Architecture Here and There

Newest comments on Architecture Here and There

December 31, 2011

• 3:53 AM Justus on Coming up: Architecture and Judaism

  Toucohdwn! That's a really cool way of putting it!

  
  

  December 31, 2011

• 3:20 AM Mccayde on Column: Mencken on 'The New Architecture'

  That's a geuinnley impressive answer.

  
  

  December 23, 2011

• 3:19 AM Kayla22Gregory on Column: Oops! Excuse our libido for the ugly!

  Houses and cars are expensive and not everyone can buy it. Nevertheless, home loans was invented to help different people in such hard situations.

  
  

  October 31, 2011

• 7:44 AM French reader on Column: The 'fascism' of the Federal Reserve

  There is an obvious similitude between the style of Paul Cret and the 'fascist architecture', because Albert Speer often referred to the neoclassic French architects like Boullee and Ledoux. For example, Speer liked the square columns promoted by ledoux. On the Federal Reserve Building, if you replace mentally the square columns with conventional cylindrical columns, the 'Fascist style' disappears. As a French architect, Paul Cret also inherited from the style of Ledoux, but without any political or ideologic background.

  
  

  October 24, 2011

• 5:40 PM Tisiphone on Our little town of Occupy Providence (see yourself here?)

  I knew the occupation reminded me of a song. Took me a while to think of it. Itchycoo Park: Over bridge of sighs To rest my eyes in shades of green Under dreamin' spires To Itchycoo Park, that's where I've been What did you do there? I got high What did you feel there? Well I cried But why the tears there? I'll tell you why It's all too beautiful

  
  

  October 17, 2011

• 7:01 PM Andrew on Our little town of Occupy Providence (see yourself here?)

  @Tisophone, stictly speaking, there isn't anyone who remembers the Civil War battle of Fredricksburg.

  
  

  October 16, 2011

• 9:38 AM Tisiphone on Our little town of Occupy Providence (see yourself here?)

  I am amused that they selected Ambrose Burnside Park. Does anyone else rememebr Fredricksburg?

  
  

  October 16, 2011

• 7:19 AM Erik Bootsma on Our little town of Occupy Providence (see yourself here?)

  I really wish they wouldn't paste things to the monuments. I appreciate that a public square is here for people to peaceably assemble, I just hope they would respect it.

  
  

  October 15, 2011

• 8:30 AM Andrew on Announcing the winners of the second annual Bulfinch Awards

  These photos are undercutting your oft-made criticism contemporary design is favored by the elite.

  
  

  October 13, 2011

• 10:29 PM Inwood on Column: Rethinking the Eisenhower memorial

  Please don't confuse Gehry with all modern architects. His style is not a good fit everywhere, and this is a good example of something he should not be asked to get involved with. Whether the memorial should be strictly classical I'm not sure -- but the Gehry design is absolutely awful.

  
  

  October 13, 2011

• 12:36 PM Francesca on Column: Rethinking the Eisenhower memorial

  The banal quality of Gehry's design doesn't surprise me, although I've liked much of what he's done in the past. What does surprise me is the paucity of the classical designs. There are several classical architects working today who could have designed memorials with a more sophisticated understanding of the program, a better scale, and superior ornament.

  
  

  October 13, 2011

• 10:38 AM Malcolm Millais on Column: Rethinking the Eisenhower memorial

  When architecture embraced modernism, as is well-known, ugly and sterile buildings, which were often expensive and non-functional, was the result; these have blighted the built environment globally. When sculpture became modern a whole range of, mainly ugly, strange shapes appeared; often municipal authorities allowed these to be installed in public places. In 1981, the authorities allowed artist Richard Serra to install his sculpture Tilted Arc, in the Federal Plaza in New York City; it was a curving wall of raw steel, 120 feet long and 12 feet high. After many protests it was decided to remove it, so, on March 15, 1989, federal workers cut Tilted Arc into three pieces, and carted it off to a scrap-metal yard. Serra commented, "I don't think it is the function of art to be pleasing, art is not democratic. It is not for the people." It is quite hard to imagine why anyone with a grain of intelligence would find a giant chain link fence a suitable memorial for anyone or anything, let along a distinguished soldier and president. Let’s hope it is never built, and, if the worst comes to the worst, if it is it will meet the same fate as the Tilted Arc.

  
  

  October 12, 2011

• 7:03 PM Andrew on Coming up: Latest twists in Eisenhower memorial saga

  If Shubow can find nihilism and rejection of tradition in a black t-shirt, I guess he can find it anywhere. I hope he doesn't use a cell phone, because I assert here, and you can quote me on this, that cell phone users are nihilists who reject tradition.

  
  

  October 11, 2011

• 8:21 PM Robbie K. on Eisenhower granddaughters react to Gehry memorial design

  Right, create a permanent memorial designed to remember the man for centuries to come with architecture that will be outdated as quickly as the clothes on your back. Sounds logical to me.

  
  

  October 9, 2011

• 12:53 PM Terry on Has Ross Douthat ever seen new urbanism?

  Is there any subject immune from a Steve Jobs meditation? But I'm all for "fleeting creative spike(s) in a larger story of cultural decline" wherever I can get them.

  
  

  October 7, 2011

• 11:47 AM Faust on A classical conference on postmodernism: Why?

  "As we have seen to our sorrow, this strategic retreat was remarkably successful." At what point does a "retreat" become "rout"?

  
  

  October 3, 2011

• 9:39 AM Terry on A classical conference on postmodernism: Why?

  I wish I had the money and time to attend. The topic makes the blood run hot on all sides. But it seems to me that talkative architects always talk about the same things whatever the subject matter.

  
  

  October 1, 2011

• 11:29 AM Faust on Blast from the past: Ada L. Huxtable's 'unreal America'

  I do have to wonder about "modern". Does Picasso really compete with, or supplant, the "old masters"? I suppose some would say it is a "new ball game". I do not like art that has to be explained to me. Philistine, I suppose.

  
  

  September 29, 2011

• 10:07 AM Lewis Dana on Column: 'Ultimate sights'? Put up your dukes!

  Glad to see nicely elevated first-person dander in the latest post of your column. As usual, it's an entertaining site for sore "I"s. -- the ruffled feathers of the authorial "I" and the "I' of this not infrequently exasperated reader. Your write, proofreader's have fallen by the wayside these day's. Cheers, LDD

  
  

  September 27, 2011

• 8:30 AM Andrew on (Wish It Were) The Final Scream

  They should have chosen the REX proposal, at least it is much more about external and internal contexts than some "grand gesture": http://www.rex-ny.com/work/munch-museum/