rather succinctly: Read More

By Matt Chaban 4/19/12 3:42pm

Kimmelmania

Mr. Piano with his clients. (Arch Record)

Finally, Michael Kimmelman Reviews Not One Starchitect But Two

Since the beginning, there was a certain amount of awe at Michael Kimmelman’s rejection of the boldface designers and celebrity architects that make up the world of starchitecture. There was little sign of the flash and panache that had defined architecture criticism in the pages of The Times for many moons. In fact things were quite gritty, even grim, if uplifting in their earnest and realism. By and large, the city(s) and profession has been better off for Mr. Kimmelman’s critical eye.

Still, there has been a clamoring in many quarters for more. At times it felt like Mr. Kimmelman was ignoring certain notable projects worthy of, even demanding notice. There have been but a dozen newsworthy developments in New York alone, from the Signature Theater to Brooklyn Bridge Park. What did Mr. Kimmelman—really, what did The Times, what did the paper of record, the voice of god–think of these important projects? With the exception of the divisive NYU expansion, to which Mr. Kimmelman had an ingenious (and thus far ignored) solution, we still do not know.

But now, at least, he has graced us, after seven months on the job, with his thoughts on one of the world’s most renowned architects. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/29/12 2:43pm

Kimmelmania

His heart goes pitter patter. (SkyscraperCity)

A Globetrotting Michael Kimmelman Finally Reviews Some Buildings, Mulls ‘The Limits of Architecture’

There has been quite a big debate of late—sparked in part by us—about Michael Kimmelman’s near-refusal to write about new buildings, for a good long time the stock-and-trade of those in his new-found profession. With rare exceptions, almost every column the Times architecture critic has penned has been about the streets or the parks or even the trees in the parks.

That changed when, after a six-week hiatus, Mr. Kimmelman, in a mix of personal reverie and polemicism, singlehandedly dismantled NYU’s proposed expansion plans in the Village. Now, but a few days later, he returns with another building review, of an entirely different sort, on the far-side of the Atlantic. The initial, cynical instinct is for the eyes to roll at another review of another housing project (that makes three in six months). But the ultimate reaction, as it has been after finishing a Kimmelman column these past few months, is to cheer. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/08/12 6:05pm

Kimmelmania

Still calling the shots.

Michael Kimmelman Will Not Play Your Architecture Games

Michael Kimmelman is not a very good architecture critic, at least that is what some of his critics would have you believe. As invigorating as his first few columns championing urbanism and public design were, the whole thrust has devolved into a sort of schtick, whereby every article is about the greatness of cities, and barely about architecture.

Michael Kimmelman knows this. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/08/12 6:11pm

Kimmelmania

Half time?

To Save Penn Station, Boot Madison Square Garden to the River

Despite his lack of formal design training, Michael Kimmelman has excited many readers, both architecturally adept and not, with his focus on urban issues. The Observer has begun to hear some grumbles, however, that that is all he cares about—bike lanes here, old housing projects over there, riverfronts a world away. What does he think of the Atlantic Yards apartment buildings or the World Trade Center Memorial. Won’t he weigh in on some capital-a Architecture already?

Well, today, as always seems to happen, he has done us one better. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/05/11 10:21am

Kimmelmania

This'll do. (City Review)

We Need More Zoning

Michael Kimmelman returned to the public realm for this week’s column, where he all but declared what appears to be his raison d’etre going forward: “We’ve been so fixated on fancy new buildings that we’ve lost sight of the spaces they occupy and we share,” he wrote in the Sunday Times. But instead of Zuccotti Park and protest spaces, this time Mr. Kimmelman turns his attention on Midtown, where he ambles about with the esteemed planner (and mayoral soothsayer) Alexander Garvin.

Together, they argue that the city needs to do more to plan these spaces, which are largely designed ad hoc, if at all, by the developers who own the properties. They point to Holland, that godhead of urban enlightenment, as a prime example from which to learn: Read More

By Matt Chaban 11/08/11 10:34am

Kimmelmania

Not so fast. (Getty)

Finally, The Times Likes Bikes: Michael Kimmelman on Two Wheels

The Observer was beginning to suffer withdrawal. It had been more than two weeks since Michael Kimmelman filed his last piece for The Times Art Section, after a run of nearly one architecture review a week. We should have seen his latest one coming, but The Observer must admit that we did not.

It is not simply because defining bike lanes as architecture could be a subject open for debate, at least under Mr. Kimmelman’s starchiest-loving predecessor (to be fair, he did write about the Time Square pedestrian plazas) but also because the Gray Lady has not exactly been a friend to the cycling movement, consistently criticizing the godhead Janette Sadik-Khan.

But for Mr. Kimmelman, recently returned from Europe, cycling is almost a perfect conveyance. Read More