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Julius Shulman, RIP
He was the photographer of architectural modernism, and a one-man advertisement for the dream of Southern California living. Three pictures:
UPDATE: More on Shulman from the Deeply Glamorous former Reason editor Virginia Postrel.
|7.17.09 @ 9:52AM|#
Cracked.com just posted an Ayn Rand Character Flowchart. Don't know why that seems relevant here, but it does.
|7.17.09 @ 9:54AM|#
Picture no.3, I like the furniture. I like the clothes. The house is epic fail. Solid white walls and floor? Ceiling made to resemble corrugated sheet metal? And is that the sewer vent pipe I spy?
Spartacus|7.17.09 @ 10:06AM|#
Warren,
To each his own. My reaction was exactly the opposite. I wouldn't
pay ten bucks at a yard sale for that furniture and those clothes,
which is probably the only place they can be found these days.
|7.17.09 @ 10:13AM|#
Warren,
It's a light fixture. The corrugated ceiling would baffle sounds
nicely, a problem I've always found in those open steel and
windows-type houses.
Speaking of Troy McClure, I had a friend in high school would lived
in one of those UFO houses. It's was cantilevered off a short cliff
and not on a pole, but it was the same thing. It was kind of
strange, but it wasn't all sterile white. And it had dark orange
70s deep shag carpeting that was great to walk barefoot on. My
memory of the house is only marred by inadvertently having to
listen to my friend loudly lose her virginity in one of the bedroom
while at a party and then trying to get her out of the closet she
locked herself into for a two-hour crying jag.
|7.17.09 @ 10:13AM|#
Note the first two pictures are of houses hanging on cliffs with
great views. Arcitectural modernism worked where the buildings were
separated from the world around them. Once in a while you will see
a modernist skyscaper sitting alone away from a downtown area
rising majestically above the buildings around it. In that format,
especially on the plains, they can really be quite majestic. Put
the same building in the middle of a downtown surrounded by other
syles of buildings and crammed into a small lot and it just looks
awful. The same is true of modernist homes. Take those same houses
off of their remote cliffs and put them in a tree lined
neighborhood next to a few capes and colonials and they will be
ugly step sisters. But in the right environment, they look
great.
Ultimately, I think this is why modern architecture failed. It is
too separate from its environment. Too hostile to the people who
are supposed to use it. Take the third picture. Yeah, the 50s babe
looks pretty swank posing on that couch, but that couch looks about
as useful and as comfortable as a hospital waiting room. Modernism
was always more about the vanity of the architect and making a
statement than the plebs who were supposed to use the
buildings.
|7.17.09 @ 10:14AM|#
Oh I love the clothes. I'm waiting for the classic shirtwaist
dress to come back. Not the crappy 80s version, no. The original,
circular skirt and all.
I wish people still dressed for everyday outings.
|7.17.09 @ 10:15AM|#
SugarFree, look to the left of the light fixture. The pipe is what Warren is talking about.
|7.17.09 @ 10:17AM|#
Ah, I see. I think that might be a pipe of some kind. Looks a little small to be sewer.
|7.17.09 @ 10:17AM|#
My memory of the house is only marred by inadvertently
having to listen to my friend loudly lose her virginity in one of
the bedroom while at a party and then trying to get her out of the
closet she locked herself into for a two-hour crying
jag.
Of course that's exactly what the architect was going for.
|7.17.09 @ 10:19AM|#
Bronwyn,
The truth of my junior partner stasis in my marriage is that I
cannot find any way to get my wife to dress like Betty from Mad
Men, even just for a special occasion.
Fluffy|7.17.09 @ 10:19AM|#
Ultimately, I think this is why modern architecture
failed.
I think that modern architecture failed for two reasons:
1. The materials that came to dominate it age poorly.
2. It was primarily a tool of the state, so it is associated with
the sort of dead spaces states tend to create [like City Hall Plaza
in Boston].
That being said, if we're going to talk about what "looks awful", I
would say that houses built in an ultra-modern style after, say,
1985, virtually all look better than almost all
post-1985 residential construction in traditional styles. Modernism
did not achieve its aims, but all the other architectural styles
became hideous with even greater speed.
|7.17.09 @ 10:19AM|#
I wish people still dressed for everyday outings.
