Veritas et Venustas"Renewing Tradition for the 21st Century." Keywords: architecture, urbanism, classical architecture, traditional urbanism, New Urbanism, Classical Liberalism, ProgressivismFrom the Bedford Record-Review:Why Are Our Towns Getting Worse- September 19, 2004 I wrote the Op-Ed article below a few years ago for my local paper after giving a similar talk at the Westchester Land Trust. The text refers to local models like the Merritt Parkway, but the same principles apply to many places (that's a difference between principles and regulations, qv)....http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/why_are_our_tow.html 1909 Bronx Parkway Commission Report- September 18, 2004 In Why Are Our Towns Getting Worse I wrote,The places we love were not made this way. Architects, planners and engineers used to work hand in hand. The difference between the old way and the new way is as simple as the difference between the Merritt Parkway in Stamford, with...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/bronx_beauty.html A Sense of Well Being- September 17, 2004 A room from Dashwood House, my favorite room at the Metropolitan Museum What I want from architecture and urbanism is a feeling of well being. The feeling I get from the streets of South Kensington, Central Park, Fallingwater, and my favorite period room at the Met. This is not because...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/a_sense_of_well.html UPDATED: New Urbanism & Modernism- September 17, 2004 It's interesting how many architects and planners like to generalize, negatively, about New Urbanism. Most places in America are getting worse, and not because of New Urbanists. But you'll find a lot more criticism of NU than of the tens of thousands of third-rate architects and planners in America, or...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/new_urbanism_mo.html Coop Himmelb(l)au (sic) Design a Battlestar for Darth Vader- September 16, 2004 From a story about the Venice Biennale in today's New York Times:In a biennale designed to celebrate architecture, it was perhaps not surprising that little space was given to debating the broader responsibilities of architects. For Mr. Forster the once popular notion embraced by Le Corbusier of architects as "itinerant...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/coop_himmelblau.html UPDATED: Munich, New York & Starchitects- September 15, 2004 Copyright R. Sterflinger. Courtesy of the Fremdenverkehrsamt Mnchen. I was born in New York, and I love it. I love its towers too, but that doesn't mean I agree that more is necessarily more. Like most New Yorkers, I think towers have a place. And as we say about...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/munich_new_york.html 911: A Good New York Place- September 11, 2004 Image from the LMDC. Click on the photo for a larger imageThe layout of the streets at the WTC site will be close to normal for New York (a good thing), although the City requires too-wide streets today. But the buildings look like they're from a low-rent office park in...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/911_a_good_new_.html LINK: A Walk Through Durham Township- September 8, 2004 Copyright 2003-2004 Kathleen Connally This photo is from a beautiful blog called A Walk Through Durham Township, which has hundreds of photos taken on daily walks in . . . Durham Township, Pennsylvania. The photo here was actually taken while on vacation "down" the Jersey Shore, and it's noticeable...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/link_a_walk_thr.html What's Good For Starchitects Is Good For The World- September 7, 2004 And now, we have the alliance of the Starchitect and the Donald, somehow presented as avante garde, good for the city, and socially progressive. Never mind that the people have shown that more glass boxes are exactly what they don't want. Or that the architects have shown they are more...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/ny_towers.html Quote of the Day- September 7, 2004 Laissez-Faire My Gas Guzzler, Already By Simon Romero New York Times, September 7, 2004I don't like gas being this expensive," said Paul Kaesberg, an oncologist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison who routinely pays $1.90 a gallon. "My driving is integral to my job, it's integral...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2004/09/quote_of_the_da.html |