Veritas et Venustas"Renewing Tradition for the 21st Century." Keywords: architecture, urbanism, classical architecture, traditional urbanism, New Urbanism, Classical Liberalism, ProgressivismUPDATE: What's Wrong With This Picture- March 31, 2005 I just came across this perspective of the streetscape at the base of the Portzamparc tower. It's worse than I imagined. National retailers and mall operators have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that when faced with more than 30 feet of a view like this, pedestrians will turn...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/update_whats_wr.html What's Wrong With This Picture- March 31, 2005 Answers below.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/whats_wrong_wit.html Quantity Is Quality, Part II- March 30, 2005 Here are two replies to Andrs Duany's post, below. The first is by David Brain, a Professor of Sociology at New College of Florida. The second is by Michael Mehaffy, an American architect who is the Director of Education at the Prince's Foundation, in London. Brought together on the internet...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/quantity_is_qua.html “In America, Quantity Is Quality”- March 29, 2005 On the TradArch list, Andrs Duany wrote: Aldo Rossi made this observation to me. I was the only one present. He had just presented a huge shopping-center-as-town-center and it had gone very well and he was exhilarated as I drove him to the airport. He may never have written it...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/ldquoin_america.html Jim Kunstler: The Long Emergency- March 29, 2005 Jim Kunstler's new book The Long Emergency is excerpted in Rolling Stone: A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/jim_kunstler_th.html Rem Koolhaas & Prince Charles: Separated At Birth- March 29, 2005 After the end of the Second World War there was a tremendous feeling of optimism about the future. Quite understandably, there was a rejection of past values that had seemingly contributed to such a sequence of world catastrophes, in favour of a compelling vision of a new order. It was...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/rem_koolhaas_am.html Another Quote from Prince Charles- March 29, 2005 We now know that it is in small steps that Nature achieves its great complexity and sophistication. This continuing, creative process comes closer to what is really meant by tradition, than the usual attempts to describe it in terms of style: it is something infinitely varied, infinitely adaptable, infinitely changing...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/another_quote_f.html Archistamps — Coming in May- March 28, 2005 The U. S. Post Office will release the Masterworks of Modern American Architecture series May 19 at the AIA 2005 National Convention and Design Expo in Las Vegas. The series, which will be available for first-day purchase and cancellation at the AIA Store on the expo floor, will feature a...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/archistamps_mda.html i heart huckabees- March 27, 2005 I don't get ber-nerd movies like i heart huckabees and Rushmore. huckabees is a bi-polar examination of the meaning of life, swinging between nihilism and a grim, left-brain Buddhism. I listened to enough of the director's commentary on the DVD to know that he falls on the side of "we're...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/i_strikeheartst.html Architorture Pritzker Prize- March 26, 2005 Thom Mayne, the Pritzker Prize winner, is obviously talented. He's made some dazzling designs. But his new Pritzker Prize shows the sad state of American architecture today. Mayne's been a Starchitect for two decades. The New York Times calls him the "Government's Favorite Architect" (he has three Federal buildings under...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/03/architorture_pr.html |