[citywatch]

metropolismag.com

Could another piece of esteemed architecture finally pull together this mismatched Acropolis and make it the kind of civic destination so desperately envisioned by late philanthropist Eli Broad and city planners?

Spoiler alert: Nope.

Gehry Partners’ pixellated, mixed-use complex for Related Companies and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.—one 45-story residential tower named The Grand by Gehry, one 25-story hotel with 205 rooms run by the high-end Conrad Hotel atop a retail podium—is a $1 billion, beige, value-engineered attempt that not only fails at reconciling Grand Avenue but is also an eyesore that devalues Gehry’s previous masterwork. German philosopher Theodor Adorno once wrote “In the history of art, late works are the catastrophes,” as an assessment of failed undertakings and, interestingly, of those where in the ruins of past successes lies fresh genius. The Grand by Gehry is trapped, not freed by its signature.

As of September, some 164,000 square feet of destination dining and retail between the two towers was under construction and awaiting tenants. Gehry got his start in Victor Gruen’s office, so malls are in the firm’s DNA, but the shopping experience was changing even before the pandemic. The Grand’s two stories of restaurants and shops, connected by exterior escalators and elevated pathways, seems both convoluted and undistinguished in a market that keeps having to up the ante to attract customers.

Like it or hate it...& a variety of SSPers have been unimpressed.... everyone is a critic.