The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 92

92 THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE MARCH 6, 1988 rchitecture a Frank Gehry's fresh, oddball touch and you have a paradox. You could state the paradox this way: "A city must change, and a city must stay the same." A city must change. Change offers hope for a better future. A city must have the excitement of new things happening. It must have crackle, mystery.

It shouldn't be boring. A city Is the place where people go to get rich and famous. out over the turnpike, apparently in homage to the Boston Tea Party-Nobody seems to know what to make of Gehry's design. One reader wrote to ask whether the lead sheathing was meant to make the building look like a steel strongbox, thus symbolizing the prisonlike security that the reader (quite rightly) deplores in so many new buildings. The reader's comment, and the city official's, started me thinking.

Both seem to be deploring whatever is strange and new. Both are worried, I suspect, that the building won't "look like Boston." After a generation of oversized, self-centered buildings that Indeed don't look like Boston, such a concern Is understandable. But perhaps It can go too far. Gehry offers freshness, change, Invention, wit. a little cra-zlness and a love of oddball Juxtapositions.

Surely those are some of the good things In life. But the official and the reader are asking for something equally good. They want continuity, reassurance and the preservation of established character. The paradox Set these two views together. By Ttobert Campbell Globe Correspondent "Tell me, how can we drive Frank Gehry out of Boston forever?" i' So said an elected city official, who shall be nameless, to me last week.

Frank Gehry Is a California architect. He Is renovating 360 Newbury Street, the building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue, above the turnpike, that houses a new Tower Records store and a Green Line subway entrance. Gehry's renovation, which complete yet, is certainly unconventional. A new story has sprouted atop the staid eight-story building like a spike haircut growing from the head of a Brahmin. Angular brackets jut out from the old building's parapet to support the new floor.

They seem to parody the top-heavy cornices of Italian Renaissance palaces, such as Michelangelo's Farnese Palace In Rome. A strange stiff pinafore of similar brackets, angled downward, circles the building at second-floor level. Around in back, everything but the windows is being sheathed In gray lead-coated copper. A huge Claes Oldenburg sculpture of tea leaves will dangle That Is the paradox. The paradox can be Illustrated by a comparison between 360 Newbury and another remarkable new building.

Rowes Wharf on the downtown waterfront. At Rowes Wharf, the architect, Adrian Smith of Chicago, went to great lengths to try to Identify Just what qualities are Bostonian about Boston's waterfront. He then sought to reproduce them. Older Boston buildings bend and twist with the city's winding streets; Rowes Wharf curves gently along the curve of Atlantic Avenue. Boston's harborfront is lined with "finger Rowes Wharf pushes three such fingers into the water.

Our waterfront buildings are bulky and bluff, not delicate like those of Beacon Hill; so is Rowes. Traditional Boston is built of solid, warm-colored masonry: Rowes is brick, trimmed in a precast concrete that closely resembles limestone. The proudest boast of Rowes Wharfs developer Is that people don't always even realize the building Is new. Strangers can be overheard saying they'd never noticed that building before. Important accomplishment What Rowes Wharf has accomplished is very, very important.

In rrri ft FRANK GEHRY is renovating 360 Newbury Street, the building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue, above the turnpike, that houses a new Tower Records store and a Green Line subway entrance. ine temperature in New Haven today is 82. i IV If New Haven reminds you of smokestacks and snow banks, trade those notions for hot pink runners and a golden tan. this is Mew Haven, Jamaica. Call vour travel a cent todav.

fr a sense, the building Is the result of a 20-year battle by many Bosto nlans, including this writer, to force new architecture to fit the character of the city to be con textual, as the current term has it. Boston was changing too fast and losing Its character. Ghastly. overscaled eyesores, hopelessly un-Bostonian. were popping up all over town.

Boston needed to remain the same. But that battle Is pretty much won. Maybe It's time to look at the other half of the paradox and admit that we also have a secret yearning for the nutty, the disruptive and the genuinely Inventive -for the city that must change. Before Frank Gehry appeared, with his developer. Richard Cohen.

360 Newbury was a background building on a foreground site. The Mass. Turnpike had sheared away Its neighbors, leaving 360 standing prominent and visible. But the building, designed long ago for what was at the time a modest location, had not nearly enough oomph to command so exposed a site. What Gehry has done rum Because ENGLAND Grafton About Referral To These Services TUFTS NEW VETERINARY MEDICAL CENTER Gehry offers change, invention, wit, a little crazi-ness and a love of oddball juxtapositions.

