•
Clockwise from top left:
Holocaust Museum
in Washington D.C.,
Jewish Museum
Berlin and
Detroit's Holocaust
Memorial Center
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER from page 57
Holocaust, said he was frightened by the design.
"I found it very, very disturbing visually and
kind of painful to look at because it's so literal,"
the West Bloomfield resident said. "You want peo-
ple to be impacted, but more by the interior so
they have a conscious understanding, as opposed to
barbed wire and prison stripes."
Sidney Bolkosky, history professor and founder
of the Voice-Vision Holocaust Oral History
Project at the University of Michigan-Dearborn,
said some survivors he knows are disappointed
that its moved away from its current location in
West Bloomfield.
Personally, Bolkosky is critical of the design.
"My initial reaction was that the barbed wire
was for the purpose of the construction. Then I
realized it wasn't and it was going to be there per-
manently, and I thought, 'Oh God, this is just
awful,"' the Oak Park resident said. "It's kind of a
`Welcome to Auschwitz' thing."
Agnes Schussler of Farmington Hills said the
new HMC looks like it's going to be nice and calls
comfortable, friendly place to go."
Associates, said the design's intent is not to be like the
the design appropriate.
Neumann compared the new HMC to other
existing
HMC,.
"a
building
devoid
of
any
architectural
"I always thought it should be at the Jewish
Holocaust
memorials. The U. S. Holocaust
cues
to
inform
people
of
what
it
is."
Center, but I can t answer if it fits on Orchard
Memorial Museum in Washington is made of stone
It's
not
to
shock,
either.
Lake," she said, while in line at Dakota Bread Co.
and big pillars.
"Architecture is a language," he said. "It was
to buy a challah on a recent Friday afternoon.
"It looks almost like the Nazis did it — kind of a
really
important
to
me
that
the
building
be
"I've been to every Holocaust center here and in
fascist kind of thing," he said. "Albert Speer (Hider's
emphatic
and
not
be
a
soft,
lovable
thing.
It's
try-
Israel. I don't know where they do fit."
architect) would have loved it."
ing to tell a story about a really awful time, there-
Holocaust survivor Sam Offen of West
But once a person walks in, the setting is grim
fore,
the
building
should
be
provocative,
not
a
lit-
Bloomfield, who lost 50 members of his family to
with
exposed brick and twisted steel, Neumann said.
eral
thing,
but
it
should
somehow
not
be
seen
as
a
the Nazis, has heard the complaints, too.
The HMC will do the same
"Some friends say it's an ugly
thing.
building," the survivor of
Neumann called the Jewish
Mauthausen said. "My contention is
Museum Berlin, constructed of
that it's the most unusual building
zinc-coated metal plates and gash-
51,000 square feet
SIZE
that I have ever seen. Every facet of
es of windows, "much more tor-
the building has a meaning.
28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills
ADDRESS
tured with a totally aggressive
"Most of my friends and relatives
shape where everything is sharp
200,000
ESTIMATED
VISITORS
ANNUALLY
are not survivors; they wouldn't under-
and hard. It makes the HMC
stand the situation," he added. "If it
November 2003
OPENING
almost passive in comparison."
were just an ordinary building, years
While Rabbi Rosenzveig calls
Neumann-Smith & Associates, Southfield
ARCHITECT
from now people would just drive by."
criticism of the new HMC "silly,"
Granger Construction Company, Lansing
BUILDER
Neumann doesn't mind. "As an
architect," he said, "I'm delighted
Building,
land
and
interior
design:
$17
million
COST
Other Museums
if people love it or hate it -- as
Architect Kenneth Neumann of
$8 million
FUNDS RAISED
long as they notice it." 0
Southfield-based Neumann-Smith &
'
The Facts
8/22
2003
58