TURIN, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Italian architect Renzo Piano has
shrugged off criticism over his design of the new headquarters for the
New York Times, calling it healthy freedom of expression at the U.S.
newspaper.
Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff attacked Piano's 52-story
glass-and-steel tower in Manhattan this week by saying it had a
"menacing air" and "dull finish".
But Genoa-born Piano, who rose to international fame in the 1970s for
sharing the design of the Pompidou Centre in Paris with British
architect Richard Rogers, defended Ouroussoff's right to express his
opinion.
"I know him (Ouroussoff) very well. He has often criticized my projects,
sometimes more, sometimes less," Piano told reporters on the sideline of
an event on Wednesday.
"But up with criticism and up with freedom! It's also interesting to see
how at the New York Times an architecture critic can criticize his own
paper."
cont'd....
http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINL2135459220071123