Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, 1944
Education: University of Buenos Aires, 1969
Selected projects: Tokyo International Forum, Japan, 1992­96; Physical Education Facility, Lehman College, New York; Baltimore Performing Arts Center, Maryland (competition winner, 1995)

The ideas in this box represent a range of alternatives which, although they seem to have reached some finality, are only impressions from an intuitive process tested directly in drawings and models. They were useful to understand the potentials of the program and the limitations of the site....They also map the evolution of my thinking....

These sketches are partis....The parti coordinates the multiple narratives that we call a design. A parti is not a master diagram providing a universal solution for all problems, but a thread that allows different solutions to work together. Some of these ideas could be partially or metaphorically useful in a further phase of development....

Of the many issues discussed....two things remained in my mind as being crucial: one, the idea that the experience of art should be decelerated; and two, the complex layers of this midblock midtown urban condition are rich with potential. Deceleration is generated by friction, and in this case that friction should be produced by increasing attention. An assemblage of disparate functions and identifiable spaces could provide the opportunities for multiple arrests in the journey through the Museum. As far as the second, the site's uniqueness, its sense of openness in this dense urban fabric, promotes an architecture of exposure, a building which could relate to the uniformity of the zoning envelope by establishing a dialogue between itself and the city, creating a place from which to contemplate the city also as a work of art.

For me, the primary challenge is how to make the building public while maintaining its various degrees of privacy, that is, how to make the transition between the social act of participation and the private act of contemplation without going from monumentality to alienation. In these sketches, I have investigated....the possibilities of that transition. I think now that the key is in the legibility of the choices and the curiosity that could be generated by the articulation of the spaces. The gallery is the place of resolution between the collective and the individual, the procession to it should simultaneously expose (to see and be seen) and orient the viewer....

The building becomes a stage for multiple interpretations, which are initiated by the curatorial staff and iterated by the public....The degree to which space may promote inquiry or "skepticism," its capacity to affirm or question social conventions, is in its capacity to make us reflect on the normative aspects of life....This inquiry would not be created in the neutrality of a flexible box, but through juxtaposing multiple viewpoints suggested by the opportunities to deviate from a canonized sequence.

This project....has important design limitations....that may suggest that it is about micro-managing several compromises. For me, the purpose of architectural work is to establish a unique relationship between reality and images, a connection between facts and imagination. The link that makes that relationship possible is the condition of "making." Artistic content in buildings (wonder) comes from the meaning we attribute to that relationship and the intelligence with which this condition is met.

Sketchbooks
1: This sketch explores the idea of attributing to the garden the original reading that defined the scale and character of the midblock condition. It produces an intimate, quasi-residential building....with a series of terraces. The image is of a new Museum....with an atmosphere of "protected intimacy," versus a monumental public gathering space....

2: In opposition to the idea of a residential garden, there is the possibility of transforming the garden into a public forecourt to the building. By opening a gap between the Goodwin and Stone building and the church rectory, the entry to the garden would be visible from 53rd Street and hinted at from Fifth Avenue. The entry would be from both 53rd and 54th, giving equal importance to each street, creating a through-block condition. The lobby can now be refocused to the west side of the site, where new, larger-scaled galleries....can be located. The existing buildings now become located around an urban court....

3: The scala regia takes advantage of the site's strongest dimensional characteristic, its length, and creates a space of encounter and circulation,... connecting the basement-level public theaters and working spaces with a rooftop garden. This diagonal perspective from some points would be 600 feet long....There is no straight passage under the tower, and fire walls do not allow for a clear connection between the Expansion site and the existing building. The "grand" circulation route is a device to link the disparate building elements.

4: These sketches investigate....the Museum's present "architectural collection" of buildings. We suggest a subdivision of the site into four blocks: two renovation projects and two new structures....From the west, a new building for public galleries provides a variety of gallery spaces. The next volume is where the visitors interact with the curatorial staff in study centers and art storage areas. Renovating the Goodwin and Stone building provides a structure dedicated to the curatorial staff of the Museum. A new performing/ video arts wing can be located at the east end of the garden. Each project would be designed by a different architect within discrete sites, as the elements are relatively independent from each other . . . .

5: Using the idea of a campus of buildings, an alternative form of circulation is a double helix of grand stairs, where the public circulation is always focused on exterior views, utilizing the light to provide orientation within the building. The alignment of the route is in the north-south axis of the site, reinforcing the street views....

6: This proposal investigates the idea of consolidating all of the gallery spaces on three levels utilizing the entire site area. The double-height window of the Goodwin and Stone building is extended and corresponds to an "elevated sidewalk." This double-height circulation system is reached through a reconstruction of the original stair of the Goodwin and Stone building. It encircles the site, surrounding the galleries....

7: This diagram explores the idea of creating an extrusion building on 54th Street, much like a "horizontal tower." The garden becomes an open room, architecturally defined. A sliding roof and wall panels run on a frame that can temporarily enclose the garden for special events. The wall of the garden at grade is replaced by a glass partition that allows public viewing. The residential tower is also "extruded" vertically with an open framework, creating a structure that gives the Museum a place in the skyline of the city. This frame supports a movie screen in the sky that is helium supported.... The gallery spaces are based on a module....through the simple device of sliding floor panels, a variety of spatial arrangements can be created within the gallery spaces.

8: The eighth scheme accepts the perimeter of the building as defined by the zoning envelope and the existence of a sequence of discrete interior spaces enclosed by the fire-separation walls. This interior space is shaped by a "network" that links all the public components of the building. This "path of glass and light" provides a web of orientation within the building envelope.... The space-making is focused on incidents and elaborations along the internal path rather than on monumental internal volumes. Views to the city are revealed, programmatic elements become destinations....The destination for this route is a new type of gallery, a Kunsthalle filled with light and surrounded by the city.

9: This scheme adopts a planning grid to organize the gallery spaces....A 25-by-25-foot grid supports a movable panel system, which can be used to define gallery walls, providing a flexible display system and eliminating the need to constantly rebuild the galleries.

The grid also allows an organization of the new and existing construction. A series of buildings is located on 54th Street, linked by an urban-scaled canopy that can announce Museum events....

10: The investigation of the size of the galleries for each department led to the generation of several schemes that respond to the requirements of the specific departments....Each....is housed in a separate volume, the most transformable space being that of the temporary galleries. The volumes themselves form the links between departments, the galleries....form a route for the viewing of the art. The nature of the galleries is defined as static or linear; an ascending spiral of walkways carries the path through the special galleries. This approach implies an intimate knowledge of the extent and specific nature of the collection, a collaborative approach intimately relating the space to the program.

Project Credits:
Rafael Viñoly; Maria Aviles, Jay Bargmann, Carolina Buzzetti, Lauren Crahan, David Crandall, Todd Davis, Ryo Fukai, Manuel Glas, Joseph Levechi, Amanda Levi, Sandra McKee, Takeshi Miyakawa, Gonzalo Negrete, Bora Yin; Richard Sennett.


These works have been selected from a larger collection of drawings that were submitted for the charette. In addition, the architect's statement has been abbreviated.