No Norten for BAM?
In what can only be described as a big setback for the much-hyped BAM Cultural District, fundraising efforts for the Enrique Norten-designed Visual and Performing Arts Library have come up well short of the $135 million required to build the glass-and-steel structure. Word of the shortfall, which originated in (password-protected) Crain’s on Monday, reportedly came…
In what can only be described as a big setback for the much-hyped BAM Cultural District, fundraising efforts for the Enrique Norten-designed Visual and Performing Arts Library have come up well short of the $135 million required to build the glass-and-steel structure. Word of the shortfall, which originated in (password-protected) Crain’s on Monday, reportedly came from an insider at the Brooklyn Public Library. Barring someone from the private sector stepping up in a huge way, it looks like Brooklyn will have to wait a while to get a piece of this starchitect. How big a bummer do you think this is for the BAM Cultural District?
BAM Library Project Stalled? [Gothamist]
The Book Stops Here [NY Post]
the thing if freakin ugly and will be an eyesore once the novelty wears off (then what, knock it down, build another?
Why is a library spending enormous amounts of time and money hiring celebrity architects for frivolous projects like this? how about getting kids to read? How about spending money on, well, books?
Why put this enormous unneeded financial burden on the library when they can’t even keep branches open and regular hours, much less books? It would divert fund raising for dog and pony shows like this.
Whoa, the jackass meter is off the charts this morning… and where is Andrew Carnegie when you need him?
Very sad. In Manhattan you could easily get a couple of people to cough up $135 million no problem. Same deal with the campaign against the Ratner development. No one stepped up with major money. Not enough organization. Too many low income people and cheap liberals.
chuck, sounds like you can afford to contribute more than $250. I’d say the folks with their names etched closer to the ground level/eye level should pay more (mayb $10000)
I had an idea, though, a couple years ago, to raise a little bit of money for the VPL:
Since the walls are glass, you could start a fund-raising campaign that allowed people to have their names (kids names, etc.) etched in the glass. Say, $250 a pop? I’d pay $250 to have my name written on the wall of the coolest libray in the world.
Get 10,000 people to do that, and you have $2.5 million.
Scary because if this doesn’t work, the next idea will be 60 stories high.
sucks. sucks. sucks.
but at least the pawn shop and check-cashing store across the street will stay in business another couple years.
And all the energy (and grass root money) spent fighting AY??
Better spent advocating something positive???