Stern's architecture is always steeped in strategic references to past landmarks; there is no doubt he knows how to send, and shape, an architectural message. And the message the front entrance to the Bush Library delivers is clear: This is a building meant to honor a particularly blunt and plain-spoken kind of political power. — latimes.com
34 Comments
LOL!
A faux-old edifice rises.
GWB & Stern, perfect match.
I wonder if they have a copy of My Pet Goat.
damn, you guys
I wuz gonna make a joke about how painful anal rape was
but after you two, it just seemed excessive.
It has a vaguely fascist tone, kind of appropriate.
"George W. Bush Institute"
I can't tell if they're being sarcastic or not?
Anyway, I'm surprised that the proportions seem off: the horizontal fascia supporting the words seems to thin in comparison to the mass of stone above the windows on the second floor. Then the pergola on top is a different vertical/horizontal proportion yet again. I'm actually a big fan of this kind of stripped-down super-modern fascist-looking architecture (not the philosophy, just the appearance) but the proportions have to be *perfect* and in this photo they aren't.
@Donna - it's short for "the George W. Bush institute for kids that can't read good."
also - is that an abstracted front entrance to the white house? wtf?
LOL, toaster.
I agree that the proportions and the hierarchy of the elements is a bit off. The larger second story windows in the entry arcade dwarf the first story door and window below - it seems weirdly top heavy. Not my favorite RAMSA building, that's for sure.
I'm also a fan of that kind of stripped down classicism, but I personally wish we'd stop referring to it as fascist. Paul Cret was a real master of that style, and his architecture had no connection to fascism whatsoever. It's too bad that that genre has been tarnished by political history.
EKE, Your right, it's stupid to refer this style as fascist. This was an international style and every kind of political persuasion employed it. In fact discrediting any style becasue of who used it is silly considering you can find every style associated with pretty much the whole political spectrum. This dosen't mean styles aren't used politically, but like with many concepts architects hold dear, these underlying narratives are usually illegible to the average person. The front piece comes off a bit like a broach, where it dosen't quite hold the rest of the building together, despite the belt courses. Maybe it's the lack of windows, the sides remind me of a 1980's Lord and Taylors.
It looks like my old Elementary School which is appropriate for GW I guess.
Did anyone else read the related(ish) interview (subscription req) Mark Lamster did as part of his review of the building for Dallas Morning News?
Mr. Lamster offered a preview as it were over at his Design Observer blog here
How would you describe your architecture?
I’m a modern traditionalist.
What does that mean?
I like to look back to traditions — not only the way things looked in the past, but how they were composed and conceptualized, and then address contemporary problems based on that understanding and knowledge. This is not a building that has a full panoply of classical motifs. But it is a building that has the discipline of classical architecture. I would like to think that it speaks to this moment but also much longer into the future. There are many buildings that are up to the minute, but the minute goes, the clock ticks, and sometimes buildings are trapped in their moment.
Why do you think the Bushes selected you?
I think I was chosen because I have a pretty good working knowledge of history, American history especially; I have a sense that a building is not about me but is about the purpose of the building; and I have an ability to make buildings that have high integrity but are also accessible to a lot of people. This is a building where people will come in pickup trucks and RVs. It’s a building for the American people as a whole, and so it has to be understood and appreciated by a wide and diverse public. President Bush may be a controversial figure, but he has enormous affection in a wide number of people in America.
it's totally a bastardized entrance to the white house. except the white house has better proportions.
sorry - best pic I could find.
I dunno about you guys, but to me this is more like someone trying project an image of legitimacy.
Except we get this sad little copy superimposed onto an elementary school.
It's essentially a tetrastyle temple portico. It's a configuration that has been used countless times since Greek antiquity. The White House is one example.
Good point, EKE and Thayer. I will stop referring to it as fascist. I like "International Style Classicism".
Also, notice the "landscape feature" of truck-bomb-proof bollards all along the front. Depressing. But fitting as a feature on a building devoted to the president who did the most to ensure that terrorist attacks would become commonplace. They should be more featured.
Copy-paste!
you can find every style associated with pretty much the whole political spectrum.
99% of the time, the faux-old style aligns itself with political parties yearning for the bygone. Even Cret while a crypto-fascist at Penn, drove a young I.M. Pei to leave.
This building and the movement it represents will do the caveman and go extinct.
*so-called "movement"
Hadn't even noticed the bollards. Maybe the "coupola" feature could light up with what ever color coded threat level we're supposed to be afraid of. