Starchitects

Credit: Architectural Record

Starchitects

Star Architects are one of my pet peeves. Another is the LEED certification process. So I got a two-fer when I listened to this interview with Professor Jonathan Ochshorn, the author of the Critique of Milstein Hall, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas.

@Archinect reported on the controversy recently, providing a link to the interview that Enoch Sears, @BusinessOfArch, conducted with Professor Ochshorn. The actual critique can be found on Professor Ochshorn's site.

The interview is well worth the time (45 min) spent listening. Professor Ochshorn gives a very convincing explanation of how buildings that push the envelope get themselves into trouble because they become divorced from construction technology. This is something that only began to happen in the past 50 - 75 years after millennia of architecture that was always married to construction technology.

He also explains how LEED Gold Certification was earned by the Milstein project by layering enough sustainability credits onto a building that is inherently uninterested in sustainability. This is the dirty little secret of LEED certification - most LEED buildings do not perform better than normal buildings despite the extra time and extra cost invested in them. 

Give the links a looks. There is more here than meets the eye.

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