Nicolai Ouroussoff

In museums around the world, showy architecture overshadows art collections. It doesn't have to be that way, critic Nicolai Ouroussoff argues. Plus: explorer Ernest Shackleton is all the rage; the sad state of sportscasting; and Japanese pop gets its act together.

It was with a strong sense of disbelief that I read Nicolai Ouroussoff's article in the Los Angeles Times unjustifiably disparaging the Grand Avenue revitalization project ("Grand Plans, Flawed Process," April 4). What is there to criticize? Not one revitalization proposal has even been approved yet. Not one groundbreaking ceremony has taken place. Yet Mr. Ouroussoff already has declared the entire project "sterile," "superficial" and "generic." In short, he's doomed it before even one structure has been built.

After reading Nicolai Ouroussoff's glowing review of Michael Maltzan's dated, minimalist, haphazard Kidspace project in Pasadena ("Inspiring Imagination," Nov. 23), then remembering his recent mean-spirited, clueless review of the magnificent new Hollywood & Highland project, I realize that one of my great fears for Los Angeles is that we will ever live in a city that Mr. Ouroussoff actually likes. STEVE SCOTT Los Angeles

Mr. OUROUSSOFF seems disconsolate that the same Frank Gehry who designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall did not also design every other major building in downtown Los Angeles since 1960. That's about the only sense I could make of his article. He complains about a selection committee that is somehow not competent or not in tune with the city's culture and values. Yet the sidebar discloses a membership replete with relevant competency and deeply representative of every major constituency.

Nicolai Ouroussoff's love affair with the works of architect Frank Gehry is misplaced ("A Messiness in Creating Masterworks," May 18). Gehry's abandonment of function in the interest of sensational forms, best described as Tin Can Modern, owes more to the school of architecture that gave us the Brown Derby, Googies, the Tail of the Pup, the Chili Bowl and other now-gone architectural novelties than to the more substantial works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip...

How can our schools teach children respect for the past if they have none themselves? L.A. Unified's decision to raze the KEHE radio building is another harmful, destructive act by an ignorant bureaucracy--and adds another significant landmark to L.A.'s long obituary of demolished architecture ("Failing a Landmark," July 15, by Nicolai Ouroussoff.) There are many successful Moderne schools in Los Angeles still in use, so why not build a school that complements the existing structure?

It has been the breaking forth of water in a desert to read Nicolai Ouroussoff's intelligent discussion of cultural survival via an examination of Baghdad's architecture as a revelatory guide to the history of a place and a people [four-part series, Dec. 14-16]. The Iraqis are not objectified in his study as villains or as victims, but as people who have known a more civilized life in a place rich with millenniums of social history. It is ultimately a hopeful study, for though he recognizes the loss of so much for the Iraqis, from dictatorship to our more recent conquest, he cares for what reflects the spirit of a people, and one can feel that he wishes the Iraqi people well.

It was with a strong sense of disbelief that I read Nicolai Ouroussoff's article in the Los Angeles Times unjustifiably disparaging the Grand Avenue revitalization project ("Grand Plans, Flawed Process," April 4). What is there to criticize? Not one revitalization proposal has even been approved yet. Not one groundbreaking ceremony has taken place. Yet Mr. Ouroussoff already has declared the entire project "sterile," "superficial" and "generic." In short, he's doomed it before even one structure has been built.

Nicolai Ouroussoff manages to perpetuate a shortcoming in L.A. architecture by praising the newest design for the Los Angeles Unified School District's High School No. 9, now to be the Performing and Visual Arts Academy at 450 Grand Ave. ("The Bold School Try," June 8). One must wonder if the increased cost of the redesign of this public school is justified when the reviewer's comments include semiotic comparisons between the auditorium's fly tower and a famous modernist church campanile in La Tourette, France.

Re "Capitalism Tops Democracy in Tower's Design," Dec. 20: Did anyone else wince while reading Nicolai Ouroussoff's commentary on the new World Trade Center design? So much ink for someone so obviously miffed that his own preferences did not prevail. The design looks pretty good to me, and if it didn't, I hardly think I'd blame the fact that real estate concerns played a big part in its selection. Art for art's sake happens in lofts, not in grand-scale commercial architecture. And finding fault with the 1,776-foot height is just plain silly.