Surely those are some of the good things in life. A city must stay the same. It must embody the memory of the past as a living museum. It must remain recognizable, so that It can reassure us that we know where we are and. therefore, who we are.

We are Bostonlans. Boston should look like Boston. iM'W mm JAZZ THE BOSTON GLOBE JAZZ I HERITAGE FESTIVAL MARCH 10 THROUGH 20 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS MOSHER EXPOSURE. A Tribute to Jimmy Mosher hosted by WBUR Tony Cennamo with Dreg Hopkins, Music Director, plus Phil Wilson, Mick Goodrick, Joe Hunt, Herb Pomerov, John Lockwood, Joe Viola, Bert Seagerplus Saxophone Quartets and Big Band. 8 pm, Berklee Performance Center $10 00.

Thursday. March 10. BIG BAND BALL with the DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA directed by MERCER ELLINGTON plus WALT LEVINSKY'S GREAT AMERICAN SWING BAND PLAYS THE MUSIC OF BENNY GOODMAN. Friday. March 11, 9pm.

Boston Park Plaa Ballroom. $20 00 in advance. $22 50 at the door. THE FABULOUS THUNOERBIRDS, THE NEVILLE BROTHERS DR. JOHN.

Saturday. March 12, 7 pm 8, 11 Orpheum Theatre. $2050 $1900. AN EVENING WITH THE STAN GETZ QUARTET, plus HARRY CONNICK, JR. Sunday.

March Berklee Performance Center. $20 00 $18 00 JAZZ BRUNCH. FRANK VIGNOLA HOT CLUB OF FRANCE IN A SALUTE TO THE MUSIC OF DJANGO REINHARDT A STEPHANE GRAPPELU. Special Guest Vocalist: MICHELE BAUTIER. Sunday.

March 13, 11am Boston Park Plaia Hotel Ballroom. $3250. AN EVENING WITH MEL TORME AND GEORGE SHEARING. Monday, March 14, 8pm. Symphony Hall.

$2250, $21.50 $2000. THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET DIANNE REEVES. Tuesday. March IS, 7pm 30pm. Berklee Perlormance Center.

$19 50 $18 00 LIONEL HAMPTON'S 80th BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH LIONEL HAMPTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA AND CARMEN MCRAEANOHER TRIO. Wednesday. March 16,8 pm. Symphony Hall. $22 50.

$21 50 $20 00. ST. PATRICK'S NIGHT SONG AND STORY GALA WITH PATRICK SKY AND PATRICK BALL Ihursday. March 17, 8 Berklee Perlormance Center. $1250 AN EVENING WITH THE O'JAYS AND MIKI HOWARD.

Plus TBA. Friday. March Orpheum Theatre. $22 .50. $21 50 4 $20 00 AN EVENING WITH CELIA CRUZ AND WILLIE COLON, plus MARIA MARIA.

Saturday. March Berklee Perlormance Center $20 50. Tiiunvriivi.ijiiiK JAZZ FKSTIVAI, PRODUCED BY GEORGE WEIN. THFlil-llBr! FTHI.IC AFS'AIKKSKHIKS 1 In North ANNOUNCES THE AVAILABILITY OF DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES IN ITS FOSTER HOSPITAL FOR SMALL ANIMALS AND HOSPITAL FOR LARGE ANIMALS Ophthalmology Orthopedic Surgety Disease Plastic and Recon-Nephrology structivt Surge7 Public Health Consult Your Own Veterinarian Anesthesiology (enjvioral Problems Cardiology Dermatology Endocrinology Equine Sports Hedicme Gastroenterology General Surgery Nuclear Nutrition Oncology Genetics Hematology Infectious Neurolof Is turn 360 Into the landmark that Is demanded by Its changed site. All his attention-getting devices are.

In this building on this site, appropriate. Gehry is the currently trendy American architect a fact that, all by itself, is probably enough to deter Bostonlans. though not Gehry's fault. He first became known for using Junk materials -chain-link fencing, plywood, corrugated steel, asphalt shingles. In the Junklness of Californian roadside culture, he found a natural collage and turned it Into art.

