NYPL Woes

http://www.thenation.com/article/164881/upheaval-new-york-public-library?page=fu...

Interesting commentary on the state of New York Public Library and where its going.

I can confirm that staff moral has taken quite a hit in the last few years with many thinking "sauve qui peut"
and jumping ship or taking retirement.

I was also pleased that the article gave the Digital Gallery a passing honorable mention, since I had a bit of a hand to play in its initial roll out.

In general, I'm always suspocious of articles that rely so heavily on anonymous quotes. However, a large red flag in regards to this piece is the hatchet job made against the architect Norman Foster. Granted, as someone who works in an architecture library, I might be a bit more in tune than others, but any inquiring mind could easily find flaws here.

In this article, Scott Sherman writes: "Staff members were aroused by a September 18 Times article that mentioned Norman Foster, the architect hired to renovate Forty-second Street. The article, by Philip Nobel, disclosed that one of Foster’s prominent buildings in Las Vegas, the Harmon, will soon be torn down; according to the article, “construction flaws were found years ago.”" The implication being that Norman Foster's firm is negligent.

Now the inquiring mind might think that "construction flaws" are not the same as "design flaws" and are not automatically the fault of the architect & the design firm.

If one were to take the time to actually look up the Philip Nobel piece in the New York Times, you would see that the article was not actually about the Harmon building in Las Vegas. Philip Nobel was merely using the Harmon as "timely metaphor" that the era of extravagant commercial projects is over for now.

Any cursory search will quickly locate numerous legitimate sources that detail the woes of the Harmon building are due to the contractors installing rebar incorrectly. They, the contractors, did not follow the approved construction plans. This is not the fault of the design team of Norman Foster.

It makes me wonder just how objective of a reporter Scott Sherman is.