In a message dated 1/15/01 11:09:41 AM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< I am interested in this list's opinion as to the place of this building
the the pre-post-modern canon (or, perhaps, cannon).  >>

Sharpshooter,

I'm familiar with the subject, but I prefer to visit the site prior to
speaking here. Last time you inquired of BP such depth of argument, w/ the
Poe House, I played devil's advocate... which I prefer not to do further, as
I was recently called upon and asked for a technical response to the strategy
that NYU has introduced of wanting to tear the Poe & Judson facades down in
order to more efficiently save them.

It seems NYU is saying that it will cost more to stabilize the facades in
place than it will to take them apart and put them back together again. My
surmise is that, based primarily on my opinion of the contractor base used in
histo presto work by NYU facilities, that the demo contractors will know jack
about histo presto, and will have no concept of either "cautious" dismantling
or "documentation with intent to restore" as opposed to "documentation with
intent to landfill", very subtle and seductive distinctions we have here, and
that the Urdu speaking demo guys will never have met or spoken to an histo
presto contractor ever once in their lives. That the conservators called in
will be selected and provided graciously by NYU based on their having a
proven deficiency in construction management experience, particularly a lack
of sharpness as to how CM is practiced as a black-art in New York -- I mean,
why would NYU want, with pride of place, to hire an uptown Columbia graduate
when thay can get a firm from a non-competitive school in some exotic place
like Brazilia? Once the facades are down, I predict, it will become evident
that nobody knows how to put them back together again -- or find them. NYU
would be smart to screen their histo presto contractors and make sure that
they are close to bancrupcy, as opposed to solvent, someone with a track
record of being dumb and desperate, I don't know what language they will
speak -- so that once the facades lead to a big letdown there will be
absolutely nobody around to point fingers at, particularly after the
Portuguese speaking conservator is deported in a fluster of waving hands and
squeaking voices. Problem solved.

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