2015.07.18 19:00
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
I seem to recall that the Varga-Brigio Medical Office Building (1966-68) was also originally painted institutional green. The project is featured in Learning from Las Vegas (1st edition), but alas the photographs are black and white.
Or perhaps I'm confusing Vargo-Brigio with the Brant House (1974).
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2015.07.19 13:22
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
No one said "industrial green". You can google/bing institutional green, however.
Yes, there is indeed a connection to Breuer as how he said one should never apply green to a building, but note the shade of green Venturi ultimately used. DK called it "bureaucracy green" while I called it institutional green, and both names imply an everyday, generic green (which, at the time, was being shunned by designers). Venturi's choice of color was thus doubly going against the grain.
An architecture school classmate of mine became an associate at VSBA, and he used to say his favorite bathroom was actually the one at my old house. Now I fully understand why.
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2015.07.19 15:03
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
It seems to me that Venturi made two choices: 1. to paint a building green in opposition to Breuer's statement, then 2. picking institutional green in opposition to designer's sentiment at the time. That Venturi chose a primarily interior green for the exterior is then a third example/choice of his going against the grain.
The shade of green Venturi chose doesn't have much to do with Breuer at all.
2015.07.19 16:18
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
Venturi wrote "A Not So Gentle Manifesto" in 1994; it's published in Iconography and Electronic upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room (1996).
2015.07.20 16:27
With modern Charleston building off the table, Clemson looking to lease space for its architecture center
Volunteer, the immediate surroundings of George and Meeting streets are a real mish-mash of building quality and style, not unlike any US city these days. Stop trying to ram you biases down our throats.
2015.07.20 17:09
With modern Charleston building off the table, Clemson looking to lease space for its architecture center
I suspect it's only a group of biased people of Charleston that are against the contemporary design. Not deserving of respect.
2015.07.20 17:51
With modern Charleston building off the table, Clemson looking to lease space for its architecture center
The bias here means having a strongly felt position on what kind of architecture is NOT appropriate for Charleston. Like I said already, the whole surroundings of George and Meeting streets are a real mish-mash of building quality and style, not unlike any US city these days, thus demonstrating a pretty much anything-goes policy there. The bias against the Clemson design is very specific. Double standards is not deserving of respect.
2015.07.20 18:17
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
Actually, I ignore the bullshit (and biases), and pay lots of attention to the reality.
2015.07.21 10:02
The Vanna Venturi House is for sale
It's true that radical ideas and theory don't necessarily make for good architecture, but, in the case of Venturi, the radical ideas and theory did make for good architecture (and a very busy office, indeed). That's why the work of Venturi et al is a big part of late 20th century architectural history. They earnestly practiced what the preached--no hypocrisy, no double standard, just integrity. And, not to forget, Venturi himself possesses a very special design talent; not only does he know architecture, he knows how to design it anew.
To blame Venturi for the inferior architecture of others is where the actual bullshit (and incorrect knowledge of architectural history) lies.
Personally, I like to judge architecture like Revelations 3:16: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." You see, it's the mediocre that's not worth anything, (and that goes for mediocre criticism as well).
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