Editing Herbert Muschamp

{{Short description|American architecture critic (1947–2007)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Herbert Muschamp
| image       = Herbert Muschamp.jpg
| caption     = 
| birthname   = Herbert Mitchell Muschamp
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1947|11|28}}
| birth_place = [[Philadelphia]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|2007|10|2|1947|11|28}}
| death_place = [[New York City]]
| education   = [[University of Pennsylvania]], [[Parsons School of Design]]
| occupation  = architecture critic
| alias       = 
| title       = 
| family      = 
| spouse      = 
| children    = 
| relatives   = 
| credits     = ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The New Republic]]'', ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[House & Garden (magazine)|House & Garden]]'' and ''[[Art Forum]]''
| URL         = 
}}
'''Herbert Mitchell Muschamp''' (November 28, 1947 &ndash; October 2, 2007) was an American architecture critic.

== Early years ==
Born in [[Philadelphia]], Muschamp described his childhood home life as follows: "The living room was a secret. A forbidden zone. The new slipcovers were not, in fact, the reason why sitting down there was taboo. That was just the cover story. It was used to conceal the inability of family members to hold a conversation. Who knew what other secrets might come tumbling out if they actually sat down and talked? The cause of Mother's headaches might come up."<ref>Herbert Muschamp. ''Hearts of the City: The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp.'' Introduction by [[Nicolai Ouroussoff]]. New York: [[Alfred A. Knopf]], 2010.</ref>

This motivated Muschamp to engage in boisterous conversations outside the home in later years, particularly in the company of such up-and-coming architects as [[Elizabeth Diller]] and [[Ricardo Scofidio (architect)|Ricardo Scofidio]], [[Frank Gehry]], [[Rem Koolhaas]], [[Jean Nouvel]], [[Bernard Tschumi]] and [[Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects|Tod Williams]], which formed the basis for his perceptive and often vehement architectural commentary and criticism.<ref name="archpaper1">Jonathan Glancey. [http://archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4231 Review: Muschamp, The Works.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209120214/http://archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4231 |date=2010-02-09 }} The Architect's Newspaper. Published: February 5, 2010</ref>

Muschamp attended the [[University of Pennsylvania]] but dropped out after two years to move to [[New York City]], where he was a regular at [[Andy Warhol]]'s [[The Factory|Factory]]. He later attended [[Parsons School of Design]], where he studied architecture, and returned to teach after spending some time studying at the [[Architectural Association]] in [[London]].

== Career ==
During this period, he began writing architectural criticism for various magazines, including ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[House & Garden (magazine)|House & Garden]]'', and ''[[Art Forum]]''. He was appointed the architecture critic for ''[[The New Republic]]'' in 1987.

Muschamp became the architecture critic for ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1992, succeeding [[Paul Goldberger]]. During his controversial tenure at the ''Times'', Muschamp rose, according to [[Nicolai Ouroussoff]],<ref>Nicolai Ouroussoff. [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/arts/design/04muschamp.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin ''Herbert Muschamp, 59, Architecture Critic, Dies'']. The New York Times. Published: October 3, 2007. Retrieved on October 6, 2007.</ref> to preeminence as the nation's foremost [[judge]] of the architecture world. His writing championed now-famous architects such as [[Frank Gehry]], [[Rem Koolhaas]], [[Zaha Hadid]] and [[Jean Nouvel]], as well as architects that he regarded as rising talents, including [[Greg Lynn]], Lindy Roy, Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto and [[Casagrande & Rintala]].<ref>Herbert Muschamp. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E3DF113BF930A15754C0A9669C8B63&sec=technology&spon=&pagewanted=3 ''Architecture's Claim on the Future: The Blob '']. The New York Times. Published: July 23, 2000</ref>

His detractors, noted the ''[[New York Observer]]'', argued that his conflicts of interest, from socializing with his subjects frequently, and his "iconoclasm and obscurantism, his unapologetic dilettantism" were along with his "very public break downs" a source of a "fall from grace."<ref>Clay Risen. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071013053743/http://www.observer.com/node/49446 ''As Muschamp Goes, Angry Adversaries Ready for Revenge'']. New York Observer. Published: June 27, 2004.</ref>

Muschamp was a lover of cities. One of his most often quoted lines came from a 2004 review: "A city is never more fully human than when expertise – our own or someone else's – allows us access to ebullience, lightness and delight."<ref>Herbert Muschamp. [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/nyregion/an-appraisal-for-lower-manhattan-tower-offers-a-residential-stairway-to-the-sky.html ''An Appraisal - For Lower Manhattan, Tower Offers a Residential Stairway to the Sky'']. The New York Times. Published: March 3, 2004</ref> He spent a number of columns criticizing the new master plan for the [[World Trade Center site]], calling the plan produced by [[Daniel Libeskind]] an embodiment of the "[[Orwellian]] condition America's detractors accuse us of embracing: perpetual war for perpetual peace."<ref>Herbert Muschamp. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E5DD163BF935A35751C0A9659C8B63 ''Balancing Reason and Emotion in Twin Towers Void'']. The New York Times. Published: February 6, 2003</ref>

He stepped down as the architecture critic of ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 2004 to write the "Icons" column for the ''Times''' ''T Style Magazine'', among other features. He was replaced by his protégé, [[Nicolai Ouroussoff]]. Muschamp was [[coming out|openly]] [[gay]], and the centrality of gay men in the cultural life of New York City was central to his writing. He continued to write until his death from [[lung cancer]] in [[Manhattan]] in 2007.

A book collection of Muschamp's writings, ''Hearts of the City: The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp,'' was published by [[Alfred A. Knopf]] in 2010.<ref name="archpaper1"/>

== References ==
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[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)]]
[[Category:The New York Times journalists]]
[[Category:Writers from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:People from New York City]]
[[Category:American architecture critics]]
[[Category:Journalists from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:People associated with The Factory]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]