Architecture

MOVING THE BOX

Blair Kamin, the architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune, recently tweeted a May 19  photograph of Mies van der Rohe’s famous Farnsworth House almost inundated by the rising waters of the nearby Fox River. Kamin writes that the water level appears to be receding, so it seems likely that the house may be spared, at least this year. Although its floor is raised five feet in the air, because Mies sited the house on low ground only 75 feet from a river that regularly overflows its banks in the spring, the house has been flooded several times,

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RULES

A friend of mine recently emailed me a telling criticism of New Urbanism. “I’ve noticed a strange need to quantify everything from these guys. It’s almost like they are trying to deduce a pattern . . .  and even worse . .  many would lean toward  legislating the pattern.” There it is in a nutshell. Of course, ever since Palladio wrote Quattro Libri, architects have been fascinated by the dimensions of things—of rooms, ceilings, doors, windows, and so on. Palladio had rules about all of them. But he was always careful to allow for exceptions. Writing about the height of ceiling vaults,

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GLASS FOLLY

Alex Beam’s interesting new book on the saga of the Farnsworth House, which I reviewed in the Wall Street Journal recently, raises an interesting question. How can a house that has so many functional drawbacks, that is basically dysfunctional, be considered a modernist masterpiece? The answer reveals more about modernism than it does about masterpieces. Modernist buildings are often described as clean and functional. Beam’s book makes clear that the glass house in Plano was neither. The glazed wall got sooty from the heating system, and was covered with condensation during cold weather. Dr. Farnsworth spent the first part of her summer weekends hosing down the exterior.

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FAKE TEMPLES

“What’s So Great About Fake Roman Temples?” asks the smarmy New York Times headline. The obvious answer is the Lincoln Memorial (even though it’s actually a fake Greek temple). The Lincoln Memorial was not built by men in peruques and tricorn hats, but by modern Americans—it was completed in 1922. Nothing fake about it—it is built of Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It also incorporates all the optical refinements of ancient Greek architecture—entasis, slightly tilted columns, a curved stylobate—at the same time it is not an attempt to  build a replica. Greek temples didn’t have flat roofs and skylights,

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MAKE AMERICA CLASSICAL AGAIN

The proposed executive order announced by the White House, “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” has ruffled architectural feathers, according to a New York Times article. I haven’t read the order but it appears that it would make classical architecture the default style for federal buildings. Until about the 1930s, that was the de facto situation: virtually all federal buildings such as courthouses were classical. At that time there was no formal mandate—it was simply what most people, including most architects, felt was the right thing to do. The old federal courthouse, now the Nix Federal Building,

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A CURIOUS BUSINESS

The practice of architecture follows a curious business model. A painter’s work can grow in value over time (depending obviously on demand). A writer collects royalties, and if the reading audience grows, so do his or her advances.  A businessman’s business can increase in value as sales increase. If a start-up is successful, it can hope for a buy-out. But for the architect every new commission is, in effect, a fresh start—a new client, a new program, a new site. Every project is a custom job; there are no real economies of scale. A particularly successful building design cannot be repeated—there are too many variables.

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SNEAKERS VS. BROGUES

“Classic designs have the charm of a good pair of brogues. They last for years and the older they are the better they fit.” So begins the abstract to a recent article in New Design Ideas on the advantages of architecture that is built to last. The advantages are legion: energy savings over the long run, less disruption to the environment, buildings that gain the affection of generations of users. The authors point out that the limited range of building materials that are durable and can last has been developed over centuries of trial and error.

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ASTROTURF IN THE HOLY CITY

An article in the New York Times Real Estate section is titled “The Charleston You Haven’t Seen” and it describes a “gem” of a house that I certainly hadn’t seen on my visits. It’s a cartoon version of a gable-roofed house. There is a front yard (typically houses in the Holy City don’t have front yards),and lest you take that too seriously, it’s finished in Astroturf. And the house is painted black. The readers’ “Comments” are worth reading, especially those of the neighbors. My favorite is from California: “This isn’t ‘The Charleston You Haven’t Seen.’ It’s a single,

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