Veritas et Venustas"Renewing Tradition for the 21st Century." Keywords: architecture, urbanism, classical architecture, traditional urbanism, New Urbanism, Classical Liberalism, ProgressivismWould you hire this man to design your city- June 30, 2006 Well, he's designing 9 square blocks of Manhattan, and he's doing a lousy job. Long after people forget who Governor Pataki was, we will still have the Ground Zero site and its buildings, and they'll still be bad. Churchill anecdote: Lady Astor, who often battled with Winston Churchill, once said...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/would_you_hire_.html Lethem to Gehry: Drop Dead, Frank- June 20, 2006 IN SLATE, novelist Jonathan Lethem writes an open letter to architect and egotist Frank Gehry about the "Trojan horse" he's designed for Brooklyn: Most people, if they've heard of this proposal at all, believe you've been hired to design a sports arena, to house the New Jersey Nets, a team...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/lethem_to_gehry.html Further proof, if proof were needed, that the NYC DOT is no better than the DOTs in Anywhere, USA,<br >or,<br >Hey, I'm walkin' heah!- June 13, 2006 Watch the Video THE MTA is building a new subway station at 96th Street and Broadway that requires a wider median in the center of Broadway. To accommodate the wider median, the NYC DOT, who are not really the Department of Transportation but the Department of Making Cars Go Fast,...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/further_proof_i.html Infantile Logic- June 12, 2006 MICHAEL SORKIN has famously written that we can not build Classical architecture today because some slaveowners lived in Classical houses. In his new book he writes about Ground Zero, "This building has a particular bearing for us as architects: buildings caused the deaths of three thousand people." I guess that...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/infantile_logic.html Yes, Yes, A Thousand Times Yes- June 10, 2006 New York City may name a park after Jane Jacobs. from Gothamist, via Curbedhttp://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/yes_yes_a_thous.html From the Urbanists list: Truth & Beauty- June 9, 2006 CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER's presentation at CNU XIV has started a long discussion on the internet. Here's an excerpt, written by me. I don't remember Chriss exact words, but he said something like The Whole equals God or the divine. Intuition is nothing more or less than a connection to this Whole....http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/from_the_urbani.html The Anti-Ouroussoff- June 5, 2006 THE BASIC IDEAS in Ouroussoff's latest article weren't bad, but in the end it was long and boring. An architecture critic more in touch with his readers, and also a better writer, is Dave Brussat, at the Providence Journal. I was happy to meet him this weekend.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/the_antiourouss.html “The Whole Makes The Parts”- June 5, 2006 CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER gave an interesting talk at CNU XIV. Central to the talk was his idea that "the whole makes the parts: the leaves grow from the tree -- the tree doesn't grow from the leaves." And beyond the metaphor, "the whole" refers to the sub-atomic level at which everything...http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/the_whole_makes.html Providential- June 3, 2006 News from CNU XIV.http://massengale.typepad.com/venustas/2006/06/providential.html |