Design
Tate Modern Visitors Can Keep Looking Into Rich People’s Condos, Legally
The decision by the British High Court was an abrupt end to a heavily publicized stand-off between private wealth and a public art institution.
Luxury flat owners who feel their privacy is invaded by a public viewing platform at London’s Tate Modern have only themselves to blame.
So said a judge at the British High Court Tuesday, at the end of a two-year-long court battle between the world's most visited modern art gallery and residents of a condo development that overlooks it. Since opening as an extension in 2016, Tate Modern’s eye-catching Herzog + De Meuron-designed Blavatnik Building has become famous for its top floor, daytime-only viewing gallery. It’s well-known not because of its impressive panorama of London landmarks, but for the unusually intimate views it offers in through the windows of a luxury residential complex called Neo Bankside, which lies directly opposite.