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Tag Archives: Paris
People’s Notre-Dame contest
GoArchitect offers “The People’s Notre-Dame Design Contest,” supposedly as distinct from the international design competition announced by France after the cathedral fire in April. So far as I can tell, the announcement has not been followed up officially with a … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Design Competition, France, GoArchitect, Notre Dame, Paris
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Dalrymple: Curl’s ‘Dystopia’
Theodore Dalrymple, the British prison doctor, psychiatrist and social critic, has written several reviews of James Stevens Curl’s book Making Dystopia, the most detailed and penetrating history of modern architecture written thus far. Each of Dalrymple’s several reviews seems intended … Continue reading
While Our Lady is restored
The as yet officially unannounced international design competition on how to repair Notre-Dame de Paris after her extensive damage by fire has already spawned a number of predictably ridiculous proposals. One would replace the roof with a swimming pool intended, … Continue reading
How to rebuild Notre-Dame
Right out of the box, France announced an international competition to determine whether and how to rebuild the roof and spire of Notre-Dame, destroyed by fire on April 15. French President Emmanuel Macron wants the job done by 2024, in … Continue reading
Flèche of Viollet-le-Duc
The lost spire of Notre-Dame must be rebuilt, but how? An international design competition has been announced to decide how to rebuild it, whether as it was or as “adapted to techniques and challenges of our times.” These last are … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Preservation
Tagged Notre Dame, Paris, Style Wars, Voillet Le Duc
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Notre Dame redivivus?
Notre Dame lives! Monday was pure concentrated stress and sadness – the horror! – watching the spire teeter and fall, then seeing the fire creep along what remained of the roof toward the betowered west façade, and then, as flames … Continue reading
Barf on Arc de Triomphe
Christo plans to work his tragic on Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, draping it in blue fabric, but fortunately not until 2020, well after my family and I visit the City of Light, if we decide to go. The arch has … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Humor, Video
Tagged Arc de Triomphe, Christo, Gates of Central Park, Installation Art, Paris, Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show
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Save the Chartres Cathedral
In my 2014 blog post “Change at Chartres” I discussed New York Review of Books critic Martin Filler’s “Scandalous Makeover at Chartres,” a critique of the interior restoration work at the famous cathedral about 60 miles to the southwest of … Continue reading
Europe as museum for rich?
The late Walter Laqueur, who died last week after a long career cataloguing the sins of communism, terrorism and the Holocaust, was quoted in his New York Times obituary asserting that the “possibility that Europe will become a museum or … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Urbanism and planning
Tagged Bistros, Cities, Fane Toiwer, Modern Architecture, New York Times, Paris, Providence, Roger Scruton, Sam Roberts, Urbanism, Venice, Walking, Walter Laqueur
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Update: Vandals versus Paris
Mary Campbell Gallagher, founder and president of the International Coalition for the Preservation of Paris and U.S. liaison to SOS Paris, has issued a shot over the bow of the vandals at the city’s gates. Her shot, in the form … Continue reading
