Graves came out swinging. "I saw some people outside selling tomatoes," he said. "I have no idea what that meant."
He complained about his treatment in the local news media: "350 buildings, and I don't have this treatment anywhere else. . . Usually when I revisit buildings, it's to get the keys to the city. Here, there are tomatoes for sale."
— oregonlive.com
61 Comments
Strange how thinking about context equates to lack of expression. Seems like plenty of expression in WW2 architecture. Plus, I thought rote work was hard, not constantly having to re-think the program. That's what keeps it interesting IMHO.
Miles - went to the basement, this is all I will show you, should be enough to convince you. The house had round ship windows, when is the last time you saw Richard Meier do that? You seem to be wrong about a lot of things Miles.
Burr-Hamilton Duel (remember)
according to a client, I've been working for years on a Hamilton family mansion in the city, I have yet to confirm this, but it sure as hell would qualify.
Either way "Burr - A Novel" by Gore Vidal is sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read, buddy got it for my birthday..
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back to discussion - Thayer-D says "I thought rote work was hard, not constantly having to re-think the program"
Doing good work within stringent guidelines is hard. Its what most uncelebrated architects do daily. I agree.
look I was doodling, if I qoute some fancy pants philosophy and win a competition - I'm thinking right? I'm cutting the edge. Most people cut the edge nightly in their dreams.
"Grave's work gave many the cover to break out of the modernist monopoly, at least intellectually, and explore their personal passions, whether they be the local vernacular, regional styles, or random historical architects they might have admired. Pomo was simply the style that broke the spell. That's why it had to be so 'ironic', to give the establishment a way to digest such heresy. What a joke!"
I liked Thayer-D's point if serious.
I was serious Chris. I was just talking to my wife about how architects seem to be so uptight about history and decoration. Architects do concept and structure and while decorators make you want to live there? Bullshit. How many talented architects have we lost to set designs in Hollywood because they can't bear having to justify something that brings them and others so much joy? How many other professions hide behind words as much as architects? I thought architecture was predominantly a visual art. How would a modern day Vasari have written about Koolhaas? Too many questions I know, but sometimes joking is all you can do.
Chris, what's up with the shitty aggressive attitude?
And the empty box you posted doesn't convince me of anything. Show me the house and I'll stand corrected.
@Miles looks like Chris posted an image of plans of Wainscott showing Graves as architect. Do you not see it? Or did he fix link, since?
“I’ve always admired Charles Jencks’s assertion that it is the first Post-Modern building ‘to show that one can build with art, ornament, and symbolism on a grand scale.’ It matched Graves’s own confidence as a designer. It may have given us little to look back on, but it is a lightning rod of a superconfident past.”
Sarah Whiting
I (heart) Sarah Whiting. That's a great quote, Robert Cha!
good news for Graves
You just have to love the bullshit arty justification for bad architecture.
Or not.
Chop off the dumb cornices and paint the whole thing yellow. Done!
It really is the interior of the building that is the problem. The exterior is what most people focus on, as it is what makes the Portland Building exemplary. But the inside is incredibly bad. My school has a yearly trip to Portland for a 3rd year studio, so of course we went by the building during our tour. I decided to go inside, actually I was the only one to go in there, don't know if others knew something I didn't, but I was shocked, it was dark, claustrophobic, and oppressive. This is what those that work there everyday experience, an architecturally extraordinary building, with arguably the worst interior of any building in downtown PDX.
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