I share your frustration with the loss of elegance. I've often wondered why.
Is it not enough money; or rejection of the past by every generation's avant guarde, or the ever rapid pace of life? All? Other?
I am an antiquarian. I am enthralled by the past and its remnants, especially 18th and 19th furniture and art.
And I admire those who crafted what I now see featured for viewing in museums and for sale at antique shows.
But I also admire my predecessors. The lives they lived were brutal, dirty and short. Yet their legacies of achievement endure.
Among the newest of these legacies is the Golden Gate Bridge. You were fortunate to have been one of the engineers who helped sturdy it for use and admiration by future generations
A delightful read. I had not read it the first time you posted it. Thanks for reposting.
I learned something new.
"Now, like kudzu or cancer, they’re malignant growths…enveloping cities they seem determined to destroy."
I looked up "kudzu". That took me to a Smithsonian Magazine article: "The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Never Truly Ate the South -- A naturalist cuts through the myths surrounding the invasive plant."
Many thanks. Have you previously published this piece? I feel I have read it before. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't, it doesn't really matter as the points remain valid and are an accurate appraisal of the ugliness that now infects our existence.
You'll be interested to know that you, nor me and many others who decry the ugliness of contemporary design are alone.
Today's NYT Business Section has several pages dedicated to the origin and nearing end of what it calls "Brutalist" design.
They attribute its beginning to the JFK Administration; identify a number of buildings in WDC as architectural manifestations of it and suggest that a batch of them will be torn down.
For a government downsizing and ostensibly out of money, the tear downs likely won't be anytime soon. More likely, they will be sold to the private sector for peanuts
My point: This ugly design has run its course.
Be on the look out for its replacement. Pray it will be visually appealing and its structures worth preserving for future generations.
I have had the privilege of working on or in and living close to some of the most gorgeous structures on the planet. The Natural History museum in London is a study in Victorian gothic revival and well worth visiting just for its architecture as well as its exhibits.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol was Alexander Kingdoms Brunell's contribution Magnum Opus, and was the worlds first suspension bridge and also marked my birthplace.
I have worked in swanky places in the City of London and restored churches and war time headquarters for Churchill.
Modern architecture lost its soul in the 1960s and this is reflected in the state of society.
If you build rat trap places for people to live in, do not be surprised when the inhabitants grow whiskers.
Wow. You have worked at some great places. And great point about what happens when spaces are designed in ways that repel potential inhabitants. We get what we’ve got. Thanks again.
I share your frustration with the loss of elegance. I've often wondered why.
Is it not enough money; or rejection of the past by every generation's avant guarde, or the ever rapid pace of life? All? Other?
I am an antiquarian. I am enthralled by the past and its remnants, especially 18th and 19th furniture and art.
And I admire those who crafted what I now see featured for viewing in museums and for sale at antique shows.
But I also admire my predecessors. The lives they lived were brutal, dirty and short. Yet their legacies of achievement endure.
Among the newest of these legacies is the Golden Gate Bridge. You were fortunate to have been one of the engineers who helped sturdy it for use and admiration by future generations
A delightful read. I had not read it the first time you posted it. Thanks for reposting.
I learned something new.
"Now, like kudzu or cancer, they’re malignant growths…enveloping cities they seem determined to destroy."
I looked up "kudzu". That took me to a Smithsonian Magazine article: "The True Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Never Truly Ate the South -- A naturalist cuts through the myths surrounding the invasive plant."
Cheers.
Many thanks. Have you previously published this piece? I feel I have read it before. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't, it doesn't really matter as the points remain valid and are an accurate appraisal of the ugliness that now infects our existence.
Thank you. Yes, I first published this early last year, but republished now since many probably hadn’t read it. I appreciate you remembering it tho!
https://jdbreen.substack.com/p/lost-art?utm_source=publication-search
You'll be interested to know that you, nor me and many others who decry the ugliness of contemporary design are alone.
Today's NYT Business Section has several pages dedicated to the origin and nearing end of what it calls "Brutalist" design.
They attribute its beginning to the JFK Administration; identify a number of buildings in WDC as architectural manifestations of it and suggest that a batch of them will be torn down.
For a government downsizing and ostensibly out of money, the tear downs likely won't be anytime soon. More likely, they will be sold to the private sector for peanuts
My point: This ugly design has run its course.
Be on the look out for its replacement. Pray it will be visually appealing and its structures worth preserving for future generations.
I have had the privilege of working on or in and living close to some of the most gorgeous structures on the planet. The Natural History museum in London is a study in Victorian gothic revival and well worth visiting just for its architecture as well as its exhibits.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol was Alexander Kingdoms Brunell's contribution Magnum Opus, and was the worlds first suspension bridge and also marked my birthplace.
I have worked in swanky places in the City of London and restored churches and war time headquarters for Churchill.
Modern architecture lost its soul in the 1960s and this is reflected in the state of society.
If you build rat trap places for people to live in, do not be surprised when the inhabitants grow whiskers.
Another great piece JD. Thank you.
Wow. You have worked at some great places. And great point about what happens when spaces are designed in ways that repel potential inhabitants. We get what we’ve got. Thanks again.