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Tag Archives: modernism
Modernist fundamentalism
Soon after I posted “General Motors’ America” yesterday, I yearned for a deeper understanding of the reason why GM so avidly embraced modernist concepts of design and planning. So it was good to receive from architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros a … Continue reading
From Bauhaus to Coolhaus
The definition of “to brand” must be to promote a product as the opposite of what it is. For example, take Coolhaus Ice Cream. It riffs on the Bauhaus, the Weimar German cult of artists from which emerged modern … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art and design
Tagged Bauhaus, Ben & Jerry's, Coolhaus, Ice Cream, modernism, Sealtest
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Tom Wolfe and Henry Reed
I have been finishing up my book Lost Providence, girding my loins on the adrenaline rush of Tom Wolfe’s 1981 bestseller From Bauhaus to Our House. How to select a great passage to quote? Well, one way is to quote … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged From Bauhaus to Our House, Henry Hope Reed, ICAA, LEED, Mies van der Rohe, modernism, Tom Wolfe
7 Comments
Who owns Europe’s night?
Videographer Luke Shepard and a companion traveled through 36 cities in 21 European countries to film “Nightvision: The Brilliance and Diversity of Euoropean Architecture.” It captures buildings of both chief types, old and new, traditional and modernist They are different. … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Beauty, Cities, classical architecture, Luke Shepard, modernism, Night Lighting, Nightvision, Video
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Better ideas not worse, pls!
Yesterday I sent in my monthly blog post for Traditional Building magazine, and today I’m thinking, well, I left out some really important stuff. My TB post was a reply to TB’s Forum in which the architectural historian Paul A. … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning
Tagged Ann Sussman, design, Forum, Freud, Michael Mehaffy, Michel Foucault, Modern Architecture, modernism, Nikos Salingaros, Ornament, Paul Ranogajec, Philosophy, Psychology, Traditional Building
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Skandalkonzert vindicated?
A post on the website Artlark, “Skandalkonzert: The Battle for Modernism,” describes a riot that had classical concertgoers in Vienna battling amongst themselves in the pits and with the musicians and the even the composers. Pieces by Schonberg, Weber and … Continue reading
Architect, bury your mistake
Yesterday I ran some passages from the late critic Lewis Mumford and thought I recalled having written a column on him years ago after reading a biography. I cannot find it. But here is one column from June 1994 in … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning
Tagged classical architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, GTECH Building, Henry Hope Reed, Lewis Mumford, modernism, Old Stone Square, Peter Blake, Postmodernism
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Sniffing at Corbu and E-1027
Anthony Flint has an intriguing piece in Architect magazine, “Restoring Eileen Gray’s E-1027.” It’s about restoring the rather Corbusian seaside dacha designed by the Irish furniture designer (and lesbian) Eileen Gray. She had befriended the founder of modern architecture, Le … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture
Tagged Anthony Flint, E-1027, Eileen Gray, France, Jane Jacobs, Le Corbusier, modernism, Robert Moses
3 Comments
Lincoln Center blowback
New York’s mammoth Lincoln Center has in recent years seen the demise of the New York City Opera – after its director cancelled a season of popular operas and replaced it with “modern” operas – and the near demise of … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning
Tagged Anne Bogart, Economic Development, Fine Arts, Larry Rachleff, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera, modernism, New York, Opera, RI, Robert Moses, Terry Teachout, Trinity Rep, Veterans Memorial Auditorium
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