Gehry again. His 700,000 sq. ft. computer science complex at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a whimsical update on the academic village. It combines about a dozen 120 ft. towers with a variety of smaller elements in an ensemble of dancing forms and careening lines that reads in places like a cartoon town, but with no hint of mere whimsy or kitsch, just pure, even stately imagination. What better setting for techno-types hoping to find inspiration as they ponder biomechatronics?
Come fly with us, and Leo, through the best (and worst) of 2004. Tops in the cinema this year include Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Elsewhere, Deadwood was good TV, and a Strange tale fascinated readers.