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Eavesdrop: Julie V. Iovine

Eavesdrop: Julie V. Iovine

LUX, LIQUOR, ET VERITAS

Who knew so many architects were so true to blue—and we’re not just talking donkey dems, here. Waves of Yalies—past, present, and indeterminate—descended upon New Haven on November 7 to commemorate the rededication and renaming of the improbably once-reviled A&A Building, henceforth Paul Rudolph Hall. Among the silvery-haired eminences squirming in the restored benches of Hastings Hall during a soporific keynote by curator Timothy Rohan were Vincent Scully, Kevin Roche, Charles Gwathmey, Peter Eisenman, Cynthia Davidson, Sid Bass, and Joan Davidson, plus younger eminences Deborah Berke, Tod Williams, Billie Tsien, Joel Sanders, and assorted journos, including Newsweek’s Cathleen McGuigan, Time’s Richard Lacayo, Bob Ivy, and Paul Goldberger, and faculty too numerous to name. Then came the exclusive dinner for three hundred—reminding us of the last stand at Thermopylae—where host Stern, demonstrating either inscrutable savvy or a surprisingly tin ear for seating buzz, placed Vanity Fair’s Matt Tynauer at a chilly upstairs table one remove even from a roomful of faculty players, among them Michael Haverland, who until now, we were told, has not even been on speaking terms with Yale since his contract ended. Former Princeton dean Bob Maxwell flew in from London a day earlier than famed Rudolph students Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, slated to speak at the symposium on Saturday, but we have yet to find anyone who stuck it out past that night’s chocolate mousse log, though Gregg Pasquarelli and Chris Sharples lasted long enough to toss back one last round at the reliably seedy Anchor Bar.

OUR GANG

Our party at the glassy and classy USM showroom in Soho may not have been quite so upper-crust but it was just the blast among well-wishers we wanted to usher in our fifth year in business. Among the loyal (and the loaded) who joined us were Calvin Tsao, Charles Renfro, Morris Adjmi, Carol Willis, James Sanders, Stan Allen, David Ling, Sylvia Smith of FXFowle, Ashley O’Neill of SOM, Lee Washesky of Polshek Partnership, and AN contributors Alex Gorlin and Aric Chen, the latter fresh from a grand pooh-bah dinner in celebration of Zaha Hadid’s double hitter—Chanel Pavilion and Sonnabend Gallery exhibition—where Pin-Up’s Alex de Looz sat rapt in attendance at her side while Nicolai Ourossoff, Craig Robbins, Hani Rashid, and Lise Anne Couture fluttered about and Prada artist Francesco Vezzoli marveled at the fact that he didn’t recognize anybody.

Send tips and turkeys to eavesdrop@archpaper.com.

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