2009.02.02 13:07
Venturi's Lieb (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
...and then/now there's museification
dossier in brief:
(at least) a Philadelphia tradition:
Cedar Grove and contents
Letitia Street House
Hatfield House
Briar Hill library and contents
Period Rooms of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Japanese House
Étant donnés
1977.02 antidote:
"If someone in the museum was truly interested in my work they would let me cut open the building. The desire for exhibiting the leftover pieces hopefully will diminish as time goes by. This may be useful for people whose mentality is oriented toward possession. Amazing, the way people steal stones from the Acropolis."
Gordon Matta-Clark
1993:
Robert Venturi, "Some Agonizing Thoughts about Maintainance and Preservation Concerning Humble Buildings of the Recent Past"
1998:
"Do you know the BASCO sign is now gone?"
"No! Do you know where it is now? We'd like to save it."
1999.10.06
A typed letter signed by Robert Venturi, wherein he laments the demolition of his BASCO 'baby', is currently up for auction at eBay
2000:
"What's the address of the Nurses' Office in Ambler?"
"It's better now if you just look at the pictures."
[found the building and took pictures anyway]
2002.11.23
Monument Hystérique
2004.12.17
"Took pictures of soon to be quondam building; visited museum exhibit without the museum building there yet; entered room that moved from inside one Trumbauer building to inside another Trumbauer building. Where do I get my best ideas?"
2005:
Best Building demolished; flower pattern porcelain enamal panels saved, many now in private and museum collections
2009.01.02
Lieb House; another chapter in the architecture of removement.
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2009.02.02 14:37
Venturi's Lieb House (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
I'd say that the Lieb House is now a museum peice. That's how the building's context has now changed. Villa Savoye hasn't moved, but its context has changed as well. It hasn't been a residence in many years, and it too is now a museum peice.
It was asked above what's going on at Guild House. According to "on the boards" of the VSBA website, Guild House is undergoing rehabilitaion. Just in passing, the physical context of Guild House changed drastically within the first decade of the building's existence. Spring Garden Street was much different/dense in the 1960s and bad zoning decisions changed the street into low-rise warehouses. It's kind of difficult to appreciate Guild House 'in context' now.
For what it's worth, I'm becoming much more interested in architectures within the context of the space-time continuum.
2009.02.02 15:09
Venturi's Lieb House (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
What may be lingering in the background is the notion that the Lieb House was somehow site-specific, and now, without its site, that building is thus diminished. I'd say the Lieb House was/is much more generic than site-specific. And that is where its historical significance comes from--a thoughtful modern design in the generic idiom.
2009.02.05 11:43
Venturi's Lieb House (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
There was never any implication that the Lieb House and the Villa Savoye were to be compared in terms of design, importance or influence. Rather, both buildings are examples of modern houses that have undergone a change in context via museification.
And now going on to another dossier--the influence (back in the day) of Venturi et al on Gehry.
2009.02.05 17:12
Venturi's Lieb House (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
1974 peeling wall detail as precursor of Gehry's later pliancy?
4703
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2009.02.06 10:08
Venturi's Lieb House (No. 9) House to be moved (or demolished)
"...the question about whether that particular research is still relevant to this particular generation."
"why do we like when old ads are painted on the sides of buildings - and try to protect them - but wouldn't allow them now? why would we protect/grandfather a huge neon when we are disallowing similar sized led displays?"
"the name of the exhibition was spelled out in those plastic letters above the entry to the gallery, in the gorgeous grand entry hall of the museum."
[I'd say] Museification sometimes "has a way of nostalgically applying aesthetic qualities that were not present in the origin."
It is becoming more clear what Agamben means by "everything today can become a Museum, because this term simply designates the exhibition of an impossibility of using, of dwelling, of experiencing."
The antidote then may well be to simply use museums. And in that sense, the Lieb House has now been museified, but, if and when it reaches its ultimate destination, it will then be used as a guest house.
3120q
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