An e-mailer says we should lay off I. M. Pei for the National Gallery of Art’s East Building boondoggle:

You do realize that the problem is not with the architect’s design but with the engineer’s / contractor’s installation? It’s an engineering / construction defect, not a design defect.
Leave Pei alone! …
I did read the [WSJ] article – – and guess what? The reporter gets it wrong! Shocked, huh? …
Designers always want pretty but impractical things – – the guys in hard hats are supposed to talk sense and not build something they know won’t work. Ultimate liability for this rests on the engineers and contractors, not the guy that wanted the building to look pretty.
Oversimplification –
Architect – what it looks like
Engineer – how to build it
Contractor – builds it
Construction technique is generally NOT the architect’s job.

UPDATE: A rebuttal:

“Construction technique is generally NOT the architect’s job.”
Really? Vitruvius is rolling over in his grave.
This should be rephrased as – ,
“Construction technique is generally NOT the Modernist architect’s job.”
And therein lies on of the fundamental problems with Modernist “architecture”