The visit started with one my favorite pieces of architecture: the brand new Cooper Union building. It is one of the most fascinating buildings in New York City. The first apparent reason is that there are so many details to look at. From the font of the letters – The Cooper Union – to the texture of the shape of the clones, the eye never rests. As a compliment, Performa (the performance biannual) chose their transparent lobby as their headquarters. The building inspires a game of hide and seek. The facade hides the interior and the crack shows a part of it. Moreover, the building appears very different during the day than during the night. The interior illumination magically erases the metallic pierced facade to show exactly how the inside looks. During the day, we only see the strange pattern made by the holes and polished patches of the exterior.
The concept of the facade plays a central role in urbanism. What do we see of the city when we travel it but the facades of buildings. The Center for Architecture’s exhibition CONTEXT/CONTRAST is indirectly point out to this idea of changing the visual impression of a neighborhood by changing the facades of buildings. The 40 Bond design is focused on the idea of the facade. It transformed an ephemeral facade – the graffitis added to buildings – into a concrete facade. The pattern is so abstract and strickingly contrastes with the straight lines of the upper facade. Here, the facade doesn’t conceals but shows.