No kidding. I am sick unto death of people going out in public in
saggy shorts, wrinkled t-shirts, and flip-flops. To my mind, anyone
who dresses like that in public has no self-respect and no regard
for who they interact with.
|7.17.09 @ 10:21AM|#
I want to live in picture number 1. I want to dress like the
chick in picture number 3, and I want a husband who looks like
Robert Mitchum to make me a martini promptly at 7 pm every
evening.
If I can't have the house, I'll take one of the NY apartments Frank
Sinatra characters lived in in 50s or 60s movies. The Robert
Mitchum husband is mandatory, though.
Bronwyn, see the dresses at ModCloth. I like the retro feel to a
lot of these.
|7.17.09 @ 10:23AM|#
That being said, if we're going to talk about what "looks
awful", I would say that houses built in an ultra-modern style
after, say, 1985, virtually all look better than almost all
post-1985 residential construction in traditional
styles.
I would tend to agree, mostly because post-1985 construction lacks
the detail work necessary for traditional styles but unnecessary
for modernist styles.
That said, here in West Texas we have a very agreeable genre of
house being built based on the old ranch houses - stone, big
windows, deep porches, simple layouts.
|7.17.09 @ 10:24AM|#
Fluffy,
The horrible brutalist city hall is another example of what I am
talking about. That building is totally hostile towards human
beings. It is sterile and completely unwelcoming. Contrast that
with Thanial Hall just down the hill. It is much warmer and more
welcoming. It is not so much that modernism was a tool of the
state. It is that modernism was at war with the people who were
supposed to use it.
I think it is associated with the state because modernism was
always about utopian ideas and the will of the architect so it
naturally appealed to planners and bureaucrats.
|7.17.09 @ 10:26AM|#
The Mcmansion styly is pretty awful. They look like giant doll houses. But RC is right, the ones that look more like ranch houses look pretty good. They have a few of them back east to.
|7.17.09 @ 10:26AM|#
RC: I really like the architectural style you describe - I think of it as the hill country, or Austin, look. Don't see much of it in Houston, of course.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 10:26AM|#
Take those same houses off of their remote cliffs and put
them in a tree lined neighborhood next to a few capes and colonials
and they will be ugly step sisters. But in the right environment,
they look great.
I dunno, there are a lot of flat suburban streets in Palm Springs
where the Modernism looks just fab, and perfectly in tune with the
flat desert surroundings. In the post-war floodplain suburb where I
grew up, the very occasional Modernist house always looked better
than stucco tract homes and faux-Swiss chalets. In my book, all you
need for a good Modernist setting is some flat ground and room to
breathe.
|7.17.09 @ 10:28AM|#
"In my book, all you need for a good Modernist setting is some
flat ground and room to breathe."
Exactly. They need to have space to be seperated from their
environment.
dhex|7.17.09 @ 10:30AM|#
i like that other people want to get dressed up in public - and
lord knows it seems to help to wear a suit when flying - but i work
too fucking hard to play dress up every day.
i would love to live in house 1, 2 or 3.
"That building is totally hostile towards human beings."
i agree, but i like that about brutalism. it's the architecture of
hatefulness. very metal.
|7.17.09 @ 10:33AM|#
Of course that's exactly what the architect was going
for.
I know! Seriously, what kind of house has closets that lock from
the inside?
|7.17.09 @ 10:36AM|#
I am sick unto death of people going out in public in saggy
shorts, wrinkled t-shirts, and flip-flops.
Should I get off your lawn, too? :-)
Don't see much of it in Houston, of course
We built one, but it sank into the swamp. We then built another,
but it sank into the swamp.....
(We do tend to make it a point to destroy any building before it
gets old enough for some idiot in govt to make it an untouchable
historical monument).
kilroy|7.17.09 @ 10:40AM|#
"I think it is associated with the state because modernism was
always about utopian ideas and the will of the architect so it
naturally appealed to planners and bureaucrats."
The one's that didn't read The
Fountainhead maybe.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 10:41AM|#
Exactly. They need to have space to be seperated from their
environment.
Si, y no. The Modernist one-story, like its cousin the ranch house,
is (or at least can be) a perfectly harmonious *response* to a
flat, outdoor-first environment. Especially at the beginning they
took the baton from the Craftsman idea that indoor/outdoor space
should be permeable.
