Comments on: Does this mean you hate it, Miss Ada Louise?

By: ELMalvaney

ELMalvaney — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:51 +0000

I’m with you in not being a purist–I like the pure modernists in small doses and find their view of humanity to be seriously limited. I really like curves, and granted the whole world would be somewhat chaotic if everything were curved, but on the other hand, too many strict, straight lines gets seriously boring. How about Morris Lapidus? Did you catch the article in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Dec 2007? It was called “I am a Modernist: Morris Lapidus and his critics”–Lapidus saw himself as a modernist and couldn’t understand why The Purists scorned him. I’ve never been in any of his buildings but the pictures make me love them.

I like New Formalism too, when it’s kept at a somewhat human scale. I really like Gulfport Library, obviously, but the thing that’s interesting about it is the use of textured materials and non-classical details. The patterns in the wall surfaces almost harken back to the pottery artists on the Coast earlier in the 20th century, although I don’t know that that is the inspiration.

By: W. White

W. White — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:14:00 +0000

There are some southern details in the War Memorial Building (such as the Magnolia leaves on the Auditorium doors). The open courtyard plan with the colonnade is what strikes me as more “Southern” than anything else, although, in the structures I have seen with this type of courtyard, it is usually in the back, not the front. Art Deco buildings could fall into a type of hybrid regional style while still within the general appearence of a placeless building. Likely, if the War Memorial Building was built in another area, there would be different motifs with possibly a difference in the arrangement of the building. That is conjecture, but in modernist buildings that have been constructed since the Art Deco period, the motifs and design of the building would be the same anywhere; that is not conjecture.

I have never seen the Gulfport Library in person. However, I am very familiar with the Regions Bank in downtown Starkville, which could be considered New Formalist. Both buildings borrow from antebellum Southern architecture. I like that bank building, but it could be improved with more windows on the side and back facades. I am not a modern architecture purist, so I like the work of Edward Durell Stone (his later, non skyscraper work), Arthur Q. Davis, and similar architects better than pure modernists such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and their descendants. However, Bruce Goff usually has both groups beat with his designs.

By: ELMalvaney

ELMalvaney — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:22:55 +0000

I had never heard of the Friends of Keybar website until I was doing some research after Robert Overstreet died last summer. I guess it makes sense that he would be mentioned there since he worked with Goff for a couple of years before heading out to the West Coast. I guess as much as I love Art Deco, I don't see it as respecting regional differences any more than pure modernist buildings do. Unless by "Southern" you are referring to the classical motifs in the War Memorial Bldg? Couldn't then New Formalist buildings, like the Gulfport Library, also fall into the category of respecting regional differences? After all, they brought classicism back into the architectural mainstream (I know that purists hated it, but still, a lot of NF buildings dot our landscape), and I can completely see a Southern mansion like Dunleith in the Gulfport Library with its massive colonnade.

By: W. White

W. White — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:05:36 +0000

You make excellent points about other styles being placeless. However, Greek Revival and Italianate styles varied by region. The South’s expressions of those styles are grandiose to display wealth and, for a more practical reason, 16-foot ceilings keep a house cool in the summer. Porches and grand colonnades were also a cooling measure; they became rooms where one could spend the day when it became too damn hot to be inside. That being said, acanthus column capitals are as naturally Southern as Marcel Breuer. In some ways, Art Deco is the last architectural movement that respected and utilized regional differences. While invented in France by those who rejected Beaux Arts Classicism, Art Deco became a vehicle for such “Southern” expressions as the Jackson War Memorial Building.

I can be accused of boosterism when it comes to southern architecture (specifically when it comes to the architecture of my home state). That is simply what I was trying to question. It probably has to do with your statement about how architectural scholars have ignored the South.

I am not sure if you are aware of this organization; however, if you want to know more about Bruce Goff and his works, go to the Friends of Kebyar website. Their journals are a must have for Bruce Goff and organic architecture fans.

By: ELMalvaney

ELMalvaney — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:40:03 +0000

Yikes, that comment was way too long–it’s hard to keep track in this little box. Sorry!