‘CRITICAL EDGE’ ENTERS ARCHITECTURE DEBATE

A 6-foot-high model of American Telephone & Telegraph’s corporate headquarters in New York dominates the entry to the gallery at the Newport Harbor Art Museum where an engaging exhibit, “The Critical Edge,” examines 12 recent controversial architectural projects.

Also in the entryway is an enlargement of the Jan. 8, 1979, cover of Time magazine showing a rakish Philip Johnson holding a smaller model of his design of the building, replete with its kitschy Chippendale-shaped crown.

Whether intentional or not, their vanguard placement at the museum is quite appropriate, for the distinctive design of the AT&T; building was one of the more conspicuous and controversial projects in the 15-year period covered by the exhibit, generating a considerable amount of publicity for the building, Johnson and for architecture in general. All three have benefited from the publicity.

According to the curators, the amount of publicity on the AT&T; and other projects, in both the professional journals and the regional and national press, was the basis of their selection for the exhibit, rather than any arbitrary poll of a jury of architects, critics, academics and historians.

The projects are displayed through original models, sketches, drawings, plans and select photographs in an installation designed by the architectural firm of Felderman Associates of Los Angeles. Directing the installation was Jeffrey Wechsler of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., where the exhibit was organized under a grant in part from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Helping the exhibit considerably are accompanying boards that in a direct and objective style explain and explore the controversies that the projects generated. But better site maps and more and varied photographs--not just those selected by the architects involved--revealing the context and use of the projects would have been welcomed.

Nevertheless, the total presentation gives the viewer a relatively balanced portrait of the projects, inviting appraisals of them and the storms they stirred. It is a very healthy exercise in this age of rising design consciousness by the public and sharpened awareness of the potential of publicity by design professionals.

The exhibition does suffer the failing of most displays of completed architectural projects: It cannot compare with experiencing the architecture itself--its setting, siting, scale, mass, materials, detailing and use. But such exhibitions can supplement and stimulate, and “The Critical Edge” does.

Interestingly, the projects selected by the weight of their publicity, plus some subjectivity on the part of the curators, tend to represent quite a diverse range of building types, clients, styles and settings, as well as having stimulated a diversity of critical judgments. I doubt that anyone, or any panel, could have picked a better list.

In addition to the AT&T; building designed by Johnson, the list includes the Bronx (N.Y.) Developmental Center by Richard Meier; the East Wing of the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., by I. M. Pei; the Empire State Plaza, Albany, by the firm of Harrison and Abramovitz; House VI, Cornwall, Conn., by Peter Eisenman, and the Renaissance Center, Detroit, by John Portman.

West Coast projects represented are the Portland (Ore.) public service building by Michael Graves; the Gehry House, Santa Monica, by Frank Gehry, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, by the firm of Langdon & Wilson, architects, and Norman Neuerburg, historical adviser.

Also included is the Indeterminate Facade of a Best showroom, Houston, by S.I.T.E Inc.; the Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, by Perez Associates and Charles Moore and the Urban Innovations Group of UCLA, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C., by Maya Ying Lin. Though one might argue that these projects are not strictly architecture but rather exterior design, landscape design and sculpture, respectively, the controversies they stirred are indisputable.

Particularly revealing, at least to someone who has seen most of the projects, is the display of drawings. The modest pastel by Lin that formed her submission for the Vietnam Memorial competition is stunning in its simplicity and strength, especially in contrast to a selection of other submissions displayed.

Also riveting from a more studied perspective are a transformational series of 14 axonometric drawings for House VI by Eisenman. They are exquisitely controlled, much like the house itself.

In contrast, Gehry’s sketches for his singular house appear intuitive, and Graves’ studies for the Post Modernist-styled Portland Building are more like doodles than drawings.

Interesting also are the drawings by Pei, examining how various angular configurations might sit on the trapezoidal site of the proposed extension of the National Gallery, and how the geometric theme indeed eventually dominated the design--and, some feel, the art within the museum.

But that is for the viewer to judge, a move that the exhibition prompts.

In recognition of the limitations of such exhibits, the museum will be conducting an architectural tour of Los Angeles on Saturday and of Orange County on Aug. 24. A symposium on the exhibition is scheduled Sept. 14. For more information, call the museum at (714) 759-1122.

The exhibition will run through Sept. 22, along with a display entitled “Future Furniture.” The museum, in Newport Center Fashion Island is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Monday.