A Return to Beauty
Taki´s Magazine,
by
Theodore Dalrymple
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
3/1/2020 11:37:32 AM
The guilty flee when no man pursueth, says Proverbs, but it does not follow from this that the guilty do not flee when they are indeed pursued. The guilty also have a tendency to argue when they know that they are in the wrong, as for example architects who continue to deny that, for the past seventy years at least, they have been disenchanting the world by espousing a dysfunctional functionalism and constructing buildings so hideous that they make Frankenstein’s monster look like Clark Gable.(Snip)I take as an example the response of a university professor of architecture to President Trump’s executive order making the classical style of architecture compulsory for
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/1/2020 12:11:19 PM (No. 333650)
Silly academic arguments that can be unraveled one by one.
Every society on Earth since the dawn of man through the nineteenth century used and abused slaves. Buildings have nothing to do with it, although the pyramids in South America made nice ramps to roll down the heads of those who were sacrificed because they were not good enough to be made slaves.
Architects should not be free to build what they please unless they are paying for it. Detroit held this philosophy for fifty years and this car design notion regardless of the preferences of car buyers has Japan eating their lunch.
Unfortunately this policy will not prevent the construction of the horrid Obama book-free library in Chicago. Only lack of interest and funds will do that and they are doing a good job of it so far.
5 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 3/1/2020 12:14:22 PM (No. 333654)
"federal support for architectural experimentation"
If the architect wants to experiment, they should find a patron to support them and produce a body of work that has beauty and earned appreciation. Only THEN should taxpayer money be considered for use AND the design should match the standards already established.
Taxpayer funded buildings should not be monuments to artistic ego.
15 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 3/1/2020 12:25:26 PM (No. 333662)
Another "adult in the room" moment for President Trump.
Excellent news, minor today, but will mean more beauty in the long run.
16 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Bazi 3/1/2020 12:51:10 PM (No. 333688)
Great article. Drive through any (usually) upscale older neighborhood. You'll see lots of beautiful traditional homes and then...The Eyesore! The eyesore aka the "architect's dream home". My euphemism for the "architects dream home": the dentist office. Seems that every architect can only think of building a house that looks like a dentist office. A hideous shoe box with windows. Where's the creativity in that? In reality, it's an in your face statement against traditional beauty. I have to give Apple credit for saving a historic Carnegie library in DC. At great expense, they restored the exterior beautifully. It's an Apple store now and Apple employee meeting center. photos https://www.apple.com/retail/carnegielibrary/
9 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 3/1/2020 1:03:11 PM (No. 333697)
One of the ugliest buildings in Washington DC in my opinion is the FBI building. Perhaps it is fitting for what we know about the FBI.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 3/1/2020 1:28:00 PM (No. 333711)
Like Lubyanka in Moscow, which I have walked past. It sent a shiver up my spine at the time. At this point, the FBI seems to be rapidly morphing into the KGB, so perhaps the architecture is fitting.
https://hilariusdarman.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/lubyanka-building.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6e/5d/f6/6e5df641b0c08a077451d4fa57a8a14e.jpg
Architecturally, Lubyanka is more interesting, far less ugly. But .....beneath the skin.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
earlybird 3/1/2020 1:32:44 PM (No. 333718)
Re #4, I’m so glad to hear that about the Carnegie Library. My late grandfather knew Andrew Carnegie and built a number of the Carnegie libraries in Western Pennsylvania...
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
greggojo 3/1/2020 2:14:38 PM (No. 333731)
The author's description of the new American embassy in London as a monstrosity, is euphemistic.
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+new+american+embassy+in+london&oq=the+new+American+embassy+in+London&aqs=chrome.0.0l7j69i64.979j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Philipsonh 3/1/2020 2:36:53 PM (No. 333739)
The Federal Government has an EXCESS of buildings, so much so that it is supposedly selling them ( with a relative of a Democrat holding the Contract contract due to corruption, you think ). Why is this article speaking of building new buildings ?
0 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
kiminolibi 3/1/2020 2:55:02 PM (No. 333744)
This article was refreshing for me. I thought I was the only one who has a quiet, internal sense of grief each time I see a modern, weird building that seems cold and soulless and a monument to the some architectural ethos that's devoted to "see what we can do with glass and metal?" You can see it in the buildings of Berlin post-WWII where bomb sites were cleared and ugly communist buildings were erected amidst other pre-war classical buildings that still exude beauty and charm. And am I the only one who feels dismay when I can't see the front of the Louvre museum in Paris without having to stair at a giant glass pyramid that shreaks, "That was then. This is now." Maybe it's a sign of my age but I think glass and metal are better for detailing and less for structure. OK, I'm done.
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 3/1/2020 3:00:16 PM (No. 333751)
The world as DMV.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
fourpmfox 3/1/2020 3:41:38 PM (No. 333777)
Has anyone seen the preliminary drawings of Obama's monstrosity to be built in Chicago ???
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
columba 3/1/2020 5:33:49 PM (No. 333843)
Log-term studies indicates that ART is a reflection of a society.
Our current society's art reflects mental illness.
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
cor-vet 3/1/2020 5:49:39 PM (No. 333853)
I love what Frank Lloyd Wright built, mostly his homes and a museum. Most of the modern stuff is wasted space and money. The new VA center in New Orleans has a 7 story atrium, which is just wasted space.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
LadyVet 3/1/2020 5:55:34 PM (No. 333856)
#5, the FBI buiding in Houston is ugly also. For a long tine, I thought the developer had probably gone bankrupt and just left the building unfinished, with the insulation exposed on the sides, without the exterior covering. Ugly design, ugly design, total assault to the senses. Probably stinks as well.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
MOBeef4u 3/1/2020 6:07:59 PM (No. 333860)
Yeah, the London Embassy building is pretty bad. The only architecture that is worse are the monstrosities Frank Gehry builds as monuments to his ego.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 3/1/2020 9:51:03 PM (No. 334010)
It's likely that much of the ugliness of the FIB buildings is sure to make g the resistant to drive up truck bombs.
Thank a Muslim.
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
DVC 3/2/2020 1:52:09 PM (No. 334541)
#12, a net search turned up a remarkably realistic computer model of the plan for the Obama Presidential Non-Library.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/c5/27/79c5278c71922d0c30242452d0de49ff.jpg
1 person likes this.
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Too many really ugly buildings have been built in DC. President Trump is trying to stop that.