In the mix

THOM MAYNE

Co-founder, Morphosis

I was in Berlin a couple weeks ago, and went to Wolfsburg and saw Zaha Hadid’s new building [the Phaeno Science Center]. A very, very beautiful piece of work -- but a piece of work you really have to see to understand. Probably her finest work to date. A lot of people will see it as part of her language, but it’s really about movement and connection.

And there’s a really beautiful work in Guadalajara [JVC Center Fairground] by Carme Pinos, the Barcelona architect -- an extraordinary building. She produces dynamic work that really speaks, has enormous energy. The space is so open and fluid and in sync with the nature of our world today.

What’s taking place downtown [L.A.] is quite interesting: For the first time in my life I’m optimistic about it. I’m especially interested in the housing, which is heading to a potential critical mass.

I don’t want to talk negatively. But the World Trade Center [site] has been a complete disappointment, and represents how not to do something. I’d like to keep on the pastel side. I did enough [criticizing] in my youth.

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RICHARD KOSHALEK

President, Art Center College of Design

The most exciting thing happening in the area is what is happening in the city of Pasadena. There’s a new commitment to contemporary architecture, and it’s institution-driven, and in a city that’s been very conservative, into preservation and so on. But the commitment to contemporary architecture has shifted.

That includes doing the new Rem Koolhaas building at Caltech, and JPL searching for a very good architect for a new administration building.

Contemporary architecture has been centered in Santa Monica, and it was residential-oriented.

In New York, the High Line, an elevated railroad through the meat-packing district, is a unique urban project. It will generate development nearby, like the Dia Art Foundation moving in. On top of it will be a new public walkway and park. It will have a bigger impact on Manhattan than the apartments built by celebrity architects. It uses an existing infrastructure to enhance the public realm.

The biggest disappointment is the World Trade Center. It’s turned into the worst nightmare. This was an opportunity for the city leadership, state leadership, private leadership and creative community to come up with a master plan for lower Manhattan. It’s turned out to be limited to just that site. Now the cultural foundation is gone, I’m told, and the architectural qualities have been minimized. It won’t honor the people who perished there.

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DANA CUFF

Professor, UCLA department of architecture and urban design

I think 2005 was not a very flamboyant year in architecture. But among the highlights, the Herzog & De Meuron [De Young Museum] in San Francisco was maybe the best.

In a public venue to have a dramatic work of architecture -- there’s a sense that the public sphere still matters. They’re doing something dramatic with materials. It’s bold. But the museum isn’t screaming for your attention. It’s much more refined and sophisticated.

The worst is Katrina and New Orleans. First of all, the disaster, obviously. Second, the realization that the American city is still viciously segregated. And third, that the answer seems to be this combination of Halliburton, Disneyland and Habitat for Humanity -- all wrapped up under the guise of New Urbanism.

Now we see they’re turning these towns [on the Gulf Coast] into casino row, with a thin wrapping of “nice,” “old” and “traditional.” That seems baldly apparent now.

We are actually going to do something, to my mind, that will be as abominable as urban renewal when we look back on it -- and as architecturally bereft.