Critical Writing of de Young Museum

ARCHTC 235
Assignment 2: Critical writing of de Young Museum

PART 1
The 21st century piece of architecture i have chosen is the ‘de Young Museum’ of San Francisco built by Herzog & de Meuron in 2005. There were two articles, one written by Sarah Amelar for the ‘Architectutral Record’ in November 2005 under the title “For San Francisco's de Young Museum, Herzog & de Meuron create a new building with a sensual copperskin that will evolve over time” and one written by Rob Gregory for the ‘Architectural Review’ in May 2006 under the title “Outrage: parkland parasite [De Young Museum, San Francisco]”.

The first article takes an obvious positive tone giving huge credit to the architect’s clever design praising the choice of material and way it is dealt to give that special atmosphere. It is described as having a “chameleon’s skin” -able to change over several years and also camouflage itself within the environment. The writer starts off describing what is seen upon arrival, starting from the meaningful pavemented ground to the impacts of the surrounding environment has to this piece of work while closely analysing the detailed outer facade, the nine-storied twisting tower and the interlocking/creation of space.

The article written for the Architectural Review also has a highly positive tone pointing out that although there is no real deconstruction happening on a structural level “very orthogonal and simple box-shaped” it somehow becomes more elegant and that architecture should come back to the fundamental basics of which Herzog & de Meuron has done perfectly. He/She briefly touches the topic of the outer facade, of how it blends in with or rather, uses the environment and the materiality to create an “urban oasis” and then proceeds to explain the complicated internal relationships within the seemingly rectangular and simple plans.

The two articles chosen