Veritas et Venustas"Renewing Tradition for the 21st Century." Keywords: architecture, urbanism, classical architecture, traditional urbanism, New Urbanism, Classical Liberalism, ProgressivismFRIDAY RANTS- February 27, 2004 A) Does anyone like those "blow in" cards that fall out of magazines every time you pick one up Magazine publishers claim the cards bring in so many subscriptions that they have no choice but to use them. At Staples today, I saw a sign promoting stamp pads with any...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/friday_rants.html NU REDUX: Good, Better, Best- February 27, 2004 New Urbanists want to leave the world better than they found it. In less than ten years, theyve raised New Urbanism from perhaps 12 of 1% of the annual construction in America to 4% or 5% of all new development. But to meet their goal of being more than a...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/nu_redux.html Buy This Book!- February 24, 2004 Russell Versaci's new book Creating a New Old House is the best contemporary collection of contemporary traditional houses I've seen and the best-selling new architecture book in America. Other recommended architecture and urbanism books are listed in the sidebar to the right and at massengale.com.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/buy_this_book.html FILM: Architect Louis Icon- February 23, 2004 Louis I. Kahn's illegitimate son Nathaniel has made a wonderful movie about his father called "My Architect". The website for the movie has a list of theaters showing the movie. Try to see it if you can.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/film_louis_icon.html "The Most Beautiful City of the Twentieth Century"- February 17, 2004 Santa Fe, New Mexico is the most beautiful city of the 20th century. This simple statement requires some explanation. First of all, you have to realize that Santa Fe is not the equal of Renaissance Florence or Baroque Rome. But neither are the other cities built in the 20th century....http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/the_most_beauti.html The Seven Roles of the Urban Street Tree- February 11, 2004 1) Define the space of the street. This particularly applies to streets that are too wide for the height of the buildings, streets with holes in the street wall, or suburban streets where buildings are too far apart to contain the space of the street. Mature trees provide canopy. 2)...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/the_seven_roles.html Separated At Birth- February 6, 2004 "Do you ever wonder whats wrong with architects" Andy Rooney might ask. "Do they have some secret ritual where they agree to turn off their common sense when they design their buildings" Look at the two buildings above. The first was in an episode of the sitcom Wings called So...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/separated_at_bi.html EDU: Traditional Urban Designs for Ground Zero- February 4, 2004 New Course at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. http:www.classicist.org There are long-standing traditions of urbanism in New York City. These traditions suggest different solutions for the World Trade Center site than those proposed by Daniel Libeskind. In this course students will learn about urban principles and make individual designs for the site. The course includes an introductory lecture on urban and traditional design principles, a site visit to the...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/edu_traditional.html Au sujet de Paris (longue)- February 4, 2004 I was lucky. My parents took me to England and France when I was only 16, and I got to go back to Europe many times in the following decade. I have just come back from a trip that took me to Paris for the first time in more than twenty years, and it made me realize the obvious: it's hard to be a really good urbanist if you don't know Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/au_sujet_de_par.html Rome In A Day- February 4, 2004 You can stay in Rome six days or six months and you will still not see everything, but here's a list I once posted on an Italian internet list in response to someone who said they only had one day to see Rome. Maureen Fant (qv) writes about Italian and other European restaurants for the New York Times.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/02/rome_in_a_day.html |