An article in the Wall Street Journal about the 150-story Chicago Spire, unfortunately shaped like a screw: “Push to Finish Tallest Tower“
And a strong opinion in the City Journal about Modernist guru Le Corbusier that begins “Le Corbusier was to architecture as Pol Pot was to social reform”: “The Architect as Totalitarian“
About ELMalvaney
In addition to ruling over the MissPres universe with an iron fist, Malvaney enjoys reading, wandering around old buildings, stopping to smell the magnolias, fiddling with databases, and sitting on the porch with a big ol' dog watching the world go by. Non-interests include but are not limited to skydiving, eating vegetables, and Chinese opera.
Let’s hope that Theodore Dalrymple’s article is somewhat “tongue-in-cheek.” One would think that there were other totalitarian forces at work in the interbellum and postbellum years in Europe and the States, some with stronger architectural and political visions than Le Corb ever dreamed of!
“Spiritual, intellectual and moral deformity.” Most interesting. While I do like a lot of modernist buildings, Le Corbusier has never been one of my faves.
I don’t get any tongue-in-cheek or irony in the piece. I do remember being struck at an exhibition years ago when I didn’t really know much about architecture, seeing those plans for the high-rise city and thinking “who would design such a thing?” Although, like Tom Barnes, I like many Modernist buildings, to me it’s just a style, and I find the philosophy espoused by the gurus more disturbing than inspiring.