Featured image for “"They've Forgotten Beauty" – Architectural criticism from 1959”
August 12, 2013

"They've Forgotten Beauty" – Architectural criticism from 1959

David Banks sends along this piece of trenchant criticism from an issue of The Sun in 1959:
Sun letter on architecture

.

Note the address of the letter-writer: 806 Richards.  Here’s what D. Litowsky would see today:

rICHARDS

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  1. Yes, compare the corner of Georgia and Granville now with the era we had the Birk’s Building, Lyric Theartre, Strand Theatre, 2nd Hotel Vancouver, etc.

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  2. Contemporary architects still seem to adhere to the “ornament is a crime” thesis as an idea, but actually they usually decorate anyway. They decorate with blank walls to make the building look austere, or with structural components, often to make the building look cool. When reinforced concrete construction became commonplace, it because practical to have cantilevered corners and windows that went around the corners. This obviously became the fashion because you see in the West End 1950’s era wood frame building aping the same style, but with a little pipe column sneaked into the corner because wood frame wasn’t really capable of that cantilevered effect.
    With the various de-con, blobbist and angular styles more prevalent these days, architects seem to be getting more comfortable in dealing with the way buildings actually look. But I do wish they could explicitly say “ornament is OK”. It would open a huge variety of styles for them.
    However, it isn’t necessary just to reproduce historical styles. Actually the straight up reproductions are disappointing. The Schermerhorn Centre in Nashville looks like it was built at least 100 years ago, but actually it is only a few years old. It is well done with high quality materials, but it looks odd now. Like a denial of the modern world. Maybe the architects thought that the modern world was so ugly that it had to be denied. But that isn’t very practical for those of us who continue to live in it.
    And too much ornament is chaotic. Actually many historical buildings are quite plain. What makes the Opera Garnier work is the quieter, more orderly background. If everything looked like the Opera Garnier, it would be Las Vegas.

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  3. It’s all fashion –
    What one person likes or what is “current” varies and changes – and even comes back around again – as in mid-century modern.
    And the uniqueness of one design necessarily depends on contrast from another….

    Reply

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