Friday, December 14, 2007

I Blame Ayn Rand For This

Did newspapers even have architecture critics before The Fountainhead was published?

Whatever; it's not really her fault but as an example of "How Not...," this is so egregious that I am minded to extend to the author that blamelessness we accord imbeciles. 9 December, writing on the front page of our local fishwrap newspaper, a "nationally known architecture writer/critic" said that the city's new public library (a vast glass thingie connected to the front part of the old library building by a huge waste of space atrium where the stacks used to be) is "...more than adequately respectful of the 1917 Paul Cret building it kisses on the backside."

Umm, dude, that's a degree of respect best not accorded in a family publication, 'kay? Do editors even bother to read this stuff any more? Or are they, like the rest of us, mostly using the paper to line the bottoms of birdcages?

Impressive. Not.
at

4 comments:

  1. TamDecember 14, 2007 at 10:38 AM

    I'd say that is indeed "more than adequately respectful", wouldn't you?

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. phlegmfataleDecember 14, 2007 at 6:53 PM

    whatever it is, it's the pure-dee version.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roberta XDecember 14, 2007 at 10:21 PM

    All I know is, all the other ratings are content with salutin' an' callin' me "Ma'am."

    Where's Artzybasheff when you need him?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 14, 2007 at 10:23 PM

    Here in D.C. an office-building developer bought an entire block of old stone row houses on N Street. He didn't want to demolish them so he kept the front walls standing and used them for the entrances to the new office block behind them. I thought it looked nice and preserved a sense of scale for pedestrians. But the WaPo critic called it "facadomy". Snarky bastid.

    ReplyDelete

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