James Wines: “Controversy Is at the Core of Art”

James Wines, founder and president of the New York studio SITE, has long blurred the lines between environmental art and architecture. Several of his 1970s-era stores for the now-defunct Best Products Company famously looked like buildings suspended midway through the process of falling apart: are they sculptures or are they architecture? For Wines, the question is more important than the answer. That these projects prompt visitors to contend with their own assumptions about what a building should look like is a testament to their success—both as artworks and as works of architecture designed to attract attention within the commercial landscape.

Wines, a graduate of Syracuse University’s School of Art, was chair of environmental design at the Parsons School of Design in the 1980s, and later became a professor of architecture at Penn State University. He is the author of several books, and over a decades-long career has designed more than 150 buildings, public spaces, landscapes, and artworks around the world. At 90, he continues to lecture widely and take on new design projects.