Bury the Gehry

For every reason outlined in today's WaPo piece by Bob Thompson and Jackie Trescott:

The Corcoran Gallery of Art's chairman said yesterday that the 136-year-old institution is in such serious financial straits that it should suspend efforts to build its much-heralded new wing, for which architect Frank Gehry has already completed a design, and replace its longtime director.

The suspension of the Gehry effort could come as early as Monday, when the board is scheduled to discuss a new strategic plan for the Corcoran. "In the foreseeable future, there's no choice," board of trustees Chairman John T. "Til" Hazel said, citing broad financial difficulties facing the Washington landmark, which includes both the museum and the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

[. . .]

After having 20 years of financial records assembled and analyzed, Hazel was startled to find that in 17 of those years, the Corcoran had operated in the red. (In two of the three years it did not, losses were avoided only because of one-time events: a sudden, unanticipated gift and an accounting adjustment). The board had approved a fiscal 2005 deficit of $800,000, but Hazel learned that it had risen to $1,450,000. Hearing that the projected deficit for fiscal 2006 was $2.1 million, he said, "was a shocker."

Yeah, ouch. Note that projected costs for the Gehry addition have been readjusted from $60 million to $200 million, meaning that the Corc would have to double its current renovation piggy—$95 million, with half that amount "contingent on the construction of the wing being either launched or completed." The cheddar hasn't exactly piled up since the District pledged $40 million* last year, and what with Hazel and others now openly calling for Levy's resignation, I don't imagine more huge donations will be forthcoming until the board irons out its branding issues. A step in that direction should be agenda item 1 for the May 23 board meeting.

If the Corc spent around $25 million for Gehry's sketches and what-not and choose to bury the Gehry and return pending pledge grants, the Corc would be left with somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million to finish the necessary renovation (according to the article and my napkin arithmetic). That leaves a tough little leap to the absolute bottom line cost of the renovation—$40 million—but it's a more comforting gap than the gargantuan maw between pledge grants and the order-of-magnitude-larger Gehry pricetag. If the Corc drops Gehry, it will have to hope that its pledge investors are in-for-a-pound, in-for-a-penny? One bridge at a time: what's evident now is that neither the economy nor the Corcoran's direction inspires the confidence to make the Gehry wing fly.

And moreover, the plan to Gehrify the Corcoran was backward-looking, uninspired, and pandering from the get-go. Isn't this town sufficiently backward-looking, uninspired, and pandering without the expensive help?

* Which is also contingent on the Gehry wing, I'm happy to report. As a taxpaying District citizen, I'm comfortable contributing tax dollars to a renovation that stands to draw tourism (even if also threatens to bake the sidewalks). Minus the renovation caveat, it's bail-out for a sinking ship—but a much smaller one.

Posted by Kriston at May 20, 2005 1:55 PM