archBOSTON ARCHIVE

[justin]

This baby will definitely need a home on the new forum, so here it is, along with the latest update from the ICA site, where the ramps/stands/stairs are visible for the first time:


http://www.icaboston.org/home/information/thenewica
justin

[DowntownDave]

Here's a couple of 'ramped up' images.





I sort of prefer the looks of the LNG tanker in the rear.....

[Brian]

This building might be the saving grace (architecturally speaking) of the South Boston waterfront.

[PerfectHandle]

I was down on the waterfront this past weekend and I think this building is going to be the catalyst for action down there. It's going to be a destination.

[DowntownDave]

04/17/2005 progress:

[justin]

The more I look at it, the more I like it.

Great pics all around, DowntownDave.

justin

[user_52]

I was thinking about the New ICA project today when it occured to me I don't think I've ever heard anyone say what's going to happen to the current location for the ICA. This might have been addressed before but what's going to happen? Will the building be turned into some kind of residential space? Or maybe retail? Or are they just going to tear that building down to put something new up? Does anyone out there have some knowledge about this?

[RandomWalk]

The Boston Architectural Center has been looking for more space to expand into, and they've been eyeing that property since it's across the alley from their main building. Of course, that was before they recently remodelled their building, so it may fall to Berklee or someone else.

-RW

[DowntownDave]

05/14 Update:

[bosma]

********Terrorist Alert*********
Taking pictures of the LNG tanker

[Bowwest]

[justin]

Here are a few closeups:









justin

[user_52]

That thing looks massive! I can't wait for them to begin putting on the glass. This is the best addition to the Boston waterfront in ages.

[justin]

You may drop the 'waterfront'.

justin

[Mike]

Museum buildings for sale as new ICA facility rises


The Institute of Contemporary Art's two buildings, including a Romanesque-style former police station at 955 Boylston St. in the Back Bay, are for sale, now that the museum's new Fan Pier waterfront home is under construction and scheduled to open late next year. The 21,620-square-foot buildings, which also house Dillon's restaurant, have been owned by the ICA for more than 30 years and are being marketed by Spaulding & Slye Colliers, a real estate firm. Both buildings, across from the John B. Hynes Convention Center, were built in 1887 and renovated in 1975, and are 60 feet at their highest points. Additional development of the sites is allowable up to 120 feet under current zoning regulations, though no permits are in place. No asking price was listed. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)



Link

[Jasonik]

[Mike]

ICA's new home to be unveiled next September

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | November 17, 2005


The much-anticipated new Institute of Contemporary Art will open on time next September, officials are set to announce today. The steel structure is rising on the edge of the Boston waterfront, a rare sign of life on the long-neglected stretch of real estate known as Fan Pier.

The building will cost $51 million, more than the $41 million projected by the ICA in 2003. Officials say that is because of design changes and the rising cost of construction materials. An additional $11 million is being raised for the ICA's endowment and programs.

''Boston can look forward to several days of celebration," said Jill Medvedow, the ICA's director. ''The waterfront is ready to take off."

ICA leaders hope the museum will transform an institution that's been considered no match for its counterparts in other major cities. The ICA's current space, on Boylston Street, has long been viewed as too small, with no room for a permanent collection.

From the outside, the new ICA, designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will be marked by a distinctive glass cantilever that stretches out toward Boston's harbor. Inside, it will feature a 325-seat theater and two-story educational center. The 65,000-square-foot museum will triple the ICA's current exhibition space.

Also today, the ICA will announce two programming collaborations. The Brooklyn-based STREB Extreme Action dance company will present a work titled ''Wild Blue Yonder" at the ICA's opening. Boston's CRASHarts, a division of World Music Inc., will also program 10 weeks of performances in the theater during the ICA's first eight months.

The performance space ''offers an opportunity to develop audiences for artists that are not as well known," said Maure Aronson, executive director of World Music and CRASHarts. ''The size of the space allows you to take a risk and introduce exciting works by artists that have not necessarily been in Boston."

Aronson said he wasn't ready to talk about the artists he's booking for the ICA space, with the exception of Butoh-influenced dancer Maureen Fleming, who will appear in April 2007 for four performances. CRASHarts presented Fleming in 2004 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, a space too large for her performance, Aronson said.

ICA officials had previously stated that the new building would open next fall. Though the project remains on schedule, Medvedow said it hasn't always been easy to keep that way.

''Art museums tend to be one-of-a-kind buildings" with one-of-a-kind problems, said Medvedow. ''It's not like building a hotel where you frequently have very, very similar floors that repeat."