That doesn't mean you're hiding from the street, but rather that
you assume a bit of open air and rocks and cactusses and
(hopefully) swimming pools to be part of the deal.
|7.17.09 @ 10:41AM|#
Suger Free,
Why did she cry for two hours? Was the sex that bad? Was she that
drunk? That is a pretty dramatic reaction to sex.
Citizen Nothing|7.17.09 @ 10:43AM|#
The ugliest building I have ever laid eyes on is the main library in downtown Orlando. Anyone else familiar with that monstrosity?
|7.17.09 @ 10:52AM|#
Since Citizen Nothing is incapable or too lazy, I'll do
it.
Main
Library, Orlando.
But does Citizen nothing tip me at Christmastime?
Noooo!
Citizen Nothing|7.17.09 @ 10:55AM|#
Sorry Jsub. I couldn't find a photo that sweet. Look for a little extra something in your stocking.
Seward|7.17.09 @ 10:55AM|#
I love his photographs of the Bradbury; such a cool interior (which is why it is has been milked so much by the movie industry).
|7.17.09 @ 10:55AM|#
So Matt, a good modernist rambler looks okay on a big lot in the dessert. Can't really disagree, but that is a pretty thin defense of modernism.
|7.17.09 @ 10:59AM|#
Citizen
When I lived in Orange County I used to go there quite often. I
always rather liked it, but then I've never had a real problem with
the brutalist style in the right setting.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:08AM|#
Okay, I'm a big sucker for modernism in most of it's
incarnations. Yes, it doesn't work sometimes. Brasilia (the entire
city) is a classic failure of modernism. There are plenty of
modernist houses sprinkled throughout West U. and they always look
better than the bullshit faux whatever houses they're sitting next
to. They don't need a lot of space, they just need appropriate
landscaping. The harmony between the indoor and outdoor spaces is
easier to achieve with modernism than, say, Victorian or Federal.
You also can't cram 6000 square feet of house onto a 1/4 acre lot,
but that's something everyone is guilty of these days no matter
your preferred architectural style.
Of course, part of my problem is my general disdain of traditional
house styles. I live in the beginning of the 21st century and my
house should reflect that, not some idealized recreation of 100 or
200 or 300 years ago.
Now I'm off to read my back issues of Dwell.
|7.17.09 @ 11:10AM|#
There are plenty of modernist houses sprinkled throughout
West U.
Is anyone on this thread NOT from Houston?
|7.17.09 @ 11:10AM|#
Ah, I see. I think that might be a pipe of some kind. Looks a little small to be sewer.
I wonder if there's a kitchen on the other side of that partition.
If so, I'd guess that that's the waste vent from the sink.
I sure wouldn't want to live in a house that had only partial walls
around a bathroom. And i don't think anyone else would, so I rule
that out.
|7.17.09 @ 11:14AM|#
John,
She was a sweet girl, but pretty fucked in the head. Alcoholic
father, mother-in-denial sort of fucked in the head. She was little
drunk, but they had been dating for a few months, so it wasn't a
skeevy hook-up or anything. She proceeded to get hammered post-sex
and ended up crying and screaming and had to be talked out of the
closet. Never would talk about it afterwards, but my bet was always
on repressed sex abuse trauma. Her fucktard dad always struck me as
the type.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 11:15AM|#
So Matt, a good modernist rambler looks okay on a big lot in
the dessert. Can't really disagree, but that is a pretty thin
defense of modernism.
I prefer old-fashioned desserts, actually.
Bada-BING!
My last word, since we're talking past each other: Modernism looks
*great*, not "okay," in a well-populated suburb.
|7.17.09 @ 11:19AM|#
"The harmony between the indoor and outdoor spaces is easier to
achieve with modernism than, say, Victorian or Federal."
I totally disagree. All a federal or a victorian needs is a nice
green yard and a fence. A modernist needs perfect landscaping to
look even acceptable. It look okay, if the setting is perfect, (and
an old neighborhood with big trees is never a perfect setting) and
you do awesome landscape. Matt is right. A good modernist in Palm
Springs over looking a dessert view wtih cacti and a good swimming
pool looks better than a victorian would. But in a tree lined
street in an older east coast suburb, the modernist will look
terrible.
