Category Archives: Architecture

On “Cognitive Architecture”

Ann Sussman will be in Boston on Tuesday evening to discuss her book Cognitive Architecture. She will speak at an event sponsored by the New England chapter of the Insitute of Classical Architecture & Art beginning at 6 in the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Another battle in Charleston

A developer in Charleston proposes to rip down an ugly modernist tower of 14 stories, built in 1949, and replace it with three mostly four-story buildings that reflect the city’s historic architecture. You’d think preservationists there would favor that. Instead, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Corbusier invades New York

Le Corbusier, a founder of modern architecture, traveled in 1935 on his first trip to America. A Frenchman born in Switzerland, he thought New York City would receive him like a god and was mistaken. Here I am pleased to … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Design for a Living Planet’

In their newly published book, subtitled “Settlement, Science and the Human Future,” authors Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros argue that human well-being, indeed survival here on Earth, requires replacing our overly mechanized, technologized way of life with patterns of living … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Laurel, Hardy and the girl

My friend Lee Juskalian sent me a video that reminds me of a video from Gizmodo.com that I posted as “Painted girl evolves,” with the excuse that the stop-motion painting of the face of a girl named Elvis Schmoulianoff had … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Humor, Old Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Imber’s nimble AIA tag

Architect Michael Imber is well known among classicists in America. His practice in Texas ranges from classicism touched with a coy creativity to a Mission style elegantly reflecting its Southwest influences. He has become increasingly perturbed at the state of … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lurking behind this facade

Behind this stern but elegant classical façade – in Bucharest! – lurks one of the most astonishing and effective mixtures of the old and the new that I have ever seen. And the fact that it is a bookstore, restored … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Other countries | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

An idea for visual pushback

Architecture, along with almost every other major human endeavor outside of food and music, is largely visual in its effect. Traditional architects rely on the appeal of their work to the eye as they try to push back against the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Restore Macintosh’s GSA

I am pleased and indeed almost amazed that Rowan Moore, the Guardian’s architecture critic, has emerged in favor of restoration of the Macintosh Library that was the greatest loss in the fire last May at the Glasgow School of Art, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

‘The Hidden Light of Objects’

The fragility of culture, even of culture wrought in the hardness of masonry, is one of the themes of the ten short stories in Mai Al-Nakib’s first book, The Hidden Light of Objects. The second story, “Echo Twins,” is set … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment