Renzo Piano, the much-hyped "starchitect" who designed the Times building, is very upset at the extremely naughty people who have been using his building as it just begs to be used — as an urban climbing wall. Now that three people have ascended the ceramic rods on the structure's facade in less than 90 days, Piano decided it was time to administer a scolding, telling the Times, "I'm frankly quite worried about this new fashion of going up on buildings... This is what I call an inappropriate use of the building." Ha ha, funny how this new "fashion" is sweeping exactly one building in New York, Renzo. Anyway, while failing to think about climbers was clearly a design screwup, Piano and the Times are hoping its a minor one that can be easily fixed:

The main idea under discussion - shortening the veil of rods by what Mr. Piano called "six or seven feet" from where they begin - would deter most would-be climbers and "fundamentally doesn't alter this building," he said.



On the northern and southern sides of the building, he added, little glass panels would be put in place - similar to plywood barriers temporarily installed after the previous stunts - to prevent people from climbing onto the canopies.

But really, is making the ascent more tricky (and thus exotic) going to deter the sort of folks who love to climb near-vertical rock faces? The gauntlet has been thrown, climbers.

[Times]