Columbia University's new Campbell Sports Center has livened up my rather drab neighbourhood and is the subject of a detailed critique in this week's NEW YORK magazine.
Designed by Steven Holl with his partner Chris McVoy, the Center sits in a neighbourhood of plain brick apartment buildings and playing fields, right next to busy Broadway traffic and the elevated subway track.
As Justin Davidson's article puts it, "At first glance this building seems foreign...nobody would call it contextual, and yet it's the only building around that deals with the surroundings in all their jagged complexity."
"It's not an especially friendly building", continues Davidson, "but in the rain or at dusk the lights go on and the staircase railings, which look solid in daylight, show their...perforated patterns of light and airy lines. Then the building's metallic quirkiness comes out, mingling with lyricism on a corner where you'd expect it least."
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