He was also reacting against slick-ness and packaging in all their forms. Gehry doesn't use Junk any more (too many Imitators do that) but he still takes aesthetic risks and frustrates our expectations. His sense of form Is so sure that, nearly always, he wins his gambles. Beware of dowdiness Should we drive Frank Gehry out of Boston? I don't think so. I like very much what he's doing to steln's "Cat." a 1961 work expected to bring between $200,000 and $300,000.

and Jasper Johns' 1967 "Screen Piece." which. It Is estimated, will bring between $350,000 and $450,000. But he also owned several paintings by such masters of academic painting in the 19th century as Dou-guereau and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. whose works he admired for their display of technical virtuosity. Llberace's collection also reflected his broad Interests and Includes the contents of his Las Vegas home.

Hollywood penthouse. New York Trump Tower apartment, Mallbu beach house and Lake Tahoe retreat. His collec tion ranged from candelabra to cook-' books, from pianos to rare Baccarat crystal furniture, from classic cars to Sevres porcelains. Liberace fans, unable to njtend the auction In California, can ac- 360 Newbury. (It should be noted that he had nothing to do with the banal Tower Records interior, which looks like a freeze-frame off an MTV screen.) In making sure Boston remains Bostonian.

let's also make sure it doesn't become smug and dowdy traits we've been accused of. let's remember. In the past. I'm reminded of something a high-school English teacher once said. He read the opening lines of Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake." written in perfectly regular, singsong, da-dum da-dum da-dum da-RHYME.

meter. Then he said: "If the poem went on like that, without any variation. It would be unreadable. It does, and it Is." Like a traditional poem, Boston needs a solid, regular, predictable architectural beat. Once that's established, It can afford and It needs amazements and Improvisations like 360 Newbury Street.

Robert Campbell ts the Globe's architecture critic. quire a Lllxrace treasure or memento by placing absentee bids. These can be arranged by calling the toll free Liberace number. 1-800-942-4554. Catalogs are available for $15 ($18 postage paid) by calling the tollfrec nu.nbcr or writing to the Liberace Collet ilon.

301 North Larchmont Los Angeles. CA 90004. To order the Warhol catalogs ($95 plus shipping), call Sotheby's Subscription Department at 1-800-752-5686. The catalogs, a series of six Illustrated volumes, are designed to fit Into a handsome sllpcase. The catalogs Include entries from Warhol's own diaries, which will be published next winter, as well as excerpts from David Bourdon's monograph on Warhol, to be published by Harry N.

Abrams next fall. Absentee bids may be arranged by calling Sotheby's Hid Department In New York: (212) 606-74 lY i I i f1 Jra "'t est I i V' I mil v' rY'v -r 7 ox ns Medicine If you do not have a family veterinarian, call the Massachusetts Verina7 Medical Association. 839-6155, for a listing. Referred appointments accepted Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday 9 a.m. to I p.m. Emergency cases are treated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Please call before arrival. 1 "T'Tmi fj Vt ITEMS TO be auctioned from Andy Warhol's Art Deco sitting room Include furniture by Jean Dunand and Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and art by Warhol contemporaries Roy Lichtenstein, Jasperr Johns, Cy Twombly.

Treasures from Warhol, Liberace Radiology Reproductive Disorders Respir07 Disease Tufts New England Veterinary Medical Center Partners in animal care (or all New England Call: 617-839-5395 For appointment i 1 rW Dprtmnt Trmaportanon WE ARE EASILY ACCESSIBLE FROM ALL MAJOR ROUTES TO AND FROM CENTRAL NEW ENGLAND k3 i swi. F'V; im. ii-i nviinil Continued from Page 89 which Is expected to bring $40,000 to $60,000. Liberace't Interests broad A carved and painted pine Punch figure In a Pierrot costume and tasselcd cap. attributed to "Jersey Jim" Campbell of New Jersey.

1870-1880. guarded the stairway to the fourth floor. It has a presale estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. The fourth-floor guest bedroom, furnished with a circa-1860 rosewood and bird's-eye maple suite by llcrtrr Brothers (presale estimate. $15,000 to is dominated by William Adolph Bouguercau's painting, "Mlgnon Pensive," above the mantel.

It Is expected to bring bet wtn $70,000 and $90,000. Warhol owned more than 60 works by contemporary and ijnod-ern artists, Including Llchten- i-mim imiinr tri 1 1. ZiZm.".