2015.05.24 13:33
Stop the presses: Paul Goldberger's take on critical relevance in the social media age
The "lineage" goes back even more. Among the critics on Venturi's 1950 Princeton thesis are George Howe and Louis Kahn. George Howe was Chair of the Architectural Department at Yale from 1950 to 1954. That's when Louis Kahn (a sometimes partner with Howe during the 1940s) also taught at Yale. Scully writes Louis I. Kahn (1962) wherein he twice cites student Robert Stern whose thesis is on George Howe. Spring 1963 Venturi is a visiting critic at Yale, overseeing a master's class studio on precast concrete, which he teaches with the chair of the department, Paul Rudolph.
(Rounding out the "Philadelphia School" theme) Goldberger wrote a nice piece on "Works of Mitchell/Giurgola" in a+u 75:12.
One of these days I'll computer model the Brant House Addition, a Venturi addition to a Venturi house. Not too dissimilar to Mom goes eclectic.
And regarding Paul Goldberger's take on critical relevance in the social media age, I'm thinking somewhere between "In the future everything (critical) will be an advertisement" and "In the future everything (critical) will be self-published." Yikes, does that mean in the present/future everything critical will be a self-published advertisement?!
2015.06.08 10:50
New photos of E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel unveiled to mark 35th anniversary
I wish I could find that Scott Brown quote from a year or two ago where she says Venturi is no longer interested in architecture. Perhaps it was only me, but the way it was phrased conjured up scenes from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.
Coincidentally, James Stirling died 25 June 1992.
2015.06.08 11:58
New photos of E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel unveiled to mark 35th anniversary
I found the quotation:
Q: As a result of that story, a group of women graduate students at Harvard launched a petition asking that the Pritzker committee recognize your work. What is Mr. Venturi’s opinion of all this? Didn’t he recently sign the petition?
A: He signed the petition, yes. Read what he wrote. Bob believes—how does he put it: “Excuse nothing. Explain nothing.” So he wanted to put something that represents his feelings and didn’t excuse and explain. I think he did something very cool and very nice. It’s also hard for him. It’s hard on many levels. By the way, they said he is unwell. He isn’t unwell, he is just old. He doesn’t really want to be involved in architecture very much—or in this quarrel.
2015.06.08 13:20
New photos of E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel unveiled to mark 35th anniversary
A week or two ago, I saw some images of Wright's Imperial Hotel (Tokyo, 1915-22) and then seriously started to wonder whether this Wright design was a bit of a touchstone for VSBA's Hotel Mielparque Resort Complex (Nikko, Kirifuri, Japan, 1992-97). A view of the Imperial Hotel's Peacock Room Banquet Hall is particularly evocative of the 'decorativeness' at Hotel Mielparque. I was once told that Venturi is/was very private as to the 'inspirations' behind any given project, so one is then more or less left guessing, thus I don't find it hard to imagine Venturi looking at an(other) earlier leading American architect's hotel architecture in Japan as he himself was about venture into designing a very similar type of project.
Implanting oneself into a 'tradition' or "when an American designing a hotel in Japan, do what Wright would do."
Just a minute ago read this in Stanislaus von Moos, Venturi Scott Brown & Associates 1986-1998: "The colored rendering of the [Hotel Mielparque] spa building, first of all, recall Frank Lloyd Wright."
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