Starchitects Demise I

ELLIS WOODMAN is a Deputy Editor of BD, the architect's website. Past articles show he is a fan of Modernist architecture. But he sure doesn't like Zaha Hadid's Maxxi:

ROMAN HORROR DAY AT ZAHA HADID'S MAXXI

20 November 2009

Maxxi, Rome’s National Museum of 21st Century Arts, displays a cynical disregard for its purpose, that marks a conceit too far for Zaha Hadid

...Frankly, I can’t think that I have ever encountered an art gallery that addresses its nominal function with such seeming cynicism. If the measure of success is the number of text-messaging adolescenti that hang out in its Piranesian halls, I don’t doubt that Maxxi will come to be seen as a hit. But as a gallery, let alone as a portrait of the cultural priorities of the 21st century, it leaves an enormous amount to be desired. I only hope that the period of which this long-awaited project is truly emblematic is one that is now behind us.

Meanwhile, back at the Times, Architecture Critic and Starchitect Flak Nicolai Ouroussoff tells us that Pope Urban VIII would be "ecstatic" about Maxxi. Some things never change.