[thechat] ugh ugh WTC

[Martin Burns]

On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Mike Migurski wrote:

> >I don't understand that statement. Who is "NY"? I'm a New Yorker; I was
> >born and raised in Manhattan. The most important thing to me was that the
> >winning design have some dignity. Instead, we have a futuristic
> >Disneyworld. How revolting. How crass. How offensive.
>
> We Americans have the most unadventurous architectural taste in the world.

Actually, I'd dispute that.

When America started doing monumental buildings, it simply lifted the
historic monumental style of Europe - Doric columns, cupolas and all that
jazz. Example: the DC Capitol (actually, most stuff off the Mall)

It wasn't until it stopped worrying about that sort of thing (and still
does) that the US started making buildings of its own.

And of course, architects in the 20th century all over the world were
massively influenced by modernism, which I think you'd consider A Bad
Thing:

> I'm not too big on the brutal minimalist approach... reminds me of
> Office Space write large. :)

and by the fact that Richard Rogers still gets commissions, that's still
the case.

But don't look to the monumental for the national style, because in the
monumental, both clients and architects are often striving for how it'll
look in the model, not in the real.

Cheers
Martin


--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie