Veritas et Venustas"Renewing Tradition for the 21st Century." Keywords: architecture, urbanism, classical architecture, traditional urbanism, New Urbanism, Classical Liberalism, ProgressivismVanity Fair: The Movie- August 30, 2005 VANITY FAIR is not a good movie. The condensed story is a little boring, and Reese Witherspoon, who's in most scenes, is unable to play a believable 19th century English woman. But, speaking as an architect, the late 18th and early 19th century interiors are beautiful Classical rooms. Much of...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/vanity_fair_the.html Katrina- August 29, 2005 ONE OF our greatest and most unique cities is under attack. God bless New Orleans. We haven't reached September yet, but the names of storms and hurricanes are already up to the letter K. Global warming continues, and rising ocean temperatures cause more hurricanes and changing weather patterns. Updates from...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/katrina.html Let Philly Be Philly —Links from the Arts Journal- August 29, 2005 ArtsJournal.com Week Ending August 28, 2005 IQ And The Sexes - BBC 082605 Sophistication Without Reading - InsideHigherEd 082505 The New Communication (But What Are We Saying) - San Francisco Chronicle 082505 Asians And Americans See Things Differently - Wired 082305 Miss Manners Weighs In On The "New" Heckling -...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/let_philly_be_p.html The Anxiety of Influence- August 29, 2005 MODERN ARCHITECTURE was a great social reform movement. The avantgardism that masquerades as Modernism today is little more than shallow, narcissistic, fickle fashion. In the right situation, with the right designer, it occasionally produces great or interesting buildings. But the current avantgardism's constant search for the unprecedented more typically produces...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/the_anxiety_of_.html Another Quote of the Day from Curbed- August 27, 2005 TALKING ABOUT architect Charlie Gwathmey's design for condos to replace the Superior Ink Plant in the far West Village, a Curbed reader writes in about the zoning committee hearing for the project: It was quite entertaining, especially the point where the president of one of the condo's near the Bethune...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/another_quote_o.html What A Novel Idea- August 26, 2005 From today's Charleston Post & Courier: Tony Woody an engineer and head of the East Cooper Planning Council's Main Street initiative, said that in the final analysis, the Johnnie Dodds project is about more than widening a road and designing new intersections. "What we're trying to create is an address,...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/what_a_novel_id.html Striking Quote of the Day- August 24, 2005 Striking indeed. In fact, it's so striking, we hear a crew of men armed with shovels have already been recruited to scoop up the pigeon carcasses that will line the sidewalks beneath the building. Curbedhttp://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/striking_quote_.html Quote of the Day, from “Bring out yer dead—plague is already here”- August 22, 2005 Do you want to know what depresses the American spirit Do you want to know why it feels as if the center cannot hold and the tyranny of mediocrity has been loosed upon our world Do you want to know what instills thoughts of suicide and creates a desperate, low-level...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/quote_of_the_da_1.html Kunstler comments on the Times story- August 22, 2005 On his blog: Maas's article is full of howling omissions and delusions. For one thing, Maas omits any serious reflection of the consequences of a global energy crisis, any specters of geopolitical blowback, or potential problems for America's non-negotiable easy-motoring way of life. That omission grows out of the delusional...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/kunstler_commen_1.html Okay, it's on the cover of the New York Times Magazine — now where's a politician brave enough to deal with it- August 22, 2005 By PETER MAASS The United States and China are counting on the Saudis to satisfy our growing thirst for oil. The Saudis say they can supply all our needs. Critics say that that is becoming impossible. They just might turn out to be right. Go to Articlehttp://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2005/08/okay_its_on_the.html |