I’ve decided to create a short-form web series of 90-second videos, released weekly on Wednesdays at 11:00 AM, called “Adventures in Building Bad.” The first episode was published today, and it concerns a peculiar instance of efflorescence in Milstein Hall, the flagship building designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA for the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell.

There’s efflorescence all over Milstein Hall, the result of bad detailing which has allowed rainwater to penetrate into the concrete. But the instance of efflorescence described in this video, at the entrance to the critique room, has no obvious connection to rainwater. Are sprinkler pipes that are embedded in the concrete dome leaking?

The web series will appear in YouTube (where the embedded video lives) as well as Instagram and TikTok.