Is it too late to dump the Civic Center?
By Silver Springer • Jul 2nd, 2008 • Category: MORE NEWS, Real Estate
At the cost of only $12 million the Chelsea School has single handedly accomplished what the County couldn’t. Despite a hefty design competition calling architectural firms from around the country, the County still couldn’t pull off something as magnificent as what the Chelsea School (not too far down Ellsworth) has managed to scrap together. I think the consensus is there, that this will be one of the greatest master piece designs ever in the history of Silver Spring.
Is there any chance in hell that we can replace the Civic center design with Chelsea school’s design? It may have to be a little larger but the same principles are there. We can throw out the ice skating rink and the entire impervious pavement patch that will be used for the plaza if money is an issue. “Value engineering is the Montgomery County way after all.
I think the problem is that this is what the County was trying to pull off but some old geezers at decision table got nostalgic over a 1960’s era design with a paved concrete “wind-swept plaza, so we got what you see today. Every time I see the front facing image of the Civic Center I get cold and nauseous and conjure up images of L’Enfant Plaza in D.C, which has been labeled as one of the biggest blunders in D.C. neighborhoods.
According to Chelsea School’s website the building design was envisioned by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, but designed by his protoge Rob Claiborne. It was probably something they came up with over dinner and it’s still ten times better than the Civic Center.
Now that the civic center is $2.5 million (at least) over budget, ice skating rink et al. Is it really worth it? It’s skyrocketed from around $14 million to over $21 million. It won’t even get the bare minimum LEED certification unlike the Chelsea School which was mandated for all new buildings of a certain size and type by the County Council.
To all the naysayers, this just goes to show you that good design doesn’t require a lot of money if you play your cards right. “A shape is a shape is a shape but when Montgomery County has their hands in it, we tax payers can expect something “value engineered”, at least when it comes to Silver Spring. Just look at the “Paul Sarbanes Transit Center “value engineered” but still over budget by more than $16 million. The guy partly responsible for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act should be vexed that money is being squandered this way under his name. If I were him I would be embarrassed and demand my name be taken off that monstrosity immediately.
The only exception to the rule is the Montgomery College Performing Arts Center, a bit rough around the edges but still light years ahead of the civic building and Transit center. It somehow managed to bypass Montgomery County radar that turns good designs into bad ones either that or someone is missing a first born.
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While I am a big fan of the sweeping L’Enfant Plaza, Silver Spring doesn’t have to spend $25 million (by the time the thing is in the ground) to get an ugly civic building that will be torn down 20 years from now. Thats what happens when you give power to the bunch of idiots at the Silver Spring Regional Center who lost NPR, allowed for the DPWT to design a brutalist transit center that will itself be torn down in 20 years, and have gone against community wishes to save the turf and build the Silver Spring Library on the site by proposing to acquire expensive downtown commercial property for the library and paving over the community’s beloved turf with a concrete plaza and an outdoor ice rink that will not be able to sustain itself in Washington’s increasingly tropical climate.
It’s too late!
It’s embarrassing that they haven’t even started on this yet. Of course everything around here has to be decided by committee with input from “community groups” so nothing ever really gets done.
Go back a few years and you’d pretty much take it for granted that we’d have a civic center, new library and the Birchmere by now. Instead we have jack squat.
This stark drawing from the Machado Silvetti site is very different from those on the county site and the original model we saw at Park and Planning. The overhang/arch in front is much larger for one, both deeper and taller; Building colors are different; far less trees (none in front), plantings, benches, etc.
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/dpwt/capital/dcd/index.asp?pageid=2&pid=343
What happened?
From the way Rodolfo Machado talked at last year’s meeting about the Civic Center, you’d think he was Daniel Libeskind. Given that, I don’t think Libeskind is that great, and I wouldn’t want him coming anywhere near the Civic Center. Just look at that stupid Freedom Tower in New York - twenty stories of concrete at street level. No windows. I just wish the County’d selected the design from Muse Architects for the Civic Center.
We haven’t really seen what the Transit Center will look like, and I’m not willing to make a judgment based on massing diagrams. I would prefer they stuck with the original design from Torti Gallas, but I like the renderings from ZGF as well. They have a lot of experience with projects like this, and I think this could be promising.
[quote comment="4794"]From the way Rodolfo Machado talked at last year’s meeting about the Civic Center, you’d think he was Daniel Libeskind. Given that, I don’t think Libeskind is that great, and I wouldn’t want him coming anywhere near the Civic Center. Just look at that stupid Freedom Tower in New York - twenty stories of concrete at street level. No windows. I just wish the County’d selected the design from Muse Architects for the Civic Center.
