Tag Archives: Le Corbusier

Architecture’s Three Stooges

Posted on September 30, 2018 by

Theodore Dalrymple, a British physician, psychiatrist and theorist of society, culture and design, has written a review of James Stevens Curl’s new book Making Dystopia for the New English Review. Dalrymple calls the book “essential, uncompromising, learned,” and especially devastating … Continue reading →

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Mies edits van der Rohe

Posted on August 31, 2018 by

Most people know that one of the three world-historical founders of modern architecture, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, changed his name at age 33 to Le Corbusier (the crow). Not until I got to page 126 in James Stevens Curl’s Making Dystopia did … Continue reading →

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Preservation in Newport

Posted on August 22, 2018 by

Preservationists have a vital but relatively simple job that has been made more difficult, over the years, by preservationists. The purpose of preserving a historic building is to sustain the beauty it brings to its setting. How to do this … Continue reading →

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The architecture of the eye II

Posted on July 13, 2018 by

So whose eyes are these? Hint: She liked cat-eye glasses. Question: Is the beautiful pair of eyes behind these spectacles protected by lenses? Or could she have fun with her friends by wiggling her fingers through the frames? If so, … Continue reading →

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The architecture of the eye

Posted on July 3, 2018 by

Above are the specs that protected the eyes of Le Corbusier from the world. He and I have one thing in common: poor vision. That is about to change. A week from tomorrow I will undergo cataract surgery. My vision … Continue reading →

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Bulldoze or rebuild Mack?

Posted on June 22, 2018 by

A horrific second fire in four years at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, completed in 1909, has elicited predictably cockamamie calls to demolish rather than to again rebuild the Scotsman’s masterpiece. Its restoration had been 80 percent complete … Continue reading →

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Corbu’s rant at Neimeyer

Posted on June 21, 2018 by

Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect who died in 2012 at age 104, is best known for designing Brasília, the sterile über-modernist new capital city that arose in the Brazilian outback in something like three years in the late 1950s. Its … Continue reading →

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While we’re still on Corbu …

Posted on April 8, 2018 by

Came across a passage in James Crawford’s fascinating Fallen Glory, a collection of mini-histories of famous buildings, many ancient, and the societies that grew up around them and their implications for societies today. The chapter “Modernism’s Labyrinth” follows archaeological digs … Continue reading →

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This joke’s on you, Corbu!

Posted on April 7, 2018 by

Of course the Corbusier who designed this church was not “Le” Corbusier. Too bad for the rest of us! Would that the pictured church were Corbu’s chapel at Ronchamp, and would that it were now as forgotten as the church … Continue reading →

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Salingaros on Millais’ Corbu

Posted on January 2, 2018 by

What a pleasure to learn that a friend of mine has reviewed a book written by another friend of mine. Of course, that might not be so great if one friend panned the other. That is not the case here, … Continue reading →

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