Returning to my argument @nytimes over whether @hirshhorn is "nearly windowless." http://t.co/QczHbVy8ph pic.twitter.com/nKINJKaV2J
— Alexandra Lange (@LangeAlexandra) June 11, 2015
In an October 2014 profile of Melissa Chiu, the then-new director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the New York Times made a wobbly claim. Paraphrasing Chiu, Times staffer Graham Bowley wrote that “the shows that work best in the Hirshhorn are those that embrace the distinctive curved spaces of its round, nearly windowless building.”
Windowless, eh? Not so fast. The interior ring of the Hirshhorn is almost entirely made of glass, bathing the circular corridors in natural light, and the Lerner Room, lined in colorful Sol LeWitt wall drawings, offers a magnificent panoramic view of the Mall. At the time of the October article, architecture writer Alexandra Lange wrote the Times to request a correction. The editors wouldn’t budge. Yesterday morning, Lange reupped her complaint.
There's a much better argument for the Washington Monument as "nearly windowless." pic.twitter.com/xfjtf4JvJf
— Alexandra Lange (@LangeAlexandra) June 11, 2015
Not one to suffer the indignity of an incorrect window count in silence, Glenn Dixon, who held my job in the ’90s and now does communications work for the Hirshhorn, laid out a tongue-in-cheek window theory on the museum’s Twitter account. (Read Dixon’s full exposition after the jump.)
“I understand both why Graham Bowley called the Hirshhorn building ‘nearly windowless’ and why there was an outcry from those who take note of the windows we do have,” Dixon writes in an email. “From the outside, [architect] Gordon Bunshaft’s building is really aggressive, even forbidding, almost daring you to come inside. So you do. You step into the circle, and your world turns inside out. There are these unexpected ranks of windows rising above you, screened in by a perfect array of curving concrete. “
Dixon’s counting recalls a social media campaign he ran in 2011-2012 to promote an exhibition of Andy Warhol‘s “Shadows,” an unbroken series of 102 canvases. He and curator Evelyn Hankins tweeted a description of one canvas per day for 102 days. The discrepancy in window numbers (is it 331 or four?) comes from the question of whether a circle of 96 panes can be a single window, as a series of 102 canvases can be a single artwork. “That was sort of a conceptual Easter egg,” Dixon writes.
Bowley did not respond to a request for comment.
Nice work, Hirshhorn. From one goader of the New York Times to another, we salute you.
Are you a #HirshhornWindows minimalist or maximalist? A debate rages. @bruteforceblog @LangeAlexandra @kristoncapps @nytimes
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
It's a matter of perspective, but it's also a question of numbers. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
In the Lobby, there are 25 windows, plus 4 glass hinged doors and 2 glass revolving doors. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
In the Lerner Room, the Third Level gallery looking out over the Mall, there are 18 windows and 4 doors. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
The interior of the drum contains 3 levels of 24 roughly square openings, for a total of 72. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
However, these are not properly considered windows. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Because they float out in front of the panes of glass. #NotMullions #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
There are 4 panes of glass to each opening. So there are 96 panes per level. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
There are 3 levels, making 288 panes of glass lining the inside of the drum. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Some of these windows open, allowing egress by maintenance crews. But you wouldn't call them doors. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
So the maximalist tally, favored by hard-line empiricists such as @CountvonCount, is 331 windows, 10 doors. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
But is a pane of glass truly the measure of a window? #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Couldn't each set of 96 contiguous panes of glass be considered a single sweeping interior window? #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Couldn't the Lerner Room expanse be considered 1 window? #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
And the entire Lobby 1 window as well? #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Giving the drum 3 interior windows, 1 per Level, and 1 exterior window, for a total of 4. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Or 5, if you add the Lobby back in. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
This would be the minimalist sum, preferred by those of a more theoretical bent. #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
And don't forget the ArtLab, in the Sculpture Garden. It has 6 windows and 2 doors (max) or 1 window (min). #HirshhornWindows
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
So what do you think. For a building of its size, are there many #HirshhornWindows, or only a few? –Glenn
— Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) June 11, 2015
Don't go away!
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