"I live in the beginning of the 21st century and my house should
reflect that, not some idealized recreation of 100 or 200 or 300
years ago."
Why? An Italian Villa or a French Chateu could be 100s of years
old, but I take one in a minute. That is terribly antiquated
thinking. In the mid 20th Century we tore everything down and
wanted everything "new". Now we have figured out that we can
modernize old buildings and get the convienence of the modern life
but keep the architecture. Only in Japan do they bulldoze the old
and replace it with concrete.
|7.17.09 @ 11:20AM|#
"Modernism looks *great*, not "okay," in a well-populated
suburb."
Meet you someday here in Washington and I will show you 50 houses
that put lie to that.
MNG|7.17.09 @ 11:22AM|#
Has anyone done a caption for that last photo?
"Honey, really, could you stop fiddling with that and come work on
my vagina please?"
|7.17.09 @ 11:23AM|#
Sugerfree,
I would say your guess is a good one. I had a girlfriend in high
school who had been abused. We dated for a while and everything was
great. Then right in the middle of a really great make out session
she totally freaked out and was inconsolable for hours. Took three
days to get it out of her what was going on.
|7.17.09 @ 11:24AM|#
Hey John, you can go around the suburbs in Scandinavia and see great modernist homes amongst traditional, and even historic, ones. Very flat landscape too.
|7.17.09 @ 11:27AM|#
Damn, SugarFree, I went into your 11:14 am expecting more slash
fiction. Boy, did I feel bad about half-way through.
I live in the beginning of the 21st century and my house should
reflect that, not some idealized recreation of 100 or 200 or 300
years ago.
Then go right ahead. I tend to like the older homes, myself,
although I find myself appreciating top-drawer modernism more than
I used to.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:28AM|#
My last word, since we're talking past each other: Modernism
looks *great*, not "okay," in a well-populated suburb.
Damn skippy it does.
Is anyone on this thread NOT from Houston?
Spring, actually. But close enough.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:30AM|#
Only in Japan do they bulldoze the old and replace it with
concrete.
Okay, since half this thread is apparently from Houston metro, who
wants to hit this softball out of the park?
|7.17.09 @ 11:31AM|#
Okay, since half this thread is apparently from Houston
metro, who wants to hit this softball out of the park?
The Japanese had most of their old stuff flattened for them in WWII
- we do it by choice.
MNG|7.17.09 @ 11:33AM|#
"Then right in the middle of a really great make out session she
totally freaked out and was inconsolable for hours."
Dude, that's when you push for the butt-sex with that type of
girl.
|7.17.09 @ 11:34AM|#
Okay, since half this thread is apparently from Houston
metro
Maybe we should start arranging our own happy hours.
|7.17.09 @ 11:42AM|#
There is one part of Japan that is old, Keyoto. It was spared by
the war. Sadly it is not what it once was and a lot of the
beautiful old houses have been torn down. I would encourage people
to read the book Dogs and Demons for a good discussion of how Japan
in the last 30 years has walked away from nature and any of its
older buildings and replaced them with concrete.
Houston doesn't have much old because it wasn't really there until
the hurricane destroyed Galviston in 1900 and they build the
Houston ship channel. Some of the older cities in Texas, San
Antonio and Beaumont to name two have lots of old buildings.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:43AM|#
Meet you someday here in Washington and I will show you 50
houses that put lie to that.
While we're at it, can I just point out Sturgeon's Law again? Yes,
a lot of modernist homes are poorly done. But drive down any
street. Most houses are mediocre at best, no matter what
architectural style. It's just that most of what you see is
familiar dreck. You don't bat an eye at how awful it is because
it's everywhere.
Fluffy|7.17.09 @ 11:47AM|#
I would tend to agree, mostly because post-1985 construction
lacks the detail work necessary for traditional styles but
unnecessary for modernist styles.
It also is due to the fact that builders don't use the materials
originally associated with those styles, but use cheap
substitutes.
And it's also due to the fact that the proportions originally used
in such styles don't lend themselves to the floorplans consumers
now demand, and definitely don't lend themselves to the two-car
garage.
If you build in the modernist style but bow to the realities of
suburban construction in our era, you at least have the chance to
achieve something attractive if you're talented. You have no chance
to do the same in a historical style. It just looks stupid.
