San Francisco & New York
george
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:
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,
Copyright 2012 George Calys. All rights reserved.
San Francisco & New York
george