Despite Architect Scandal, New Harlem and Princeton Museums Open

Pity the critic (pity anybody) asked to form a concise assessment of the Princeton University Art Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem, the two just-completed projects by David Adjaye. Between the vexations of the buildings themselves, and the inescapable question of the professionally acclaimed yet personally disgraced designer — three women who once worked for him accused him of sexual misconduct in 2023, which the architect has denied — passing any kind of judgment presents a distinctly forbidding prospect: There’s no obvious way to start, and a hundred chances to make a wrong turn.

Even that preamble comes up ...