by jer235@nyu.edu- from the NY IMC
Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 at 10:41 PM
The story below is regarding the new architecturaly significant Prada Store in SOHO. It is built by Dutch Architect Rem Koolhaas- who has been recently commisioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to do a teardown of the existing structure and build a new museum.
errorPRADA APOLOGIZES IN FACE OF DEMO!!! by RAINFOREST RELIEF 9:27am Thu Jan 17 '02 phone: 212-879-2118 jer235@nyu.edu
PRADA AGREES TO ASSESS USE OF RAINFOREST WOOD FLOOR!!!CANCELS ALL FUTURE PLANS USING RAINFOREST AND OLD GROWTH WOOD. PLEDGES TO SEE ALTNERTIVES TO WOOD FROM ENDANGERED FORESTS. DEMONSTRATION NOW DOWNGRADED TO LEAFLETTING. AND TO LET PEOPLE KNOW TO CALL REM KOOLHAAS, ARCHITECT AND THE GUGGENHEIM THEY BETTER MIND THEIR RAINFOREST MANNERS TOO.
PRADA AGREES TO ASSESS USE OF RAINFOREST WOOD FLOOR
Rainforest Destruction for the “Wave” Floor was Unfashionable
New York, Thursday, January 17, 2002 — Members of the group Rainforest Relief along with other organizations were handing out flyers in front of the newly-opened Prada store in SoHo today after canceling a planned protest of the use of wood cut from west African rainforests for the store’s floor. The unusual floor, dubbed “the Wave”, has become a modest tourist attraction in the area, but it is made entirely of zebrawood, a tree species that grows only in the remote rainforests of Cameroon, Gabon and Congo. The store, in a space leased from the Guggenheim, was designed by well-known Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and is reported to be a prototype for other stores. After phone calls and a letter alerting the company of the issue and hearing of the demonstration plans, Prada called and agreed from Milan at 6:30 am to work with the group in finding an acceptable alternative to the future use of wood from endangered rainforests and all other old growth forests. “Logging in Cameroon is a nightmare of illegality, said Tim Keating, Rainforest Relief’s Executive Director. The government, aid organizations and environmental NGOs estimate that 90% of logging in Cameroon is done illegally. Millions of dollars of taxes have not been paid to the people of Cameroon as logging companies, many of them European, in collusion with sawmills and transporters, sidestep the law. Contrary to law, few companies even have a management plan for the areas they are licensed to log. The environmental impacts of this type of logging in west Africa are well known and tragic, eradicating species such as chimpanzees, and contributing to overhunting. One study showed logging to have precipitated territory “wars” among populations of endangered wild chimpanzees, ultimately reducing their numbers by 80%. Loggers play a key role in the illegal trade in bushmeat — that is, wild game — which has become epidemic in the region. As more and more logging roads are bulldozed into pristine forests, greater access is provided. Loggers also give guns to hunters to kill wild game for their logging crews and then transport the hunters and their excess kills to the towns where the taste for bushmeat is driving a demand that is devastating wildlife populations. Endangered gorillas, chimps, pangolins, deer and other wildlife all make their way to the markets in cities and towns, with the assistance of loggers. “Indigenous forest peoples -- such as the peaceful Baka "pygmies" -- are being displaced,” said Tim Doody, Rainforest Relief campaigner. Their culture is being destroyed by often violent contact with loggers who are eradicating the forest on which they depend for food, medicine and their spiritual culture. Handing out flyers reading, “Rainforest Destruction No Longer in Fashion”, Joan Roney said, “Architects and designers need to pay attention to the impacts of their designs and stop sourcing from endangered forests all over the world. We hope that Rem Koolaas and the Guggenheim will follow Prada’s example and swear off all future wood use of old growth and tropical timber as well. There are alternatives.”
call, write, fax Rem Koolhaas and tell him to make a no old growth and rainforest wood pledge in all his world-wide development projects.
Office for Metropolitan Architecture Email: office@oma.nl
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