A residential architect complained to me that Frank Gehry is all surface and no substance. Well, I suppose if I had to live in this building I’d be much more critical. I don’t, so I can enjoy the skin stretched over the form of the IAC Building perches along the Hudson on the west side of Manhattan. I wasn’t looking for this building, but just drove to it and couldn’t make it past without stopping to shoot it. From the other side of the Hudson it looks like a ship with three sails. Up close it’s all about the contour and light, off and through the skin of the building. ” ….all surface” is right…. but it’s beautiful.
Jean Nouvel designed this condominium across the street from Gehry’s office building. The two seem to have been created without an awareness of the other’s presence.