Customer Reviews

Morphosis: Buildings & Projects Volume V (v. 5)

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I work in one of his buildings completed in 2007 in San Francisco. And it's the worst place I've ever worked. Yes, I thought it looked cool from the outside too. But the inside is totally non-functional and his explanations of building design and how it's supposed to transform people's lives is total gunk! More specifically, the building is loud, has tons and tons of wasted, dark space in the stairwell landing areas yet leaves us working in a cramped area. It's either too hot and stuffy, or too cold depending on whether the automatically controlled windows open or not. They're mostly closed. Many colleagues have their own personal heaters at their desks. The natural light is too glaring on one side and too dark on the other, so most of us have extra shades, umbrellas or personal lamps depending on what side we're on. The building scrim designed to protect occupants from the sun, and offer views of the bay area hasn't worked for many months. There were no safe indoor bike racks designed for this supposedly green building. And the gym was a total afterthought placed in a dark, inadequate basement area. And as a seemingly final insult, the building's air intake pipe was apparently placed next to the sewage exhaust pipe, so when the wind blows in a particular direction, our entire office space smells like sewage. From what I can tell, Mr. Mayne is a very good writer and marketer. But he's an egotistical dreamer and unfortunately for us that have to deal with his "creations" on a daily basis, a terrible architect!

I was hoping this book would show other projects like the new 41 Cooper Square building and the Wayne l. Morse Courthouse building but it doesn't. I do like the the velum drawings and the photos that are included.

Like reviewer "Darren O," I too am an unlucky occupant of Thom Mayne's Pritzker Prize winning San Francisco masterpiece. I can testify to the accuracy and truthfulness of everything in Darren O's review. Like the "giants" of modern and post-modern architecture who preceded him, Mr. Mayne's work displays complete contempt for the mere human beings who might come into contact with it. It embodies the authoritarian impulse and will to power that have underlain the modernist movement in architecture from the start. In fact, at the building's dedication ceremony in July 2007, Mr. Mayne was reported to have denounced Americans as fat, lazy, and under-exercised. He explained that his Federal Building had been intentionally designed to punish such people with elevators that don't stop on every floor, forcing all but the disabled to climb flights of stairs; and workplace components are located at vast lateral distances from one another, forcing one to walk great distances to see a colleague. (Most staff simply don't bother at all.) When Mr. Mayne was given a tour of the building's work spaces after the ceremony, he was reported to have started turning off lights and denouncing the workers for failing to use natural light only, as he had intended. (The light that is so overabundant on the south side, so wanting on the north.)

The poor quality of the engineering and of the workmanship and materials of the building also deserve mention. After three and a half years, the elevators are still far from reliable, the glass windows on the front of the building are still prone to cracking, and the polished granite floors are developing enormous cracks that have begun to resemble the nearby San Andreas Fault.

As an antidote to the anti-humanism of such "visionaries" as Mr. Mayne, one couldn't do better than to reread Tom Wolfe's small masterpiece cited in the headline, From Bauhaus to Our House. The only shortcoming of Tom Wolfe's book is that it was written in 1981. So many terrible buildings have been built since then!

This is my fifth (purchased) document on the LA practice Morphosis,.............a wonderful feast of ideas, spatial experiences and a visual tour de force.
There is no one better in the world today at providing a built/theoretical product, that demands a cerebral and visceral engagement by the viewer or occupant, than Thom Mayne.
Long may we enjoy this particular focus in Architecture.