Tag Archives: Ugliness

Ugly by accident or design?

Christopher Woodward, the director of London’s Garden Museum, wrote “Why Are So Many New Buildings Ugly?” for its website. He had read British critic Stephen Bayley’s 2013 book Ugly: The Aesthetics of Everything, and describes an exchange Bayley had with … Continue reading

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Beauty and the bore

Several people have sent me “The Psychological Cost of Boring Buildings,” by Jacoba Urist in New York Magazine. The title hooked me, of course, but her essay hardly went down like an oyster. First, I am distrustful of “studies,” especially … Continue reading

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

“Up from Ugliness” at NYT

Here is what I wrote about a New York Times column before learning it was published not recently but in 2011. Sigh. Well, the points do remain valid. * * * Ross Douthat, a regular columnist at the New York … Continue reading

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