Re "Capitalism Tops Democracy in Tower's Design," Dec. 20: Did anyone else wince while reading Nicolai Ouroussoff's commentary on the new World Trade Center design? So much ink for someone so obviously miffed that his own preferences did not prevail. The design looks pretty good to me, and if it didn't, I hardly think I'd blame the fact that real estate concerns played a big part in its selection. Art for art's sake happens in lofts, not in grand-scale commercial architecture. And finding fault with the 1,776-foot height is just plain silly.

It has been the breaking forth of water in a desert to read Nicolai Ouroussoff's intelligent discussion of cultural survival via an examination of Baghdad's architecture as a revelatory guide to the history of a place and a people [four-part series, Dec. 14-16]. The Iraqis are not objectified in his study as villains or as victims, but as people who have known a more civilized life in a place rich with millenniums of social history. It is ultimately a hopeful study, for though he recognizes the loss of so much for the Iraqis, from dictatorship to our more recent conquest, he cares for what reflects the spirit of a people, and one can feel that he wishes the Iraqi people well.

Nicolai Ouroussoff manages to perpetuate a shortcoming in L.A. architecture by praising the newest design for the Los Angeles Unified School District's High School No. 9, now to be the Performing and Visual Arts Academy at 450 Grand Ave. ("The Bold School Try," June 8). One must wonder if the increased cost of the redesign of this public school is justified when the reviewer's comments include semiotic comparisons between the auditorium's fly tower and a famous modernist church campanile in La Tourette, France.

How can our schools teach children respect for the past if they have none themselves? L.A. Unified's decision to raze the KEHE radio building is another harmful, destructive act by an ignorant bureaucracy--and adds another significant landmark to L.A.'s long obituary of demolished architecture ("Failing a Landmark," July 15, by Nicolai Ouroussoff.) There are many successful Moderne schools in Los Angeles still in use, so why not build a school that complements the existing structure?

Due to my normal libertarian bent, Nicolai Ouroussoff and I would likely settle on agreeing to disagree regarding property owners' rights ("There Goes Our History," April 28). However, I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank-you to the city of Los Angeles for limiting to two the number of cultural heritage "police" that it employs. New York City is currently facing a massive budget deficit. I can only suggest that Mayor Bloomberg consider the 50-person staff of the Landmarks Commission as an excellent example of waste that can be cut. I would ask Ouroussoff to consider what any homeless shelter in New York could do with that bureaucracy's budget.

There are many perfectly valid criticisms one can make of various decisions Harold Williams made during the 17 years he presided over the Getty as chief executive ("Art for Architecture's Sake," by Nicolai Ouroussoff, March 31). The site and the architect are certainly both fair game. But Ouroussoff's assertion that "Williams also led the fight to transform the complex into a complex of art-related activities, relegating its collections to secondary status" is simply ludicrous. First, there was no fight: Williams presented his recommendations in 1982, and the board accepted them.

I'm so sick of reading that Frank Gehry thought his commission to design buildings in the Playa Vista project "seemed innocent enough" ("A Sinking Feeling in the Wetlands," by Nicolai Ouroussoff, Aug. 12). Gehry knows full well that his participation helps to fill the gap of legitimization left when Steven Spielberg pulled out of this dreadful mega-development. Let's be honest. Gehry knowingly sold out to cronyism. The developer is his old pal and benefactor, and that means much more to Gehry than the nearby residents, the environment or the ordinary folks who want to get to their jobs in a reasonable amount of time.

I was most gratified by the lovely spread on the Research House ("Reflecting on Neutra Genius," Calendar, Jan. 30). Kudos to Nicolai Ouroussoff for his perceptive piece. Credit should go also to Christine Theodoropolous, Neutra Scholar, resident and professor at Cal Poly, and the new dean of the School of Environmental Design, Linda Sanders, who has at long last convened an advisory board to advise on how to deal with usage and preservation issues with regard to the house. Ouroussoff most graphically decried the "dreary experience" of walking through the house with its obvious lack of care and maintenance.

In museums around the world, showy architecture overshadows art collections. It doesn't have to be that way, critic Nicolai Ouroussoff argues. Plus: explorer Ernest Shackleton is all the rage; the sad state of sportscasting; and Japanese pop gets its act together.

After reading Nicolai Ouroussoff's glowing review of Michael Maltzan's dated, minimalist, haphazard Kidspace project in Pasadena ("Inspiring Imagination," Nov. 23), then remembering his recent mean-spirited, clueless review of the magnificent new Hollywood & Highland project, I realize that one of my great fears for Los Angeles is that we will ever live in a city that Mr. Ouroussoff actually likes. STEVE SCOTT Los Angeles