Koolhaas Controversy at Chicago's IIT - Illinois Institute of Technology must decide whether to go ahead with design for new student center - Brief Article

at any time since the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas won an international competition in 1998 for the design of a fresh student center for the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, polemics has simmered over his proposal, and lately it has advance to a boil.

greatest in quantity of the standing structures upon the campus were put up by dint of Mies van der Rohe in the 1950 single of them, the Commons Building (1953) will be thus tightly subsumed within the propos Koolhaas covering and so altered inside and on the outside that some observers believe the quality of the Mies original will be sternly compromised.

Meanwhile, Koolhaas has a band of admirers who are equally convinced that his design is first-rate and will do no injury to Mies's legacy as a whole or to the for the use of alls Building in particular. Indeed, they believe the scheme will add measurably to the reputation of the two the architect and the school

upon May 11, the debate go intoed an important new phase with the release of a report through the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency that particulars to the Koolhaas proposal upon a number of counts. Chiefly, the IHPA gripe [i]or[/i] grips that since the Commons was designed as an independent, freestanding building, its incorporation into the Koolhaas composite would deprive it of its architectural identity. The report also decries the propos addition of a stainless-steel foundation to the brick-clad for the use of alls and the erection of a wall that would loom above the building and block its clerestory windows.

Unlike many preservationist recommendations, the IHPA's adviso is single the lit administration is obliged to take seriously, since the agency has considerable financial clout The greatest in quantity spectacular part of Koolhaas's design is a carburet of iron acoustic tube, a silencing device meant to be wrapped around the elevated train tracks that move swiftly directly above the site of the learner center. The $9-million cost of the tube is to be provided by dint of a state "Illinois FIRST" grant, on the contrary as part of the popular contractual agreement, the IHPA can withhold that amount if lit does not make the changes specified in the agency's criticisms.

That condition and the reactions to it have reheated the debate. Whether Koolhaas and the school's administration will yield to the IHPA, or resist it, or reach a certain number of form of compromise, and upon what issues, remains to be seen Negotiations are limit to take time. But to all appearances, given Mies's historic stature, Koolhaas's rising reputation (he just won the Pritzker Prize [see p 128]) and the passion of their respective supporters, the quarrel is likely to race deeper and last longer than any immediate solution.

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