...hmm, thread is fraying, but...
The NY Post had this weird story about Maya Lin influencing the selection process. Not sure that she’s an “architect” per se, but her Vietnam memorial is one of very few successful public works using the vocabulary of contemporary art (contemporary as of the 70s, anyway.) Her only mistake was not putting a commercial/residential tower on top of the wall. The irony of her success is the devaluation of her grammar for the next generation, leading to the stale, “friendly minimalism” of so many of these designs.
“friendly minimalism” is that like “architectural humanism?”
I was struck by the fact that so many of the WTC memorial proposals, shortlisted or not, read as temporary installations. Aren't memorials supposed to last forever, or well, longer than even a building’s lifetime?
|
The NY Post had this weird story about Maya Lin influencing the selection process. Not sure that she’s an “architect” per se, but her Vietnam memorial is one of very few successful public works using the vocabulary of contemporary art (contemporary as of the 70s, anyway.) Her only mistake was not putting a commercial/residential tower on top of the wall. The irony of her success is the devaluation of her grammar for the next generation, leading to the stale, “friendly minimalism” of so many of these designs.
- alex 2-10-2004 9:50 pm
“friendly minimalism” is that like “architectural humanism?”
I was struck by the fact that so many of the WTC memorial proposals, shortlisted or not, read as temporary installations. Aren't memorials supposed to last forever, or well, longer than even a building’s lifetime?
- anonymous (guest) 2-10-2004 11:17 pm [3 comments]