New York magazine's Intelligencer reports that L.A. Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff is close to replacing Herbert Muschamp as the lead architecture writer for the New York Times. It's based on sources, since the NYT denies a decision has been made and the two principals aren't talking, but the magazine says that Muschamp will move over to write mainly for the New York Times Magazine and that Ouroussoff was his recommendation for a replacement. L.A. Times newsroom gossip seems to believe that Ouroussoff — a Pulitzer finalist in criticism each of the last two years — is gone.

* Wednesday update: Today's New York Observer says it was time for Muschamp to step aside: "At the height of his career, Mr. Muschamp’s writing was the talk of the New York cultural scene; today, his professional conflicts of interest and very public breakdowns have pushed him to the margins of architectural society."