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Where is your evidence for "American indifference to architecture"? Frank Lloyd Wright and some of the greatest architects in the modern era would like a word w
by WhompingWindows 6y ago
Where is your evidence for "American indifference to architecture"? Frank Lloyd Wright and some of the greatest architects in the modern era would like a word with you. Not only is America the home for much of the avant garde in art, but our wealthy populace and cities have powered all kinds of movements that wouldn't have gotten off the ground in other countries with much more restrictive rules about architectural style.
- ghostly_s 6y agoHa! FLW certainly would did not have many flattering things to say about the attitudes of America at large towards architecture.
- kansface 6y agoOnly ~10% of all homes in the US were designed by architects, and it shows.
- JackFr 6y agoConfess your unpopular opinion: Frank Lloyd Wright is terrible. Fallingwater was unsound from the day it was built, and despite extra-reinforcing by the contractor when built, the cantilevered balconies needed to be fixed multiple times to ensure the safety of the building. New York's Guggenheim has a design that looks good on paper and in isolation, but in person looks shoddy, as the smooth concrete seams are not quite so smooth as in the design drawings. Additionally, Fifth Avenue in the 80's & 90's on the Upper East Side has many absolutely gorgeous Gilded Age mansions, museums and churches, which fit well with one another, while the spiral of the Guggenheim thumbs its nose and screams "Look at me!" like an obnoxious teenager. I'll see myself out.
- StillBored 6y agoAnd overwhelmingly his buildings were known to leak and have various other problems that generally made them inhabitable. So, while they look nice, they are the very essence of form over function. In my book a device (building) that fails in its primary purpose (to provide shelter) is a failure despite how nice it might look.