Friday, March 17, 2006

Once again, Cleveland's elite go elsewhere

Instead of utilizing emerging local design talent, or at least opening the door for the commission through an open competition, the selection committee of the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art has created a shortlist of all out-of-town architects: Office dA, Michael Maltzan, SHoP, Reiser + Unemoto, Studio MDA, and Foreign Office Architects. See the Plain Dealer article here.

While I am not denying the talent, portfolios, credentials, and potential of the shortlisted firms, I am again angered by the hypocrisy of the so-called Cleveland leading elite who seek "Believe in Cleveland," yet run to the coasts to find their boutique designers. It was quite telling that even the selection meeting was held in New York and not in Cleveland.

If Cleveland seeks to bolster it's "creative class," the city and its leaders need to be conscious to invest in local design talent, offering architects and affiliated professions a reason to reside in the area.

By the way, if I had my choice, I would pick either Office dA or Michael Maltzan.

Improvised Schema concurs.

1 comment:

Stan said...

Nice criticism on the lowly state of Cleveland institutions acting like hypocrites when it comes to selecting architecture firms for their projects. It doesn’t make a lot of sense as they are neglecting local talent (of all local institutions, CMoCA should be doing this) and failing to contribute to a local economy that they rely upon.