George Calys

8 May 2013

To:       Glenn D. Lowry

            Director of the Museum of Modern Art

            Jerry I. Speyer

            Chairman of the MoMA board

            MoMA Board members

From:   Practitioners of architecture and

           design from the San Francisco Bay Area

We have read with some alarm and concern of MoMA’s intention to raze the American Museum of Folk Art, designed by the celebrated architects, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

As architects, designers, and commentators on the built environment in the Bay Area, we respectfully ask the MoMA board to reconsider this course of action.  Several facts compel us to make this request:

• Excellence of the Folk Art Museum design.  The Folk Art Museum opened to universal critical acclaim and helped cement the reputation of Williams/Tsien, the architects.  In a time when New York is seen as a leader in architectural design, why remove a building that represents so much of that leadership?
• Role of MoMA in championing modern architecture.  MoMA was one of the earliest institutions to promote modern architectural design.  The demolition of the Folk Art Museum is a step backwards in that mission.  Will not MoMA’s legacy and reputation suffer?
• Need for variety among buildings along the streetscape.  The Williams/Tsien building is different than MoMA’s other properties.  It is precisely this variation that creates urban liveliness and vibrancy.  Do great institutions have to be uniform in their appearance?
• MoMA has not demonstrated that the Folk Art Museum cannot be reconfigured.  Williams and Tsien have offered to study how the building could be adapted for MoMA’s intended uses.  Why should not MoMA avail itself of their services in this situation?

Why should the architecture community of San Francisco care about the existence of a New York building or the actions of a New York institution such as MoMA?  The simple answer is that as concerned architects, designers, and commenters, we take an active interest in the larger questions regarding design and the urban environment, whether in San Francisco or New York.  It is of more than passing interest that most of us are frequent visitors to or members of MoMA and, as such, have a stake as public lovers of modern art and architecture.

Great architecture, like great art, transcends any single institution and conveys with it a responsibility toward the society and culture that created it and the future generations who will one day possess it.  We ask that MoMA be fully mindful of that responsibility.

Sincerely,

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