Columbus Circle conversion challenged - Artworld - Museum of Arts & Design - Brief Article

Art in America, Jan, 2004

In early November, three preservation groups filed a suit to prevent the City of New York from selling Two Columbus Circle to the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly the American Craft Museum), which plans to convert the building into its new home [see "Front Page," June '03]. The suit, which alleges that the city did not conduct proper public hearings to determine the building's eligibility for landmark status, was filed by the New York chapter of the international modernist preservation group Docomomo, the Historic Districts Council and a neighborhood group called Landmark West, The Preservation League of New York State also put the structure on its annual Seven to Save list.

Designed by Edward Durell Stone, the building, completed in 1962, was commissioned by Huntington Hartford to house his Gallery of Modern Art. It represents the architect's late style, which marks his break with prevailing modernist trends. The redesign proposed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture completely eliminates the distinctive marble facade with its portholes and upper-level loggia, and replaces it with scrimlike terra-cotta panels and glass. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.