I certainly would love to have a French chateau or a English
country house. The originals aren't the issue. It's the bad
building done to try to ape the styles of those originals that's
the issue.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 11:49AM|#
Meet you someday here in Washington and I will show you 50
houses that put lie to that.
Washington state? Yeah, I'm not sure I'm seeing clean horizontal
lines and indoor/outdoor goodness in Gloomy McRainforest. (Relax,
my ancestral home is Portland, Ore., etc.) Though there are some
nice-looking Moderns up on the Northern California coast, I think
the Southwest is where the style makes far and away the most
sense.
|7.17.09 @ 11:50AM|#
T,
That is true. But I don't see any modernist houses around here that
are not dreck. I see lots of non-modernist ones that are quite
good. Outside of the really spectacular modernist ones out west
that are in the perfect setting, they are all bloody awful. Yeah,
there are lousy federals, but they got it right a lot of the time.
Federals are easy to do. Modernists in contrast are impossible to
do and are done badly most of the time. And even when they are done
well, they are not particularly livable. It is of course a matter
of taste, but I think a lot of people who love modernist houses
would feel differently if they ever had to live in one.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:52AM|#
I certainly would love to have a French chateau or a English
country house. The originals aren't the issue. It's the bad
building done to try to ape the styles of those originals that's
the issue.
Exactly. It drives me nuts when I see townhouses with fake beams
and whitewash on the outsides like it's some Tudor relic left over
from the 1500s. It's a townhouse in suburbia, you schmuck. And your
next door neighbor who shares a common wall redid his in Hardie
plank and painted it yellow.
|7.17.09 @ 11:52AM|#
NutraSweetie, you finance some dress purchases (stubby's found a
gold mine at ModCloth)
and I'll wear them for you.
Every day. Promise.
|7.17.09 @ 11:53AM|#
Matt,
No Washington DC. As far as washington state, I would point to
Queen Ann's hill in Seattle. A modernist would look terrible up
there next to the craftman and older homes there. It would never
work. In Washingotn, or anywhere on the Pacific Coast, unless you
can hang the house on a remote cliff, I will take a funky bungalo
built with local materials over any modern.
|7.17.09 @ 11:54AM|#
"Exactly. It drives me nuts when I see townhouses with fake
beams and whitewash on the outsides like it's some Tudor relic left
over from the 1500s."
But what about a townhose built in the victorian style? Those are
not bad. It is just that you cna't build a townhouse to look like a
Tudor. I know of several giant ass tudors in my neighborhood that
look great and are certainly not original.
T|7.17.09 @ 11:55AM|#
Modernists in contrast are impossible to do and are done
badly most of the time. And even when they are done well, they are
not particularly livable. It is of course a matter of taste, but I
think a lot of people who love modernist houses would feel
differently if they ever had to live in one.
We must be lucky here in Houston. There's a lot of them that are
well done. I've been inside some of them, and would cheerfully sell
any one of y'all for the chance to live in the ones I've been
inside.
|7.17.09 @ 11:56AM|#
Also, no townhouse build in the middle of nowhere in suburb hell is ever going to be very good modernist or not. Why not make it tudor or greek revival for that matter, it is going to suck no matter what.
|7.17.09 @ 11:57AM|#
And I was born in Houston. Until a couple of years ago, my parents lived just inside the northeast quadrant of Dairy Ashford and Westheimer.
|7.17.09 @ 11:57AM|#
"There's a lot of them that are well done. I've been inside some
of them, and would cheerfully sell any one of y'all for the chance
to live in the ones I've been inside."
Although I have never lived there, I have spent a good portion of
my life in Houston. And I hate the houses you speak of. The Houston
burbs built in the 50s and 60s are a barren wastland of crappy
ranches, ramblers and split levels. UGH!!
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 11:59AM|#
John -- Oh please please please tell me about the ugly Modern neighborhood in DC? Oh wait -- you mean on the border of Rock Creek park, about halfway up? I *like* those houses.... (Not *love*, but still.) Though most of them are right there on the edge of wilderness, further illustrating your point.
|7.17.09 @ 12:03PM|#
Bronwyn,
Nah, I'll just get my work wife to buy some. She's dressed like
Edie Sedgwick half the time anyway. And she and the wife are
already friends, so I won't get in trouble.
