Shaping The City: Architecture And Travel
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-06-21/shaping-city-architecture-and-travel
Summer travel might take you to Europe, where you can marvel at Italian Renaissance palaces, wander through 19th century Parisian neighborhoods, or visit old Lisbon's Manueline buildings. Modern architecture fans might be drawn to Tokyo, Berlin, Cape Town, or Sao Paolo. In the U.S., visitors can take in the mid-century masterpieces in Los Angeles, French colonial facades in New Orleans, or even the neoclassical buildings right here in Washington, D.C. Join us and share your favorite architecture from around the corner or around the world.
Guests
Roger Lewis
Architect; Columnist, "Shaping the City," Washington Post; and Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Maryland College Park
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Comments
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Pittsburgh, PA's history with steel gives it beautiful infrastructure shaping challenging topography. The tiny town of Alpena, MI still has many of it's late 1800's - early 1900's facades, owing to its "wild timber town on the Great Lakes" heritage.
Complementing the Metro's vaulted ceilings are the 20 acres of vaulted ceilings at the McMillan Park Sand Filtration site. People experiencing the space for the first time describe it as awesome, sacred. It would be a great pity if these were lost to the proposed development.
Please don't forget to mention Chicago! Beautiful lake shore parks, bus, walking and even boat architectural tours from lake and the Chicago river. I'm from Chicago but there's been so much continuous building over the years that many of the bldgs seen from the river were new to me. And the neighborhoods are wonderful, shaded with trees, small and large houses. What variety!
It's funny how Mr. Lewis says that the vast majority of new buildings in DC are modernist yet somehow we are supposed to be "stuck in the past". Then somehow, modernist buildings aren't historicist, even though the style is almost 100 years old. He says somewhat patronizingly that "there's no accounting for American's taste", yet time again, people will say why there they prefer traditionalist styles, becasue the majority of modernism is cold and boring. He says DC is the only city that has this issue with traditional vs. modernist architecture. Really? Go to any of the cities he mentioned and it's full of new traditionalist work, it just doesn't get published at near the same ratio as modernist work, exactly for the prejudice people like Mr. Lewis exibits. I don't fault Mr. Lewis for prefering modernism or thinking it's the most valid style for today, but until people can still choose a style rather than being told what to like, architects like me will always enjoy our work. Beauty isn't primarily based on political or intellectual trends, beauty is a sensual phenomena, and that's why tourists flock to the old cities while avoinding the glass and steel canyons of today.