Earlier this summer, ICA officials said they had raised more than $34 million toward the project and hoped for an additional $7.5 million to $8 million from the sale of the ICA's current home on Boylston Street. Boston developer Steve Samuels said yesterday he had made an offer on that building, and he has until the end of the week to decide whether to move forward with a deal. He declined to say how much he offered to pay for it.



Link

[BlinkieOB]

That's great. I'm still really excited to see this building take shape. I like the renderings, but I get the impression that this is one project that will definitely be better than any rendering can capture.

Next summer should be a very busy time around the South Boston Waterfront- with preparations for the ICA Grand Opening, The Westin scheduled to open, the Marriott Renaissance going up, and Fan Pier hopefully breaking ground. With any luck, this will drive demand for, and speed up the development of, office space in this area. Hopefully it will also motivate Frank McCourt to get something done with his land!

[dudeursistershot]

[tocoto]

It seems like I read there will be more parking at Fan Pier when it's finished than there is now (2500 spaces vs 1700?). IMO, and unfortunately, someone always finds a place for another parking lot, if there is a market for it.

[dudeursistershot]

[TheBostonian]

This could be somewhat offset by the opening of the Greenbush Line of the commuter rail. People who drive into the city could lose some spaces to the Fan Pier development, but we might have some more people taking the CR in rather than parking in the city.

[BostonFaker]

Why are we promoting driving now?

[chumbolly]

Wait, really?

There's a concern on this page about losing a massive surface parking lot?! Because it might hurt the office market? For the love of all that is right, parking lots suck! A great city is not a collection of office towers with convenient surface parking for people living in the suburbs. Shoot, I'll go further and say I wish they weren't building all that underground parking. Get people out of their cars. Think of what Manhattan would be like if every worker and resident had a parking space--it'd be Phoenix without the nice weather. Those crafty New Yorkers have figured out how to get into their office buildings without using their cars. They ride trains, buses, taxis, boats and they walk. Think about it: Manhattan has a tiny amount of parking, garages are as expensive as all get out, and it's a giant pain in the ass to even get onto the island in a car and yet it's office market marches on.

Granted, Boston does not have a mass transit infrastructure anywhere near as good as Manhattan, but maybe we have those miserable mud lots in part to blame for that. Reduce the attractiveness of driving into the city, and demand for improved transit will increase. As a personal aside, in the last five places I've lived I've made sure I could either walk or ride the subway to work. I've consistently noticed that my co-workers who drive in to the office frequently are about to go postal when they get into the office in the morning. Traffic, bad drivers, the stress of driving--life's too short to deal with that kind of commute, I say.

[dudeursistershot]

[BlinkieOB]

I see your points, but I don't think losing this parking can really hurt the office market all that much. I mean, think about the number of spots there are. It is a HUGE number, but still a very small percentage of the number of people who work in Boston every day.

Hopefully losing this many spots in town will put pressure on the T to take some of the action that has been recommended here, though. We'll see, I guess.

[dudeursistershot]

[DarkFenX]

[ablarc]

Commuter rail stations should all come with multi-story parking structures. Cost recovered through parking fees and ground-level retail artfully contrived to snag train riders to and from their cars. Care for a bouquet, sir, to take home to the missus?

[dudeursistershot]

[ablarc]

Actually, those transit garages could function as the new suburban strip malls. One hour free parking.

[DowntownDave]

What is this cockpit thing for?



Some unsuccessful modern art:

[Lurker]

That cockpit is a vertigo inducing media area (A lovely space to enjoy as open steel with only minimal cable safety lines keeping you from plummeting the 40ft to the top of the seawall). I posted and can report pictures of the interior of that space from an office visit a few months ago. There is going to be another office tour soon and I'll be sure to bring my camera again.

[kz1000ps]

A few shots from Monday

[xec]

[ItsConanOBrien]

Thanks for the visual update!

[xec]

You're welcome.

[Mike]

ICA selects the first 11 works for its permanent collection

By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff | March 10, 2006


Eleven works of art, ranging from images by the gritty photographer Nan Goldin to a large sculpture of hanging charcoal, will be the first items in the Institute of Contemporary Art's new permanent collection, the museum will announce today.

The addition of a permanent collection is keyed to the opening of the ICA's $51 million new building, on Fan Pier, which is set to open Sept. 17.

''The decision to begin collecting, to build a permanent collection, to have it be a collection focused on the 21st century, is an absolutely monumental decision," the museum's director, Jill Medvedow, said in a telephone interview yesterday. ''Over time, that decision will be the most significant change in the ICA."

Cheryl Brutvan, curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, said in a telephone interview that she welcomed the ICA's commitment to a permanent collection. ''We do share some of the same collectors and audience. But there's lots of art out there, so we're happy to see this. More is better."

