[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/ar...er=rss&emc=rss

Let’s Raze Javits Center (but First Finish Renovations)


A $390 million renovation is under way at the Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan.

By ROBIN POGREBIN
January 22, 2012

Part of architecture’s appeal, at least to architects, is posterity: the notion that what they design will last. So it came as something of a shock to the architect Bruce S. Fowle this month when he learned that a building he was renovating is already on death row.

“The waste of creative energy, money and material that would result in its being torn down is painful to think about,” Mr. Fowle said during a walk through the center last week. “When you’re worrying about every detail — trying to do the best you can to make something that represents the city — it’s like having the rug pulled out from under you.”

Mr. Cuomo proposes replacing the Javits Center with private redevelopment that would include housing, hotels and museums, and selling or leasing the state-owned land to developers.

The Javits Center had been considered ripe for renovation almost since it opened in 1986 because it was too small for large trade shows and conventions, and many considered the dark-glass behemoth as an eyesore blocking views of the Hudson River.

“It’s just such an awful building that the only reason to keep it would be as a monument to stupidity,” said Mark Wigley, the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

“When we finish our work it’s going to be a fantastic facility,” said Michael Damore, an executive managing director at Epstein. “Nothing can be done in Queens for a long time.” The state says these efforts have not been wasted, that they will be an important stopgap measure pending completion of a convention space in Queens.