Curator, Barry Berdgoll: In 1946, Le Corbusier was invited to participate in the design of the United Nations headquarters in New York, a notoriously complicated commission involving an international team of architects. Ultimately Le Corbusier felt his ideas were compromised and not given enough due. He blamed the project’s director of planning, Wallace F. Harrison, for the injustice.
Architect, Jean-Louis Cohen: This collage is a sort of chronicle of various moments in the design process.
Barry Berdgoll: Le Corbusier envisioned a grouping of buildings, each serving a different purpose. That idea is reflected in the sketches pasted onto this collage. Compare those to the photographs which show the final design and you’ll see the similarities.
Architect, Jean-Louis Cohen: When one looks back at the dozens of designs made during these years it is clear that ideas ultimately implemented by Harrison the building we know today, is largely derived from Le Corbusier’s ideas. A small plaster model of a main auditorium is a good example of that reality.
The collage documenting the UN experience is an example of Le Corbusier’s bitterness in respect to the battles he had lost, the competitions he had lost, the commissions he had not gotten. He was probably the most influential architect of his time, but at the same time, was constantly complaining about not getting the commissions he deserved.