Allen - Blog 16

Renzo Piano and the Whitney Museum in New York.  A distinct and structure reflecting the changing skyline that surrounds it.  With each face achieving a different goal the design is quite ambitious.  With the rear stair-stepping down with floating stairways to minimize its impact on the neighboring squatty skyline behind the museum and relating to the High Line with the elevated floating stairs and patio spaces.

The front with planned public space and a public gallery to promote the sharing of culture and ideas.  Renzo Piano references the previous museum's design by inserting the viewer directly into the middle gallery space from the elevator.  Relating the art, the poetry, the light, all to move the viewer in an unprecedented way.

With a striking shape and form this museum has its critics for the architectural design.  I see nothing to complain about but an intriguing facade with many angular elements with what are clearly windows and not waving indistinguishable shapes that lack true function and in which the true functional structure is hidden and confined.  The Whitney Museum is a structure that engages the onlooker to keep studying the complex forms it creates in one work of art as the museum itself encourages its patrons to study the art it houses and keep discovering new things.

Sources:
David Plick. "Renzo Piano on the Whitney Museum and the Value of Public Space" 09 Jun 2015. ArchDaily. Accesed 28 Jun 2015. http://www.archdaily.com/640484/renzo-piano-on-the-whitney-museum-and-the-value-of-public-space/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/19/arts/artsspecial/new-whitney-museum.html