It’s like they instinctively hate beauty, and want to increase ugliness.
Note, too, that when a city is filled with the latter, all the highly reflective buildings all reflect each other, thus increasing the ugliness exponentially.
Also, they hate birds – modern buildings kill more birds flying into windows than older ones do. So, modern architects hate life. (Not just birds; they hate tree-filled parks popular with people; would rather replace them with concrete plazas where nobody wants to linger. No, their instincts are anti-life, in general. Trees, birds, people; social life…)
Paleo Retiree writes:
Trad vs. modernist. Why do our developers and designers want us to inhabit a colorless, reflecty, non-tactile world?
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Carnivore
November 14, 2016 at 12:41 pm
Sometimes, but very seldom, does municipal architecture take the correct turn. My prime example is the Chicago central library. The beautiful 19th century Central Library, opened in 1897…..
was refurbished and became the Chicago Cultural Center in the 1970’s. The central library was then without a home until plans to build a new building were developed. A design competition in 1987 resulted in two final contenders – one by Helmut Jahn that was rejected because of cost (! that’s the El passing thru the middle of it – blech)…..
and the design that was actually built…..
Quite a heroic design.
Will S.
November 14, 2016 at 12:45 pm
Wow! Excellent!
Surprising, that.
Carnivore
November 14, 2016 at 12:48 pm
Another view – the detail on the brick and stone work is amazing. Hard to believe it was completed in 1991, not 1891!
Unfortunately, the exception, not the rule.
Will S.
November 14, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Oh wow! Incredible!
Alas, indeed; the only modern-day buildings built in old-fashioned styles these days tend to be Orthodox churches, from what I’ve noticed.
feeriker
November 14, 2016 at 5:22 pm
Why do our developers and designers want us to inhabit a colorless, reflecty, non-tactile world?
The only answer to that question that makes any sense is “because most modern architects are soulless, talentless hacks – a direct reflection of the society in which they live.”
Wholeheartedly concur on the Chicago Public Library. A splendid exception to the general rule today that public buildings must reflect the soullessness and squalor of the cities in which they are located. Chicago certainly does not deserve a building so lovely (another question: Why a public library? Who the hell reads in Chicago [or in any other North American city, for that matter], especially the material found in a typical library?).
Will S.
November 14, 2016 at 5:59 pm
Agreed.