Morphosis Out from Grand Ave Team

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Architectural Record News today reports that Thom Mayne's firm Morphosis is off the Grand Ave team.

It was after spending time reviewing initial concepts, as well as comments from public and team meetings that Related came to the conclusion that Morphosis wasn’t the appropriate fit for them.

“Not every architect is right for every project,” says Witte, adding, “but we are pleased for Thom, for winning the Prizker Prize.”

I'm not Mayne's biggest fan, but he does have a track record of being able to get public projects done on a small budget. My mind immediately wants to connect this back to the Mayne interview I wrote about last year:

The average person's understanding of his projects is "irrelevant," he told me. "There's layers and layers of ideas that go into a piece of work. It can be engaged at many levels. Probably most people are engaged at a very direct level: how it affects them. Others will recognize that there's an organizational or conceptual tissue."

It's good for the average person to at least like a building.