New Haven Independent

Posted by: cedarhillresident | July 16, 2008 3:28 PM

I have seen Archstone's plans and Northeasts and by far I believe that the Archstone's plan are a much better fit for New Haven and a longterm long lasting fix!!! :)

Posted by: anon | July 16, 2008 3:42 PM

Considering that inflation on some building materials and items is now running close to 10% per month (i.e., up 50%+ since the year started), it is starting look doubtful that all of these projects will happen unless the state actually adopts a smart growth policy that encourages urban development (rather than the other way around -- the state's current policies involve subsidizing the paving of farms for new homes on the urban fringe).

Where is all that money going, you might ask? It's being used to fill up our automobiles with the equivalent of gold (and paying for it by taking out literally trillions of dollars in debt, including that used for highway expansions like the new $2B+ Q bridge), and then burning all of that off into the atmosphere. In other words, it is all leaving the country and not coming back. Let's just let our kids pay for our 20 mile SUV trip to work today.

Posted by: True New Havener | July 16, 2008 4:53 PM

All I know is that having Stern and Pelli compete is a big deal. It's like Ali and Frazier.

The Thrilla in the 10th Square.

Stern is the Dean of the Yale Architecture School and Pelli used to be.

Stern built the town of Celebrations for Disney, a planned community. He also built a bunch of other Disney buildings. More recently he built five star hotels in Kazakhstan and significant buildings for Georgetown, Harvard and Brooklyn Law.

Pelli built the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, the world's tallest buildings until recently. He has built some of what are considered the most impressive buildings of the second half of the 20th century, including the San Bernadino City Hall and the US Embassy in Tokyo. He is generally considered one of the few greatest living architects.

This is a battle of titans. Pelli, who emigrated to the US from Argentina and has run his office from New Haven (right on Chapel Street above Starbucks -- the one near High Street) for generations should be given an edge. Pelli is New Haven -- an immigrant, now US citizen, tax paying business owner, with a devotion to the city. He's building the arts high school on College Street which will probably be the first architecturally significant public high school in the country when it opens just because of his name. And so far, its a pretty stunning building based on walking past.

But not to take anything away from Stern. This venture seems to be him putting his roots down in the city, which can only be a good thing. He lives in an apartment overlooking the Green and has trained a generation of architects at Yale. I know some on this site would knock him for the Yale affiliation, but it's about as prestigious an architecture school as there is in the world. He deserves immense credit for keeping it on top and thus New Haven as a center of design for the world.

In the end, this is a whole other league of competition and New Haven should even advertise it as such. With these two names as the finalists, there is no greater architectural competition in the world this year. How about pitching a NY Times spread on this battle royal?? That would do something for the city's development prospects going forward -- no?

Posted by: cedarhillresident | July 16, 2008 6:30 PM

True New Havener
Bravo I luv your post. Starting to wonder who you are.
Lets not forget the team as a whole, Pelli is working with C.A. White another life time New Haven Company. New Haven company for 80 years. Life time supporter of Long wharf theater and involved in many other New Haven programs. These two groups are New Haven they do not just want the job they want the city to benefit, a city they will still be in when the project is long over and built.

Posted by: NewHavenFan | July 17, 2008 1:17 AM

I love New Haven and I brag about it as the best CITY in CT... I am excited by both proposals,however I gravitate more towards Northland's prelimnary proposal. I don't know if the bland low key drawing from Archstone brought me to this desision. I feel this city should among many obvious things,look vibrant to travelers on 91 and 95 to make them want to visit. When I look at New Haven's skyline...I see bland DARK buildings,the Knights of columbus,temple medical,FBI Bldg,century towers,conn finan center to name a few. Let's look at Yale's buildings hmmmm. Does our downtown have to conform to the orginal goth style Yale Campus? Does Yale revolve around New Haven or do we revolve around Yale? I want to see something beautiful, modern,and tasteful. Why are we afraid of GLASS..LOL ...sorry just venting...

Posted by: cedarhillresident | July 17, 2008 9:15 AM

NewHavenFan
I too love New Haven, grew up on Wooster Street.
Its not a Yale thing it is a New England thing. The city needs to embras that fact. The whole goth architecture thing is what is bringing movie crew to our fine city. That is one of the finer quality's of this city. Lets not forget that what is a long term long last solution. The next generation has to live with it. We also have to think of being able to fill the building. I think that North's is a fine plan but it is not working with the future plans of new haven as much as the Archstone one is. And that is a key factor.

Posted by: anon | July 17, 2008 10:12 AM

Cedar Hill, I believe you work for one of the companies involved in the Archstone team proposed - have some honesty in promoting the plan! Both proposals are great and at this point, the selection has nothing to do with the architecture.

Posted by: Kyle | July 17, 2008 1:15 PM

I just wish they weren't quite so monolithic.

The scale in both cases feels a lot more like that of NewHavenFan's deathlist - the Knights of Columbus, Temple Medical, the FBI building, Century Towers, Connecticut Financial Center - and a lot less like the more finely-grained character of Ninth Square.