November 2006 | Eyesore
Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.
The new Denver Art Museum by Daniel Libeskind.
A building designed like an instrument for proctological surgery.
If it occurred to Libeskind that vertical walls are helpful for hanging paintings -- a medium still popular even with "cutting edge" artists -- then the architect dismissed it. Like many building stunts in our time, this one is designed to confound our expectations about the city and the behavior of its furnishings. The role of architect-as-supernatural-being requires the mystification of the public. Hence, the more tortured and alienating it is, the better the building. As city after city "bends over" for these sadistic operations, the architect takes on a persona not unlike the storied Dr. Mengele of the Third Reich.