oops.

here it was

The bastards got the Tricorn by Rodney Gordon in Portsmouth . Gordon was strongly influenced by the key modernists of the twentieth century: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.










And for what you may ask.

"... development including the site of the Tricorn plus part of the northern section of Commercial Road, where plans for a new shopping centre have been allowed to be submerged in the accompanying road plans. This very large cleared area is a wonderful opportunity to create a spacious, dignified and well designed new quarter of the city centre. Unfortunately, with these proposals we were offered instead a hefty over over-development that does not give us the things people want. The public consultation expressed wishes for a variety of facilities: a public auditorium for exhibitions and concerts, a market, a pond with fountain, something for teenagers, a gym for children (of course there is one already - Pitt Street Baths - but the plan is to banish it to the Mountbatten Centre), open area: a park or a piazza, large covered market, a bus station, an IKEA store, an ice-skating rink. There was a suggestion to re-route the roads so that the Victory Retail Park, at present isolated, should be a real part of the shopping centre, an area of small trades like Brighton Lanes, but this was ignored. We objected to the application and made a deputation to the Committee. Our main points included the lack of any kind of cultural centre: there is nothing to draw people to the centre once the shops are shut; and the proposed destruction of the attractive park which at present forms the green setting for St Agatha's church - to be replaced by buildings hemming it in. Pitt Street Baths, the former Royal Naval School of Physical Training, now used as the regional centre for gymnastics, is to be demolished for the access road. We showed pictures of the marvellous green wedge that that enhances the approach to the city on the central reservation between the carriageway of Mile End Road and the trees surrounding the Church Street roundabout - all to be cleared, unintended consequences of an ill-thought through plan. Our voices went unheard: the outline application was approved by the Development Control Committee on 19th October 2005. At the same time a detailed transport plan for the area much bigger than the Tricorn site itself was approved. This permanent plan has dire environmental consequences and it was the main target of our objections and our deputation."

love the first image on BOTS' post.

speaking of a war on Modernism, did anybody happen to catch any of the last season of This Old House?

yeah, I saw a few episodes of modern homes on there. It really shocked me, especially given the name. There were some great examples and I have to tip my hat to the producers for putting them on the show.

I really hope the bigger=better era dies soon (I'd also wish all the Mcmansion owners lose tons on them, but that'd be mean)

I think this is the house you're talking about... I saw most o the season. It's a shame someone with so much money to throw around knows so little about what he's doing with it!

Here it was before.

That's the one. So much for preserving a mid-century modern house that could have been very nice with just some relatively minor modifications. Instead they spent ungodly amounts of money to build a house that in my view bastardizes modernism as much as a McMansion bastardizes classical styles.

The renovations appear to be in the prarie style, popularized by Frank LLoyd Wright. The old house did need some major updates, although it was solidly built. I enjoyed the show because they did some very interesting things, but in the end, they still killed an old house. I have a couple of friends who are renovating their 100 year old house, and they wanted to go all mod with it, however I convinced them that restoration to the original state would be the way to go!

To me it feels like the architect for the renovation was trying to reconcile the Prarie style (the wood, the stone, the overhangs, the overall massing) with the International Style (the blocky forms, the white stucco, the ribbon windows, the flat roofs, the clean & unembellished detailing).

Hmmmm...

i think it's such a shame that any victorian, [fill in the blank] revival, or "colonial" building is not only worth of "preservation," but is also "historic." meanwhile, any modernist building, and there are plenty of local beauties in addition all the high modernism, should be redone as a victorian, [fill in the blank] revival, or "colonial." not only is this bad for modernism, which were are failing to produce and losing at any astounding rate, but also to the true gems of any of those styles or periods by making a mockery of, and thus devaluing them.
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

That's funny you say that. Tom Wolfe's book "From Bauhaus to Our House" talks about how modernism was basically forced upon people by the white towers of the greats and in many cases it really isn't approriate for its given use. People don't want to live in stark, cramped, rigid white boxes. It's a really funny book and makes you say, "hmm, that guy has some pretty good points." He talks about how miserable workers housing is and so forth. So maybe the people who are revivalizing are just going back to what they think in comfortable rather than what the architect tells them they should like. It's about 100 pages, quick read, everyone should pick it up.

interestingly enough, i would argue that clients of mine who request and support modern architecture tend to be more conservative people. most towns and cities that have provisions about design and limit the self-expression of architects and building owners tend to be more liberal people. it is my experience that the only people who can secure the significant funds for good architecture are conservative.

bastardized modernism is just as bad if not worse than bastardized historicism.

^ but less obvious and therefore less painful .. in the end it makes more sense to adapt the aesthetics of a 70 year old house than the facade composition of a 300 year old villa...

I watched almost that entire saga of the "international" style home they did on This Old House. What got me is for the money spent and the scope involved, why didn't he just demolish and start over. Granted, the show is about fixing old homes, but where's the old home? The best part of the series was all the tours that they took of real modern homes around the country.

oh, and didn't Hitler hate modernism?

so tearing them down could be compared to nazisism? Ha ha.

highest and best use. go make something of yourselves and quit dwelling on irrelevant topics.

or hasselhoff, they are going back to what the tower greats like tom wolfe have sold them on in terms of a false history. i find his writing as much about the salesmanship about his particular pedagogy as any of the architectural manifestoes of the early twentieth century. i think the issue with this topic is "are we valuing our modern history as much as our nineteenth century history" and i think the issue is that the nineteenth century has been romanticized, especially within the US because of our lack of history, and the twentieth century is just now beginning to be looked at as history, especially in regards to the built environment. the ridiculous nature of many of wolfe's arguments is that just as many of modernism's applications of itself as a style produced ill-suited projects, so did the colonialist architecture of other historical periods or the application of tenement housing within cities during the nineteenth century....remember many of the technologies of modernism are what have made living in history bearable now...and probably is part of the reason for dilemma we now face in terms of the negotiability of style.

Good points. I can't really argue history or theory because I don't know anything about either. I just liked that book. A, I made a funny poster about Hilter for studio, but never used it.

modernists were conservative bastards so i don't understand the point of your thread

BOTS, are you advocating against razing down that monstrosity or otherwise?

Hitler & Cos hatred of modernism can be oversimplified to essentially two reasons: the real and perceived leftist (communist) sympathies of the modernist movement during the “revolution” of 1918-19 and the perception that modernism (in art as well as architecture) was anti-Germanic; that it sprung from foreign (or bastard, or Jewish) influences. Essentially, the rabid nationalism of the Nazis could not tolerate art or architecture not produced by those of pure blood, or those who did not ape the traditional Germanic idiom.
The Bauhaus was a lighting rod for controversy, the Marxist sympathies of Gropius and the barely concealed communist leanings of Hannes Meyer being well known to the national socialists. Mies was apolitical and strove to separate the business of modernism from politics, sensing that the survival of the Bauhaus depended on it- but it was too little, too late.

It is interesting that there is nothing inherently anti-fascist about modernism, as the Italian futurists and fascist regime in that country got along quite well. Rather, it was the particular brand of nationalism in Germany that created the persistent associations of modernism with leftist politics.

I think conservative here simply means restraint or reluctance in a willingness to explore "non-traditional" architecture, and may have nothing to do with politics. I agree with what someone said about many liberals being anti-modernists. Even Cambridge, Mass, which is liberal in almost everyway and a sort of haven for experimental and modern art forms is not at all friendly to modernist architecture. and what a shame.