Category Archives: Classical

What do we want? Change! When do we want it? Now!

by John Massengale Posted on December 29, 2014

Funny that this is the first image that came up when I Googled “What do we want? Change! When do we want it? Now!” “Funny,” because I’m writing about the AIA’s response to the common-sense proposal by Steve Bingler and … Continue reading →

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Slow Street of the Day

by John Massengale Posted on December 1, 2014

Via della Dogana Vecchia, Rome Click on the image for larger version HANS MONDERMAN AND SHARED SPACE are all the rage, but the Italians starting making slow streets in the late 1960s without naming them. Rome and Bologna don’t have … Continue reading →

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The NJIT Architecture School said, “Kean University’s proposal of a curriculum of ‘drawing by hand’ does not recognize the demands of today’s job market.”

by John Massengale Posted on October 31, 2014

Kean University, a state school six miles away from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, another public university, has announced that they will open the Michael Graves School of Architecture. According to articles in the New Jersey Record, NJIT is … Continue reading →

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“One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.”

by John Massengale Posted on October 29, 2014

That’s the famous quote by the immortal Vincent Scully about Penn Station, where demolition started fifty-one years ago today. But stay tuned—some interesting things are starting to happen, and they’re not the things you’ve been reading about. More photos here … Continue reading →

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The 21st Century Will Be Different Than The 20th

by John Massengale Posted on July 6, 2014

We’re starting to see that people in the 21st century are rejecting many of the trends of the late 20th century. Just as architecture and urbanism in the second half of the 20th century were very different than they had been … Continue reading →

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A Sidewalk Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

by John Massengale Posted on July 2, 2014

IN 1919, the car hadn’t yet conquered West 57th Street in Manhattan. Together, the sidewalks for the pedestrians were still significantly wider than the roadway, and the modern detritus of the traffic engineer was nowhere in sight. MCNY image from “West … Continue reading →

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We used to make the countryside more beautiful, but now that we’re richer than ever we rarely do

by John Massengale Posted on June 1, 2014

Technology can supply some of our favorite and most-loved things, but most of the time, we use it in a way that inadequately expresses human experience and aspirations.

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An Oldie But Goodie—sung to the tune of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General”

by John Massengale Posted on March 27, 2014

COLUMBIA ARCHITECTURE PROFESSOR and architectural historian Ken Frampton was once asked about “the cult of New Urbanism.” It’s “ersatz kitsch colonialism for the modern middle class”, he said. Faced with a statement like that, what can one do except write … Continue reading →

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You Thought Architects Designed Perfect Chairs? (Good, Better, Best)

by John Massengale Posted on March 26, 2014

THIS EXCERPT from an old post at Veritas & Venustas comments on some of the same issues that Witold Rybczinski just wrote about in a post and a Tweet: Good, Better, Best (originally published February 2004) .. The concept is a … Continue reading →

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Two types of architecture: good architecture, and the other kind

by John Massengale Posted on January 17, 2014

                    THE ARCHITECTURE CRITIC for New York magazine wrote about the work of Robert A.M. Stern in an article entitled Unfashionably Fashionable. I commented: “There are two kinds of music,” Duke … Continue reading →

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