The unauthorized yardarm remains. Without conceding the point, the commission has moved on to other issues. They do not want to jeopardize future projects by criticizing a city agency in a news article, or by intimating that there is intramural conflict within the administration. For example, an architect who described a project in which the budget had increased about 50 percent, in large measure because of changes requested by the commission, later called back to request anonymity. Architects and agencies are also reluctant to discuss pending projects, lest their remarks influence the outcome.
Architects can sometimes use the review process to their strategic advantage.
Todd H. Schliemann, a partner in the Polshek Partnership, recalled that the Art Commission's endorsement of the glass curtain-wall facade of the Queens Borough Public Library branch on Main Street in Flushing was helpful in bolstering the client's confidence in this unusual approach. We're really a free design consulting service and we have a lot of valuable insights,'' she said. Four commission members serve ex officio. She recently prepared a master plan and conceptual design for the Lyc e Fran ais de New York, which occupies six buildings on the Upper East Side. Occupying attic offices arrayed around the dome of the City Hall rotunda, the Art Commission has an executive director, Deborah Bershad, and two other paid employees.