Having permanent holdings would not change the ICA's focus on contemporary art, Medvedow said. ''We're a city that, clearly, has a lot of university museums and a great encyclopedic museum in the MFA. But we are the only museum dedicated exclusively to the art of our time. And in doing that, we have a very important role to preserve and present."

All of the works were donated to the museum. Among them are three photographs by Goldin and a watercolor by Marlene Dumas, one of whose paintings recently sold for $3.3 million, the highest price paid at auction for a living woman artist. There are two sculptures by Cornelia Parker, a 1997 finalist for the Turner Prize, Britain's most prestigious art award, including ''Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson)," made of suspended charcoal. Paul Chan's ''1st Light," a piece of digital animation, is featured in the current Whitney Biennial, in New York.

There are also sculptures by Mona Hatoum, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Taylor Davis, and a gouache by Laylah Ali. Both Davis and Ali are former winners of the ICA Artist Prize, which the museum gives to outstanding local artists, and Hirshhorn was just featured in a major show at the ICA.

''They're certainly all artists worthy of attention," Brutvan said. ''It's an interesting selection in terms of media, the communities they come from, and the variety of subject matter. It's a nice, rounded group: abstract and representational, media and traditional. The ICA is off to a good start."

A number of the artists have local ties. Goldin, now based in Paris, began her career in Boston. Ali lives in Williamstown. Davis lives in Boston. There's also a strong international component. Hatoum and Parker are based in London, and Dumas in Amsterdam.

'What we decided in terms of building a cohesive collection was to include people who have had either solo shows or been part of significant exhibitions at the ICA," Anthony Terrana, an ICA trustee and assistant chairman of the collections committee said, in a telephone interview yesterday.

Terrana donated four of the artworks: two Goldin photographs, the Dumas watercolor, and Hirschhorn sculpture. ''It was a big decision, because they're some of my favorite pieces," he said. ''But no museum here has a collection of 21st-century art, so it's really important for the city."

An ICA trustee, Mary Schneider Enriquez, chairwoman of the acquisitions committee, said in a telephone interview that the collection would complement the museum's exhibitions.

''It's vitally important we have a permanent collection so we provide a context by which the audience can judge and learn about what they're seeing in the new exhibitions, seeing what contemporary art has done in the last 20 years or so. We'd show very exciting, cutting-edge work, and people wouldn't know how to deal with it. This way we can provide a context," Enriquez said.

Works from the permanent collection will make up one of four inaugural shows, which the ICA is announcing today. The four will be up simultaneously. The others are ''Super Vision," which will look at the impact of technology, surveillance and virtual reality; ''Momentum 6," an ongoing series looking at developments in contemporary art; and a selection of works by finalists for the ICA Artist Prize.

Unveiled in 2002, the dramatic design for the new ICA, by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, has drawn widespread praise. Its signature exterior element is a glass cantilever that extends toward the harbor. Its 65,000-foot interior, which triples the ICA's current exhibition space, includes a 325-seat theater and two-story education center.

Along with opening its new building, the ICA has a major capital campaign underway, with a goal of $62 million. According to Medvedow, the campaign is at the $56 million mark. That figure represents pledged donations and projected revenues from the sale of the museum's current Boylston Street facility, which is expected to bring between $7.5 million and $8 million.

''We have work to do, the last 10 percent, but we have incredible momentum and confidence," Medvedow said. ''For many years, there was a lot of skepticism . . . about whether we would be able to be financially viable, to get the approvals, to break ground. While we have been somewhat unconventional, perhaps, we are very, very strong as an institution."

The ICA, which was founded in 1936, was one of the first institutions in the United States exclusively devoted to showing contemporary art. The Fan Pier site will be the 12th, and presumably final, address in the museum's 70-year history.



Link

[justin]

Pics of the works: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/gallery/ica_artwork/

justin

[ablarc]

Mediocre.

[statler]

[justin]

[ablarc]

[justin]

No, but then again contemporary art rarely does. The photograph is OK, the watercolor might be OK (I really can't judge from the photo; for a moment at least it reminded me of Bacon, but under any kind of conscious examination that's unlikely to be a flattering comparison), and I actually kinda like the 'Arson'. The rest is blah.

The most interesting thing to me in the article is that ICA was founded at about the same time as the Modern in NYC, and look where they are now. A good metaphor for the tale of the two cities.

justin

[ablarc]

[statler]

[justin]

ablarc,

I actually rather like the building. Dramatic and tightly conceived while bucking the in-your-face building-as-sculpture trend of recent museum buildings. The ICA could do worse than keep it empty and charge admission.

Which ones do you like better?

justin

[ablarc]

^ OK, I'm warming to it.

Too bad about the exhibits.

Too bad about the surroundings.

[Beton Brut]

[xec]