If Donald Trump were a building, he’d be Baroque-a-cola: It’s bombastic, pretentious, clumsy, tacky and absolutely over the top, just like he is. Most Baroque-a-cola structures are in the form of showy townhouses or McMansions, but downtown Denver has been unlucky enough to have witnessed the erection of several high-rises of the type... — Westword
Denver does have its historic architectural gems, but several recent developments in the city have been dull, if not straight-up hideous (What's with all the random patches of brick?). Writer Michael Paglia dives into Denver's “sea of awful architecture” and lists the city's “Hateful Eight” buildings.
Previously on Archinect:
How Denver is failing at Good Design
Jeff Sheppard calls downtown Denver's new housing developments "meaningless, uninspiring"
11 Comments
If this erection lasts more than four hours, please see your doctor... to renew your cyanide prescription.
This article is almost as bad as the architecture it showcases.
Perhaps stepping up the criticism game in Denver and talking to people about real cultural issues and our shared built legacy in adult terms would help spur more serious thought and introspection about what the citizens of Denver want their city to look like.
Perhaps this is just one of the many interesting side effects of legalizing cannabis.
the 'arts and crap' is what i saw all over denver and more so boulder. i probably spent more time around the fringes of the city though. the other styles seem to be trying to replicate palladio with all the scrolls and arches and columns, or similar pomo without the irony. the villa barbaro was not a 15 story building in an urban environment. it just doesn't work, especially when executed in this weird wedding cake manner.
denver arts and craps has potential. detail it right, use decent materials, and you'll have a fine place to live or work. the original arts and crafts movement considered how different materials behave and how they go together. if the arts and craps movements can keep that spirit with materials and methods more available in the real world they live in now, then more power to them.
I have found that a lot of development here is driven by out of town developers who are choosing to invest in Denver and then deliver bottom line driven stuff. Lipstick on pigs.
Luv ya! Mwah!
Classicism meets parametricism. More proof they need to teach students how to compose traditionally styled buildings. In the mean time, lay on the lipstick!
i highly doubt any form of parametricism was used with the prado building. the lesson i get out of it is to quit using traditional-styled ornamentation, but i guess everyone sees their own shadows in the cave.
maybe this is why ornament is crime. the pig really was more beautiful before tintt had to go and lipstick it up. it would be even more beautiful if it was crispy bacon.
I was kidding about parametricism of course, this building is a jumble. But if a developer and a neighborhood want to see something 'traditional' for whatever crazy reason, wouldn't it be better if it was well done? Same thing for a modernist building, the aesthetic is much more important than anything that comes out of an architect's mouth.
Agree about the bacon though.
i agree. doing a good job is better than doing a bad job, which applies to traditional ornamentation, modern design, lack of ornamentation, landscaping, and several other things.
you know who does lipstick right? drag queens. when i go to the bar or whatever i might throw on a hat and call it good, which in my book is going out of my way to dress up. those folks have long term planning, then a pretty significant amount of preparation before they can even get themselves in a position to throw on a dress and head out. what's mundane to me becomes art and culture and fabulous to them. much respect to the drag queens.
^archanonymous I couldn't agree more.
It seems that Denver's inability to take itself seriously is a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is this idea that they can just fill some sort of cultural or modernity gap by landing a Graves or Libeskind UFO into the blackhole they call downtown.
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