A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

10 Responses to A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter

1. Thee Earl of Obvious says:

   October 28, 2009 at 11:52 am

   Look at this thing he designed at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland:

   http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/peterblewis/index.htm
2. Lynn says:

   October 28, 2009 at 12:54 pm

   A "guy who gets lots of press for designing buildings that look like wads of crumpled tin foil". Seriously! I like several different styles of architecture and I can easily tolerate many more but I do expect buildings to look like buildings.
3. Derek J. Punaro says:

   October 28, 2009 at 1:51 pm

   Generally, I prefer a different style of architecture, but you have to at least give the guy credit for being able to design buildings that look like that and don't fall down.

   Remember, people laughed at Frank Lloyd Wright when he designed the Guggenheim.
4. fillyjonk says:

   October 28, 2009 at 3:11 pm

   I only know him as the only architect (AFAIK) who was ever featured on The Simpsons. So I'd probably lean towards the "wads of tin foil" camp.
5. Lynn says:

   October 28, 2009 at 3:42 pm

   I'm still laughing at Frank Lloyd Wright. Or at least he's in my "merely tolerate" category.
6. jason says:

   October 28, 2009 at 4:19 pm

   Another vote for "wads of tinfoil." I loathe Frank Gehry's designs. They're classic examples of "the emperor's new clothes," monstrosities that people believe are works of genius because the guy who designed them and his sycophants say they are. They're ugly on their own terms, but I find them especially irksome because Gehry never takes the surrounding landscape into account, so they stick out like sore thumbs. Ever hear about the Disney Concert Hall in LA and its deadly heat rays? Seems that Gehry never stopped to consider that highly polished aluminum would reflect uncomfortable levels of sunlight and heat onto nearby buildings and sidewalks.
7. blue girl says:

   October 28, 2009 at 7:38 pm

   I totally choose the crumpled tin foil route. He has a building in Cleveland and it's just….goofy. I *want* to appreciate what a lot of other people seem to appreciate but I always get the feeling they've been had.
8. blue girl says:

   October 28, 2009 at 7:41 pm

   Ooops, missed Three Earl's comment above. Yes. Look at that thing. Plus, I've heard and read that it leaks like crazy.

   I wish Peter Lewis would hire me to do something…
9. Roger Owen Green says:

   October 29, 2009 at 9:01 pm

   Some of FL Wright's buildings also leaked like crazy, I'm told.

   Anyway, tin foil.
10. Anonymous says:

    October 31, 2009 at 3:13 am

    When FL Wright and Gehry first appeared, their buildings were considered works of genius, and the 40% swing voters loved them. Now others have come along with broader viewpoints plus enough time to catalogue everything that went wrong with Wright and Gehry, so the 40% swing vote now refers to their works as crumpled tin foil. It is a matter of historical fact that they were considered geniuses in their pre-green movement times. I suppose the 40% swing voters also prefer 1970s perfectly boring rectangular structures now, and that's nearly all that would have been seen for several decades had it not been for Gehry's curvy, demanding designs.

    Furthermore, what of the interior spaces? Every Gehry interior I've seen has been gorgeous.

    All who say "tin foil" are basically saying, "build us a bunch of boring boxes, please," or, alternatively, are limited by an however sublime Puritan ethic which suggests that curves and curviness are inherently bad.

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