Kalita Humphreys Theater

[Paul Ringstrom]

https://www.broadwayworld.com/dallas/ar ... g-20221202

[Tom]

From the article:
"The goals of the Kalita Master Plan are to: Restore the Frank Lloyd Wright building to its period of significance (1959)......."

[SDR]

Another bit of evidence that "while the architect was alive" isn't considered a bad choice, among an otherwise indeterminate range of possibilities ?

S

[MOman2]

The only time I was at the Kalita Humphrey's Theater was five years ago. I viewed it to be in poor shape

[SDR]

The most recent previous discussion on the theater:

http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... =2&t=10666

Something tells me we haven't been keeping up ?

S

[Tom]

https://dallastheatercenter.org/kalita-masterplan/

[Roderick Grant]

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is the firm that saw fit to destroy Tod Williams and Billie Tsien's American Folk Art Museum to accommodate MoMA's "need" to expand.

[SDR]

Yes. To be fair, it was the client's decision, not the architects' ?

One does wonder what the conversation between the two practices' principals might have been, if the subject were to be raised over drinks at the Christmas party the next year . . .

S

[Roderick Grant]

The decision was most likely made by the clients AND architects. It was likely that the architects determined that the existing building could not be integrated into the addition, and the clients followed their lead.

[SDR]

I'll buy that . . .

Was it the 1956 Museum of Contemporary Crafts that originally occupied the West 53rd St space, renamed the American Craft Museum in 1963 ? Is this the same building, adjacent to MoMa, that we're talking about ?

https://madmuseum.org/about/museum-history

I recall going to the MCC in the later 'fifties; the Wharton Esherick show there included the spiral stair from his studio.

You can buy it cheap, today, apparently ! https://www.ebay.com/itm/255818148770?c ... ThEALw_wcB

S

[Roderick Grant]

I don't know the history of the real estate, but the American Folk Art Museum was built in 2001.

The hideous building you posted is the recent remodeling of the building designed by Edward Durrel Stone at Columbus Circle formerly known as the Huntington Hartford Museum, which had nothing to do with AFAM. The folk art moved to somewhere near Lincoln Center.

[Tom]

I agree with RG about the renovation of the Ed Stone building.
I've never been inside the new renovation, but the accomplishment
of making a worse exterior than what was already there deserves
some kind of special recognition award.

[DavidC]

New plan unveiled to restore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kalita Humphreys Theater


David

[Roderick Grant]

At least they are planning to remove the lumpen enclosure of the balcony.

[DavidC]

Kalita Humphreys Theater Masterplan Flythrough Animation (2022) - (4:22)


David