For me, the last concept to click about Hitchcock and Johnson’s definition of the International style was the subject of the very first chapter, “A First Principle: Architecture as Volume.”
Books
Book Quotes: The International Style
It’s been a while since we did a book quote series, and since the three earlier series included a diatribe against Modern planning principles (Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of the Great American Cities), a polemic against Modern architectural design (Tom Wolfe’s… Read More ›
Lukacs on Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Developers
While we’re on the subject of unexpected architectural commentary, I recently discovered a short, but dense little book called The End of an Age by historian John Lukacs. Lukacs has written extensively about European history, especially World War II (having… Read More ›
Flashy Palladianism
I love to come across bits of architectural criticism in books or movies where I wouldn’t expect it, and this is one of my favorite passages from my very favorite 20th-century writer, Patrick O’Brian. I got into O’Brian because of… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn: Some Closing Thoughts
After a week of looking back through Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn, I’m left with a sense of contradiction in my own thoughts on High Road, Low Road, etc. I completely agree with him about Magazine Architecture and the devastation… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn: Defining Vernacular
Well, once again we’ve reached the end of a week, and I have tons more book to cover. But I’m just going to pick out a few bits from Stewart Brand’s chapter called “Vernacular: How Buildings Learn From Each Other.”… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn: Preservation, Part 2
Getting back to our very favorite chapter in How Buildings Learn,” Preservation: A Quiet, Populist, Conservative, Victorious Revolution.” I love typing that title! Brand spends some time discussing the history of the preservation movement. Personally, I’ll admit that until much… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn: Preservationists Are Soooo Cool!
There are so many interesting things in the chapter “Preservation: A Quiet, Populist, Conservative, Victorious Revolution” (wow–count me in!) in How Buildings Learn that I believe I’m going to have to break it into two days. Today, we’ll concentrate on… Read More ›
How Buildings Learn: From High Road to Unreal Estate
How Buildings Learn tries to accomplish alot that I won’t be able to adequately cover here. I’ll try to hit the high points, the ones that made the most impression on me, and leave the rest for you to find when… Read More ›
Book Quotes: How Buildings Learn
I read Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn way back in 1997, and it was when I really began to understand and appreciate vernacular architecture. The thesis of the book is that buildings change over time based on the needs of the users–sometimes… Read More ›
Preservation Month, Etc.
I mentioned this last month beforehand, but in case you’ve already forgotten, the Images of America book about North State Street hit the shelves April 27 and there have been confirmed sightings at Lemuria here in Jackson and the History… Read More ›
From Bauhaus to Our House: Apostates and Post-Modernists
Ok, since it’s Friday, let’s finish up on From Bauhaus to Our House. The last two chapters deal with the architects who strayed from the Modernist compounds and were ostracised from the hip and cool in-crowd. These included Edward Durell… Read More ›
From Bauhaus to Our House: The destruction of craftsmanship
Wolfe points out in chapter 4, “Escape to Islip,” the irony that while the 20th century was the American Century, the architecture that defined that century was primarily a European import. In the same chapter, he also touches upon what he… Read More ›
From Bauhaus to Our House: Architectural Education Overthrown
In chapter three of From Bauhaus to Our House, “The White Gods,” Tom Wolfe recounts what he sees as the almost instant change in course in American architecture after the German Modernists began arriving in the late 1930s as refugees… Read More ›
From Bauhaus to Our House: Wolfe Does Not ♥ Gropius
To start off From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe looks at the architectural scene in Europe after World War I. The picture he paints is one of confusion in the arts and an increasing tendency to spend more time… Read More ›
Book Quotes: From Bauhaus to Our House
I recently read–finally, way after I should have–Tom Wolfe’s From Bauhaus to Our House. Published in 1981, this is not a scholarly work, but it’s a passionate rejection of Modernist architecture and its practitioners. According to the copyright page, most… Read More ›
New Book about North State Street, Jackson
I noticed on the Arcadia Publishing webpage that a new Images of America book is coming out later this month focusing on North State Street in Jackson. Its author is Todd Sanders, an architectural historian with the Mississippi Dept. of… Read More ›
Book Quotes: Jane Jacobs on the Environment and Suburbia
This is the last post in our series on Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of Great American Cities. I hope you’ve enjoyed it–if not, well, it’s over now. I have remembered so many good parts as I’ve gone back through the book,… Read More ›
Book Quotes: Jane Jacobs on Old Buildings
Number 4 in our series on Jane Jacobs’ seminal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In the chapter titled “The Need for Old Buildings” Jane Jacobs argues that, apart from any architectural considerations, every neighborhood needs a mixture… Read More ›
Book Quotes: Jane Jacobs on Gentrification
“Gentrification” is a word that we preservationists have thrown at us alot. And unlike other arguments against preservation (such as “there’s just too many old buildings around here for the young folks”), gentrification is one that I believe has merit… Read More ›
Book Quotes: Jane Jacobs on Streets
Jacobs’ in-depth observation of her own city, New York, has stuck with me, and this passage from the chapter “The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety” is one that I often recall in particular when I watch my own, much less urban street…. Read More ›
Book Quotes: Jane Jacobs on City Planning
From time to time, either because I’m lazy or because I’m exceptionally clever, I will post a week-long series on a certain topic. This week, our inaugural series will be quotations from Jane Jacob’s classic The Death and Life of Great… Read More ›
On Developers, Modernism, and Fondren
After I wrote this post, I decided that it should be considered Part II of The Return of Modernism. In the latest issue of the Northside Sun, editor Wyatt Emmerich discusses the recent talk given by developer David Watkins at… Read More ›
Preservation in Mississippi 