Book Review: James Carpenter
James Carpenter: Environmental Refractions by Sandro Marpillero, published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. (Amazon)
About halfway into this first monograph on multi-faceted glass artist James Carpenter is a large section devoted to 7 World Trade Center. While the design is attributed to David Childs of SOM, it's apparent upon reading the timeline documenting Carpenter's involvement in the fast-track schedule that everything we see, from the stainless steel base and the illuminated lobby to the minute details of the complex exterior wall, is in many ways the hand of Carpenter. Certainly it would be specious to say that he is the architect of the project, as his skills include working with architects and engineers to develop solutions to specific problems, therefore giving him the title "design consultant," but by the end of the book it is clear that Carpenter is extending his reach beyond merely visual effects created by various glasses, surfaces, and lighting to encompass, for example, even the thermal comfort of the occupant. In effect he is becoming a sort of artist/architect/engineer hybrid, called on to improve designs to the point where removing him means completely changing the final product beyond recognition.
Since early in Carpenter's career, he has been called upon to contribute specific pieces to an architect's project, such as a glass prism window that steals the show in a church by Edward Larrabee Barnes in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of Carpenter's most well-known pieces is his Dichroic Light Field near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. He won a competition to address a blank, brick wall in a high-rise building by Handel & Associates, creating an opaque glass backdrop with 216 glass fins that bend colored light, so depending on the time of day and the point of view, the effect is always different. Carpenter's piece is clearly separate from the greater architecture (especially as his involvement came much after the fact), but in his recent work the boundary between architect and glass artist is more and more vague.
From 7 WTC and another SOM collaboration at Columbus Circle to his latest design with Vincent James at Tulane University, Carpenter's design contributions seamlessly meld with the designs of the architects he works with. But in Tokyo, Japan, we'll soon have the first glimpse of a "sole" James Carpenter Design Associates piece of architecture in Gucci's Ginza flagship, where Carpenter's signature prismatic glass peppers a relatively simple rectilinear box. It appears that his design responds to the illuminated urban condition of Tokyo not through signage but via the building's exterior itself, a fitting response by this manipulator of glass and light.
About halfway into this first monograph on multi-faceted glass artist James Carpenter is a large section devoted to 7 World Trade Center. While the design is attributed to David Childs of SOM, it's apparent upon reading the timeline documenting Carpenter's involvement in the fast-track schedule that everything we see, from the stainless steel base and the illuminated lobby to the minute details of the complex exterior wall, is in many ways the hand of Carpenter. Certainly it would be specious to say that he is the architect of the project, as his skills include working with architects and engineers to develop solutions to specific problems, therefore giving him the title "design consultant," but by the end of the book it is clear that Carpenter is extending his reach beyond merely visual effects created by various glasses, surfaces, and lighting to encompass, for example, even the thermal comfort of the occupant. In effect he is becoming a sort of artist/architect/engineer hybrid, called on to improve designs to the point where removing him means completely changing the final product beyond recognition.
Since early in Carpenter's career, he has been called upon to contribute specific pieces to an architect's project, such as a glass prism window that steals the show in a church by Edward Larrabee Barnes in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of Carpenter's most well-known pieces is his Dichroic Light Field near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. He won a competition to address a blank, brick wall in a high-rise building by Handel & Associates, creating an opaque glass backdrop with 216 glass fins that bend colored light, so depending on the time of day and the point of view, the effect is always different. Carpenter's piece is clearly separate from the greater architecture (especially as his involvement came much after the fact), but in his recent work the boundary between architect and glass artist is more and more vague.
From 7 WTC and another SOM collaboration at Columbus Circle to his latest design with Vincent James at Tulane University, Carpenter's design contributions seamlessly meld with the designs of the architects he works with. But in Tokyo, Japan, we'll soon have the first glimpse of a "sole" James Carpenter Design Associates piece of architecture in Gucci's Ginza flagship, where Carpenter's signature prismatic glass peppers a relatively simple rectilinear box. It appears that his design responds to the illuminated urban condition of Tokyo not through signage but via the building's exterior itself, a fitting response by this manipulator of glass and light.
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