T|7.17.09 @ 12:24PM|#
Although I have never lived there, I have spent a good
portion of my life in Houston. And I hate the houses you speak of.
The Houston burbs built in the 50s and 60s are a barren wastland of
crappy ranches, ramblers and split levels. UGH!!
Well, to each their own, I s'pose. Plenty of quality modern
residential architecture in H-town. I will be building my own,
since I doubt I'll live inside Beltway 8 ever again.
iowahawk|7.17.09 @ 12:30PM|#
I have a 1959 midcentury modern house in Chicago and belong to
Chicago Bauhaus & Beyond, a local MCM preservationist group. In
2007 Shulman came to Chicago to photograph some houses, and I had
the chance to meet the great man. Amazing guy, the liveliest 96
year old you will ever meet. The photos he took (12 house, the only
residential photos he took in Chicago) will be released next year
in a posthumous book, which I believe will be his last.
For a great visual treat, get "Modernism Rediscovered" by Shulman
and Pierluigi Serraino, an epic collection of his stuff. I think
the next Palm Springs Modernism show in February will have a
retrospective as well.
Sad to hear he passed, but Eva Zeisel is still out there, alive and
kicking at 99 or 100.
|7.17.09 @ 12:32PM|#
"John -- Oh please please please tell me about the ugly Modern
neighborhood in DC? Oh wait -- you mean on the border of Rock Creek
park, about halfway up? I *like* those houses.... (Not *love*, but
still.) Though most of them are right there on the edge of
wilderness, further illustrating your point."
No I mean the 25 or so moderns scattered through Bethesda. They are
multi million dollar houses and well keppt up and they stink. As
far as rock creek park goes, those are okay, but anything would
look good there. Those houses look good in spite of themsevles.
|7.17.09 @ 12:35PM|#
It's the bad building done to try to ape the styles of those
originals that's the issue.
I agree completely.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 12:41PM|#
No I mean the 25 or so moderns scattered through
Bethesda.
Look forward to seeing them!
|7.17.09 @ 12:41PM|#
I will never get some Libertarians' affinity for modernist
architecture. It was decidedly unDemocratic. The people public
never liked the stuff and abadoned it as soon as they could get
planners and achitects to stop building it. It was utopian and
anti-human or everything Libertarians should hate.
Of course it was also very elitist, which I think explains its
appeal to a certain bread of Libertarian.
|7.17.09 @ 12:42PM|#
I will send you addresses Matt. It won't settle anything though. I am sure you will love the house down the street from me that looks like it should be the Newman Center at some middling college campus.
|7.17.09 @ 1:09PM|#
Okay, since half this thread is apparently from Houston metro, who wants to hit this softball out of the park?
The Japanese had most of their old stuff flattened for them in WWII - we do it by choice.
I was thinkinfg that too, Johnny Longtorso. Same for Germany. I
think it was PJ o'Rourke who said something about every big city in
Germany looking newer that Minneapolis.
I wonder if Houston does as good a job of bulldozing as Orlando.
Hopefully they haven't managed to achieve the cockup of bulldozing
everything to put up buildings that no one wants to occupy.
Fluffy|7.17.09 @ 1:11PM|#
No I mean the 25 or so moderns scattered through
Bethesda.
I'll see you Bethesda and raise you everything build in faux
historical styles from Rockville right on up.
Come on, are you seriously going to argue that the modernist houses
in Bethesda are uglier than all the ugly townhouse condo complexes
in Germantown? Puh-lease.
I will never get some Libertarians' affinity for modernist
architecture. It was decidedly unDemocratic. The people public
never liked the stuff and abadoned it as soon as they could get
planners and achitects to stop building it. It was utopian and
anti-human or everything Libertarians should hate.
For me it's pretty much a function of the fact that I hate the
overwhelming majority of post-1950 suburban development more.
There's a lot of ugly out there, but the modernists were
less ugly.
I also tend to argue [as you may have noticed] that the physical
layout of suburbia [including ugly faux historical houses] is the
result of statist land use controls and the planning process - you
could get a project approved easier if you build it in a style that
appealed to the bad taste of the local planners. This annoys me,
and I take it out on the buildings.
