-
Click for more on book
Recent Comments
spiceremge on Joze Plecnik. Gone fishin… David Brussat on First, kill all the leaf … David Brussat on First, kill all the leaf … izzone62 on First, kill all the leaf … Kathleen on First, kill all the leaf … Milton W. Grenfell on First, kill all the leaf … Morales on First, kill all the leaf … izzone62 on First, kill all the leaf …
Tag Archives: Paris
See how form follows fiasco
I’ve just started rereading the late Peter Blake’s slender 1960 hagiography of French architect Le Corbusier, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland. A far better book on Corbu, as he is known by his many deluded admirers, is Le Corbusier: The … Continue reading
Tall buildings all fall down
Is there something off-kilter about the photo above from a video sent to me yesterday by architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros? Yes, there is. At first I thought it was a video of Pruitt-Igoe, the St. Louis public housing project, all … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Video
Tagged Carbon Footprint, China, Christopher Jencks, Demolition, Minoru Yamasaki, Paris, President Xi, Skyscrapers, Yunnan
1 Comment
Mary Gallagher: Saving Paris
On Thursday, Mary Campbell Gallagher, a leader in the crusade to save Paris from skyscrapers, had an oped in Le Figaro, one of the capital’s leading newspapers in addition to Le Monde. With her permission I republish it as a … Continue reading
“Building Notre Dame”
PBS has broadcast a brilliant documentary, “Building Notre-Dame,” on the construction, over some 800 years, of the cathedral in Paris. We all know that the building arose as the cutting edge of architecture in the Middle Ages, and that a … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Video
Tagged Building Notre Dame, Documentary, Notre Dame, Paris, PBS, Repair of Notre-Dame, WGBH
3 Comments
Is Wuhan China’s Chicago?
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the Wuhan virus originated, is sometimes called “The Chicago of China” for its size (pop. 11.8 million), its central location, its setting on the Yangtze River and its historic buildings and its modern architecture. Here … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged CCTV, CGTN, Chicago, China, Corbusier, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Paris, Plan Voisin, Rem Koolhaas, Wuhan
7 Comments
Notre-Dame remains dicey
It was recently reported that the annual Christmas mass at Notre-Dame de Paris will not take place for the first time since the French Revolution, and, by the way, the survival of the entire cathedral, most of which was thought … Continue reading
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
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
