The Impact of Blogging on Architecture?

In a really fine review of the New York Times’ new headquarters building, which appeared in that paper yesterday, the critic Nicolai Ouroussoff made some interesting observations about the interplay of the design with current digital trends.

The 52-story skyscraper, only part of which is used by the famed newspaper, was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and is located between 40th and 41st Streets in midtown Manhattan.

He wrote:

Journalism, too, has moved on. Reality television, anonymous bloggers, the threat of ideologically driven global media enterprises–such forces have undermined newspapers’ traditional mission. Even as journalists at the Times adjust to their new home, they worry about the future. As advertising inches decline, the paper is literally shrinking; its page width was reduced in August. And some doubt that newspapers will even exist in print form a generation from now.

“Depending on your point of view, the Times Building can thus be read as a poignant expression of nostalgia or a reassertion of the paper’s highest values as it faces an uncertain future. Or, more likely, a bit of both.”

It’s an interesting insight about the changing nature of traditional journalism, whose very architecture might be shifting (more open and transparent) as its business does.

(There is also a really terrific multimedia look at the new offices here, which shows how you can take a story to new levels with not too much effort.)