ADJAYE CHOSEN TO DESIGN TWO LIBRARIES; FLORIDA UNIVERSITY AIMS TO ACQUIRE MUSEUM
Architect David Adjaye has been selected to design replacement buildings for two of the most distressed branches of the public library system in Washington, DC, reports the Washington Post. Adjaye, a Tanzanian-born designer who has created homes for such celebrities as Ewan McGregor, will design modern facilities to replace the Washington Highlands Library and the Francis A. Gregory Library. The choice of Adjaye came through a competitive process involving library officials and neighborhood representatives.
Last year, Adjaye finished the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, his first major public project in the United States. But in London, he is something of celebrity, having built controversial and innovative homes, often with severe, minimalist faces, for some of the city’s most successful artists and actors. His work includes the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, an adaptation of a nineteenth-century railway terminal into a high-tech exhibition hall and museum, dramatically framed by a stand-alone aluminum box, thrusting the whole complex into the space age. But it was his Idea Stores, glamorous neighborhood libraries that include a wide array of community functions, that led to his selection for this project, during an open competition that began in May. Adjaye’s firm was selected after a July 19 presentation by the three finalists (out of seventeen design teams).
In other news from the Jacksonville Business Journal, the University of North Florida’s president, John Delaney, has the blessing of the institution’s board of governors to pursue the acquisition of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville. Delaney made his pitch to the board Thursday afternoon, saying it would give the university a downtown presence and be an alternative to a gallery the school was considering for its south-side campus. Delaney said the museum’s director, Deborah Broder, approached UNF several months ago. MoCA is in a sixty-thousand-square-foot city-owned building on Hemming Plaza that opened in 2003. Its collection is valued at ten million dollars, and its endowment at about six hundred thousand dollars. But its debts are larger than its endowment and it has struggled to attract visitors. The museum had earlier approached and was rebuffed by the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. If UNF does acquire MoCA, Delaney told the board, it would be wholly owned by the university, which would try to maintain the museum’s nonprofit status. MOCA’s board would remain in place, with the possible addition of representation from the school, and the museum’s director would report to the board and university.
