Oh Snap! The almost-forgotten battle between the Schindler House [in the interest of full disclosure, one of us has been a docent there for several years] and its next door neighbor, Habitat 825 gets dredged up again. The LA Times' Christopher Hawthorne reviews the new condo development adjacent to the Schindler House and while he seems to want to like it - we all love archistud Lorcan O'Herlihy - he just can't bring himself to:
But in trying to be deferential and confidently self-possessed at the same time, the building manages to be neither. And it reflects little of Schindler's interest in architecture's role as a critical art, either as a commentary on how we live in this city or as a model for how we might. In that sense the project has to count as a missed opportunity, because what L.A. needs right now is precisely some inspiration along those lines.We'll spare you the rest of the review and give you the appropriate film metaphor. O'Herlihy is equivalent to the brilliant indie filmmaker who just produced a studio movie. Not terrible, maybe a little too conventional, maybe he over-thought it. In the meantime, the interior courtyards at the Schindler House now look out upon the above pic.
· Habitat 825 is so close and yet so far [LA Times]