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Tag Archives: classical architecture
Lincoln vs. Jefferson
A comparison of the Lincoln and the Jefferson memorials is almost as fascinating, in some ways even more so, than a comparison of Messrs. Lincoln and Jefferson themselves. Since I can add little to the second conversation I will confine … Continue reading
L.A.’s over-the-top garage
This is, believe it or not, a parking garage. I am informed by Nir Buras, author of The Art of Classic Planning, that the parking garage pictured above, built at 9th & Hill Sts. in Los Angeles in 1926, designed … Continue reading
Trad and not so trad, cont.
In light of my recent review of Beauty Memory Unity (2019), by Steve Bass, I offer a long post from 2017 that urges classicists to criticize bad trad more gently if they seek a classical revival. Bass describes strict methodologies … Continue reading
Bass: ‘Beauty Memory Unity’
New York architect Steve Bass, long associated with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art as a teacher of classical theory, recently wrote a book, Beauty Memory Unity, on his favorite subject of architectural proportion. Proportion has long been a … Continue reading
Duo vs. the “style wars”
Maybe I am a rascal, or maybe I’m going batty in coronaprison, or maybe I would really just like to foster an amicable agreement, among architects, that an architecture that worked for thousands of years is preferable to – and … Continue reading
Plečnik capitals you can see
Jože Plečnik may perhaps be deemed the Antoni Gaudi of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Or vice versa. Both shifted the character of their principal cities (Barcelona in Gaudi’s case) toward a more animated, innovative and yet entirely classical character. … Continue reading
Rouchell: Case for classicism
Michael Rouchell is an architect in New Orleans and a founder of the Louisiana chapter, one of 15 regional chapters of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. On March 30, he posted the following remarks in an online discussion … Continue reading
EO: The two paths ahead
The draft executive order that is stirring within the Trump administration is forcing classicists in the field of architecture to choose one of two paths forward. The path that goes through the E.O., if it is not already throttled in … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged classical architecture, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Donald Trump, General Services Administration, Henry Hope Reed, ICAA, Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, McKim Mead & White, Modern Architecture, National Civic Art Society, Penn Station, Sir Roger Scruton, Washington DC, World's Columbian Exposition
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America’s favorite buildings
For its 150th anniversary, the American Institute of Architects commissioned a double-blind survey of American citizens to discover their favorite American buildings. To the dismay of the AIA, which is modernist to the core, the survey confirmed what everyone already … Continue reading
Parsing classical creativity
The proposed executive order encouraging classical architecture for federal buildings in Washington and elsewhere, if adopted by President Trump, would replace Kennedy-era guidelines that have encouraged modern architecture for federal buildings since 1962. Enough time has passed to declare modern … Continue reading