And there is also a part of me that reasons that if statism is [as
we always claim] economically inefficient, then surely the same
planning process and social engineering process described in the
above paragraph hindered, retarded and skewed our overall economic
development, and is the reason we don't live in some turn
of the 20th century science fiction modernist future complete with
flying cars and such.
johnl|7.17.09 @ 1:25PM|#
Some of these buildings look offputting from a distance but up close can be warm. Looking up from NKU and seeing the concrete up close and trees all around is uplifting. From the outside, eh.
Cap\'n NoStar|7.17.09 @ 1:26PM|#
Sterile photographs of sterile buildings, unfortunately, the people weren't.
qwerty|7.17.09 @ 1:31PM|#
Put me down as a lover of Modernism, both the architectual style
and of contemporary interior decorating. The common complaint
against it is that it is not "warm" or "soft" enough. Well, some us
us aren't looking for warm and soft, we're looking for cool and
awesome. I don't want my house/building to blend in with the
environment, I want it to stand above it, to say "look at how much
better humanity can make things than nature".
Modernist buildings certainly look best on their own, but I also
think they look better surrounded by other buildings. Sure, it
might not "fit in", but so what? I have no great desire to "fit
in". I want to be true to myself. One of my favorite stories was of
a couple who had a bright purple house, and a sign on the property
saying "We don't like your house either."
Yes, I did have to compromise with my wife on this stuff when we
were decorating our house. She has more regular tastes.
|7.17.09 @ 1:34PM|#
"I also tend to argue [as you may have noticed] that the
physical layout of suburbia [including ugly faux historical houses]
is the result of statist land use controls and the planning process
- you could get a project approved easier if you build it in a
style that appealed to the bad taste of the local planners."
Of course you couldn't sell that project to anyone once approved
unless you found someone who liked it. Other than the streets being
too wide, I think the layoff of the modern suburb is a response to
the market. People wanted out of cities and wanted their own yard
away from things. People don't live in suburbs because of the
oppression of planners. They live in suburbs because they like
them.
|7.17.09 @ 1:58PM|#
I think it was PJ o'Rourke who said something about every
big city in Germany looking newer that Minneapolis.
He said something along the lines of "Thanks to some high altitude
urban planning, there's nothing in Berlin older than Candice
Bergman".
|7.17.09 @ 2:11PM|#
"I think it was PJ o'Rourke who said something about every big
city in Germany looking newer that Minneapolis.
He said something along the lines of "Thanks to some high altitude
urban planning, there's nothing in Berlin older than Candice
Bergman".
Depends on the city. Some cities like Frankfurt rebuilt along
modern lines. Munich in contrast voted to rebuild along the
existing medival street lines. Interestingly, Munich is considered
by far the most livable city in Germany. Frankfurt, which is really
a parpagon of modernism is way down the list. Given a choice people
generally don't want moderism.
Matt Welch|7.17.09 @ 2:22PM|#
I will never get some Libertarians' affinity for modernist
architecture. It was decidedly unDemocratic....It was utopian and
anti-human or everything Libertarians should hate. Of course it was
also very elitist, which I think explains its appeal to a certain
bread of Libertarian.
What's the saying? When you assume you make an ass out of u and me.
Sometimes it's really ok to take a person's divergent aesthetic
tastes for what they are, rather than what you darkly imagine them
to be.
|7.17.09 @ 2:23PM|#
Plenty of modernist houses in Houston, yes. Not much made of
stone, though.
I'm not a big Modernist fan. I have a sneaking affection for the
big pastel Easter-egg colored stucco monstrosities surrounded by
statuary and palm trees that would look right at home in south
Florida but look drug-lord fucking gauche when plopped into the
middle of Bellaire.
T|7.17.09 @ 2:27PM|#
Depends on the city. Some cities like Frankfurt rebuilt
along modern lines. Munich in contrast voted to rebuild along the
existing medival street lines. Interestingly, Munich is considered
by far the most livable city in Germany. Frankfurt, which is really
a parpagon of modernism is way down the list. Given a choice people
generally don't want moderism.
You're conflating two separate, although related, issues here. You
have the building itself and you have the urban planning that went
with it. The buildings, while apparently aesthetically unappealing
to you, are considered by lots of us to be pretty sweet.
