ICA built it, we will come

Elizabeth Diller and Ric Scofidio started out as artists, and it's easy to tell when you listen to Diller talk about how the new ICA designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro came together. She talks about how the public spaces are built from the ground up, literally a layer of tropical wood planks that starts at the harborwalk and curls up into the museum, eventually becoming part of the ceiling. You can see the line in this picture (left). But the art spaces in the museum, the actual galleries, which are mostly on the fourth floor, were designed from the sky down, with a layer of skylights and blackout curtains that give infinite possibilities of natural light.

This was a difficult project, with the intricacies of designing for a museum compounded by the waterfront site, the relatively small footprint and the architects' own ambitions. What they've come up with is an enormous 80 foot cantilever stretching out over the harborwalk, extending the fourth floor galleries. According to the museum side, anyway, they had a relatively easy time convincing the city to give up what amount to air rights on the site in exchange for a much larger public plaza in front of the museum - which they say they would have built anyway.

(The tour hits the harborwalk, above. The pod top center is the Mediatheque.)

At one point in our tour, Diller straddled a groove in the floor of a gallery - part of an elaborate system that allows walls, sprinklers, lighting at more to be shifted to accommodate the art. She noted that her right foot was solidly supported, while her left was out on the cantilever - a looooong way from the front of the gallery. This is a grand and daring design.

Listening to Diller talk about each aspect of the building is the kind of privilege usually only afforded to those of us in the media. In fact, the architects will speak Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the museum. (Patti Smith and Mark Morris are lined up for subsequent talks.) But courtesy of HubArts, if I can make this all work, you can hear some samples of Diller (below left, with curator Nicholas Baume) on the tour.

Download: Diller on the harborwalk.m4a

Download: Diller  in_the main gallery.m4a

Download: Diller  in the founders gallery.m4a

Download: Diller in the mediatheque.m4a