Traditional & Neo-Traditional
What’s the difference between traditional and neo-traditional design? Probably not what you think. More on traditional and neo-traditional design after the photos. Neo-Traditional: Traditional:
Category Archives: Culture
There once was a tree on Nantucket
(street design humor)
There once was a tree on Nantucket, With none of its roots in a bucket, “That can’t be,” Said the state DOT, But no car has ever yet struck it. After the jump, another Nantucket Elm
Posted in Beauty, Culture, Good Kind, Joke, New England, Street Design, Street of the Day, Urbanism
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(street design humor)
(street design humor)
Occupy Main Street
Great Barrington’s Main Street should be a place where people want to get out of their cars to shop, eat, and socialize—under a majestic canopy made with tall trees. That’s not what State DOTs build, however. This story originally ran … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Culture, Current, Historic Preservation, New England, Street Design, The Other Kind, Urbanism, Walkability
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Quote of the Day: “A uniquely frightening moment in American life”
“It is the essence of fascism to have no single fixed form—an attenuated form of nationalism in its basic nature, it naturally takes on the colors and practices of each nation it infects. In Italy, it is bombastic and neoclassical … Continue reading
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Urban Design: The Good Kind & the Other Kind
WE ALL UNDERSTAND why so many normal, rational New Yorkers can act like NIMBYs—because we’ve all seen alien, intrusive development in New York like Billionaire Row and Atlantic Yards. Recent developments at the American Museum of Natural History brought this … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Classical, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Good Kind, New Urbanism, New York, The Other Kind, Urbanism
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Leon Wieseltier on Modern Cliches
IF you apply for a grant today and want to be successful, you’d better use the words “innovate” and “innovative” in your proposal. In art and architecture, words like “challenging,” “transgressive,” and “disruptive” are among the most used. So I … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Craft, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Global, New York, Quote of the Day, The Other Kind, Urbanism
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Form Follows Fashion
WE ALL UNDERSTAND that in architecture Modernism has promoted the expression of industrial materials. For one hundred years, its proponents have declared that Modernism is not a style but a rational, modern way of building. Last week, I happened to … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Classical, Culture, Current, The Other Kind
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The Best Smelling Lobby In New York
YOU CAN FIND some of the best bread and pastries in New York in this Tribeca office building lobby—and in the year 2016, that’s saying a lot. The story is that a New Yorker who’s roamed the world learning how … Continue reading
God is in the details
I’m working on a project in Connecticut where the team is proposing a “Slow Zone” in the center of town. An engineer on a project is a little worried about some of the details I’ve proposed. He wrote, “I think we … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Bicycle, Craft, Culture, Current, Good Kind, Materials, Pedestrian, Slow Streets, Street Design, Urbanism, Walkability
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V&V Redux: The Most Beautiful City of the Twentieth Century
Santa Fe, New Mexico is the most beautiful city of the 20th century. This simple statement requires some explanation.
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Culture, Good Kind, Local, Materials, Pedestrian, Urbanism, Veritas et Venustas
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Quotes of the Day – Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas in Metropolis: For a couple of years now,I have been … well, I don’t know what the best word is, but it is somewhere between bored and irritated, by the current course of architecture forcing people to be … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Craft, Culture, Current, Education, Egotecture, Global, Good Kind, Quote of the Day
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The Three Best Entries in the World War I Competition are Classical
THERE’S STILL no resolution to the war in Washington over Frank Gehry’s design for a memorial to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Many who love Gehry’s work hate the memorial design,* which the Eisenhower family rejected. But Kansas Senator Bob Dole and … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Classical, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Good Kind, Urbanism
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Bike Shares I Have Known
There are two types of architecture—Category I and Category II
I’VE TWEETED this post by Witold Rybczynski, and I’ve put it on FaceBook. But I don’t think it’s getting enough attention, so here it is again: Category I and Category II, by Witold Rybczynski: You can divide residential architects into … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Craft, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Good Kind, Quote of the Day
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The voices are rising, on both sides of the Atlantic
Posted in Architecture, Beauty, Culture, Current, Egotecture, Global, New York, Urbanism, Video
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City of the Day
No this one:
“Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants”
IF TROMBONE SHORTY were an architect, his fellow architects would say his music is “nostalgic” and “pastiche,” because he draws so heavily on the musical traditions of New Orleans. Luckily for us, musicians are smarter than that. The White House loves … Continue reading