In general, the urban planning that accompanied modernist
architecture sucked ass. As you pointed out above, it was elitist
and simply oozed condescending top down control. It's why Brasilia
and Chandigarh didn't work as originally conceived and only became
livable after user modifications to the original plan.
Damn, where's joe when you need his non-political expertise?
|7.17.09 @ 2:31PM|#
No Matt I don't think you are an elist. I am sure you do really like the stuff. But I think there are people in the world who like certine things for no other reason than the masses hate them and it is a way to distinguish themselves. As far as I am concerned claiming to love brutalist architecture is usually the same as people who only like bands no one has ever heard of.
|7.17.09 @ 2:32PM|#
"Damn, where's joe when you need his non-political
expertise?"
True. I actually liked talking architecture and urban planning with
him. As long as the subject didn't in any way involve the
Democratic Party, Joe could be a very reasonable guy.
|7.17.09 @ 2:33PM|#
T,
Some day I would like visit Brazilia just to see it. What a bizzare
idea and place it must be.
|7.17.09 @ 3:02PM|#
At the end of the day, I like visiting modernist buildings and apartments, but wouldn't want to live there. Just a matter of taste.
T|7.17.09 @ 3:27PM|#
At the end of the day, I like visiting modernist buildings
and apartments, but wouldn't want to live there. Just a matter of
taste.
No, it's scientifically provable modernism makes cleaner, brighter,
happier people! Well, that's the attitude they had in the 50s,
anyway. We're gonna drive that Machine for Living into the glorious
post-war future! I just like the buildings.
I'm also still disappointed in the lack of flying cars and moon
flights from Pan Am. I'm still awaiting the future I was promised,
but at least I can have the house.
|7.17.09 @ 3:38PM|#
"No, it's scientifically provable modernism makes cleaner,
brighter, happier people! Well, that's the attitude they had in the
50s, anyway. We're gonna drive that Machine for Living into the
glorious post-war future! I just like the buildings."
You have to remember we hadn't figured out how to update old
buildings in the 50s. Old buildings were just crappy. In the 50s a
lot of middle class people lived in crappy appartments in the big
cities (The Honeymooners was not an exageration) and they wanted
out. If you were living in a rundown three room flat in Broklyn, a
brand new sleek modern home in Jersey or Long Island was
paradise.
Mike Laursen|7.17.09 @ 3:59PM|#
At the end of the day, I like visiting modernist buildings
and apartments, but wouldn't want to live there. Just a matter of
taste.
50s Modernist homes are great, provided you update them with truly
modern technology like insulation and double-glazed windows. Or you
just like living in extreme heat and cold.
|7.17.09 @ 4:24PM|#
I will never get some Libertarians' affinity for modernist
architecture. It was decidedly unDemocratic
You may not have noticed, but by and large libertarians aren't big
fans of democracy. We prefer limited government to democratic
government.
|7.17.09 @ 5:05PM|#
"You may not have noticed, but by and large libertarians aren't
big fans of democracy. We prefer limited government to democratic
government."
Unless and until you find a philosopher king or Christ returns to
earth, democratic government is the only hope for a limited
government. There is no such thing as a small enlightened small
government dictator.
Mike Laursen|7.17.09 @ 10:50PM|#
The people public never liked the stuff and abadoned it as
soon as they could get planners and achitects to stop building it.
It was utopian and anti-human or everything Libertarians should
hate.
That just isn't true of the modernist neighborhoods here in the Bay
Area. The Eichler homes and imitations were a big hit from the
start, and still are a hit. A lot of the appeal depends on having a
nice climate where all the glass walls can blend with the outdoors,
so it might not translate to areas with rougher climate.
A lot of builders didn't get modernism and still don't.
Mike Laursen|7.18.09 @ 12:11AM|#
Ultimately, I think this is why modern architecture failed.
It is too separate from its environment.
Oh, wow. You really got that completely 100 percent wrong.
Mike Laursen|7.18.09 @ 12:21AM|#
We dated for a while and everything was great. Then right in
the middle of a really great make out session she totally freaked
out and was inconsolable for hours.
Yeah, been there. Geez, when I think about it, every girlfriend
I've had has had major father issues. That's depressing.
|7.18.09 @ 9:03PM|#
God I miss that world, and that future. So full of promise and endless horizons compared to this grubby, vapid, eco-whining, fascistic reality we've created. :(
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