We haven’t really seen what the Transit Center will look like, and I’m not willing to make a judgment based on massing diagrams. I would prefer they stuck with the original design from Torti Gallas, but I like the renderings from ZGF as well. They have a lot of experience with projects like this, and I think this could be promising.[/quote]
To be fair the reason why the Freedom tower has a concrete base is to protect against big bad terroists. i still think they are beautiful designs, they look like crystals and shattered glass. I will welcome Daniel Libeskind with open arms, have you seen his other civic works? Machado designs are terrible, he’s stuck in a 60s time warp.
[quote comment="4794"]From the way Rodolfo Machado talked at last year’s meeting about the Civic Center, you’d think he was Daniel Libeskind. Given that, I don’t think Libeskind is that great, and I wouldn’t want him coming anywhere near the Civic Center. Just look at that stupid Freedom Tower in New York - twenty stories of concrete at street level. No windows. I just wish the County’d selected the design from Muse Architects for the Civic Center.
We haven’t really seen what the Transit Center will look like, and I’m not willing to make a judgment based on massing diagrams. I would prefer they stuck with the original design from Torti Gallas, but I like the renderings from ZGF as well. They have a lot of experience with projects like this, and I think this could be promising.[/quote]
I have been told by the County head for the Transit Center that the renderings of the Transit Center are 80% done. What do you expect will be different about it? People said the same thing about the Crescent Condos, “I’ll wait till it’s done” nothing but disappointment in the end.
Also ZGF’s designs leave a lot to be desired, but they really short changed Silver Spring.
[quote comment="4790"]While I am a big fan of the sweeping L’Enfant Plaza, Silver Spring doesn’t have to spend $25 million (by the time the thing is in the ground) to get an ugly civic building that will be torn down 20 years from now. Thats what happens when you give power to the bunch of idiots at the Silver Spring Regional Center who lost NPR, allowed for the DPWT to design a brutalist transit center that will itself be torn down in 20 years, and have gone against community wishes to save the turf and build the Silver Spring Library on the site by proposing to acquire expensive downtown commercial property for the library and paving over the community’s beloved turf with a concrete plaza and an outdoor ice rink that will not be able to sustain itself in Washington’s increasingly tropical climate.[/quote]
It’s brutalist architectre at it’s best and most would agree that’s the dark ages for man kind, architecturally speaking of course.
[quote comment="4792"]It’s embarrassing that they haven’t even started on this yet. Of course everything around here has to be decided by committee with input from “community groups” so nothing ever really gets done.
Go back a few years and you’d pretty much take it for granted that we’d have a civic center, new library and the Birchmere by now. Instead we have jack squat.[/quote]
They can take as long as they want, I’d rather they not be built if we have to look at them for the next 50 years.
While we’re on the subject of ugly buildings in SS, has anyone passed by the Portico building on Fidler Lane, whose shell is pretty much completely done? That is about as ugly as they come — they built it out of material that looks like cinder blocks. Even worse, about a third of the way up, it looks like they ran out of dark red cinder blocks and started using light red ones. I mean, this building is hideous. I remember looking at the developer’s website (now no longer active) and it being a white color. What happened? On top of that, there’s no sign of what they’re doing with the monstrosity. There’s no web page indicating whether it’s still going to be condos, or whether the developer decided to change course and go with apartments. Either way, the building has the makings of a complete eyesore — far far worse than the Crescent (which I actually think is fine, even though uncreative).
Why the obsession over ice skating rinks? Who is dying for them? What a ridiculous idea.
While I agree that the Machetti building is awful, Libskind’s Chelsea school isn’t much better. It’s as if you took a knife to a boring modernist box in the hope that somehow the slash marks would make it look more interesting. The Civic Center design is the absence of design. When you look at its facade, it receeds into an ill-proportioned portico made out of junky concrete
For such a small building, it’s amazing how it manages to shatter any sense of human scale. Why can’t these downtown buildings strive for pleasing the pedestrian rather than going for the latest architectural design award?
Libeskind’s design is pretentious form=making and no more. As everyone knows, Libeskind is a hypocrite who hired another architect to design his own home in New York. (He wasinterviewed by the New York Times and LIED, claiming he designed it himself. The Times published a correction the following week.) It’s not surprising that Libeskind would use another architect. Busenessweek called him “Leaky Libeskind” after his museums required very costly repairs. And of course thay ran way over budget.
Libeskind is a fad. Hopefully this crud won’t actually get built.