Compression

Compression
Steven Holl
Princeton Architectural Press, November 2019



Hardcover | 8-1/2 x 8-1/2 inches | 176 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1616898519 | $40.00

Publisher's Description:

Steven Holl celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of his landmark book Anchoring with Compression, a collection of thirty-five major projects from the past decade. Holl applies concepts from neuroscience, literature, social science, and philosophy to develop the idea of compression: the condensation of material and social forces to create meaningful and sustainable architecture. A diverse roster of international works includes an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; academic facilities for Columbia University, Princeton University, and the Glasgow School of Art; urban plans; a harbor gateway for Copenhagen; and an extension of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All demonstrate Holl's poetic attention to light, space, and water; a subtle and tactile employment of material and color; and an awareness of architecture's potential to connect people through inspiring public spaces.

dDAB Commentary:

Two months ago, after nearly ten years of planning, design, construction, and delays, the Hunters Point branch of Queen Public Library finally opened to the public. One week before the ribbon cutting attended by the mayor and other local politicians, New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman praised the design by Steven Holl Architects as "among the finest and most uplifting public buildings New York has produced so far this century." That enthusiasm was echoed in the crowds that flocked to the library on the day of its opening and soon after — but it was short lived. People criticized the inaccessible shelves arrayed on terraced levels not served by elevators; librarians moved book from those shelves to elsewhere in the compact, vertical library; they closed a portion of the children's library due to safety concerns; they added extra story time readings due to the crush of strollers in a narrow passageway by the building's single elevator; cracks were spotted in the terrazzo flooring; and there were reports of leaks. This perfect storm of problems was reported in various outlets, but just last week they were addressed in an article in the same paper as Kimmelman's pre-opening paean. If the comments on the article (667 of them, as of yesterday) are any indication, the fault lies exclusively with the architects and, in one case, the design gives architecture "a bad name."

While I can't address these complicated issues in this short review (though I will say, Mr. Kimmelman, it reinforces the argument for architectural critiques to come after a building has been "broken in" by users rather than scooping other outlets), the timing of the news with Steven Holl's latest monograph — the fifth in a series that began with Anchoring thirty years ago — is unfortunate (it comes out tomorrow), particularly since a diagram of the building graces Compression. The slim square book follows the format established with Anchoring, though if one looks at the content of both books side by side it's clear Holl's architecture has evolved greatly, veering far into the sculptural realm. If anything, Hunters Point is timid compared to other recent projects (from 2005 to 2018), many of them winning competition entries that must have been designed to impress. The writing in Compression also expresses the issues Holl has focused on in his career: light, the senses, place, concept — clearly formal considerations. It's hard, in the light of the PR disaster hitting Holl's office, not to be skeptical of his description of the library as "an entirely public building" or other more poetic ways of describing it and other projects' forms and spaces. But I think Holl and his team are creative and will solve these issues alongside Queens Public Library, which commissioned the building and stuck with the architect for nine years, from early concepts to the completion of the beautiful, if flawed, building. In the meantime, it's probably best not to display Compression too prominently in the library.

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Author Bio:

Steven Holl is founder and principal of Steven Holl Architects, with offices in New York and Beijing. Considered one of America's preeminent architects, he has been awarded the Praemium Imperiale (2014), the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal (2012), and the Royal Institute of British Architects' Jencks Award (2010).

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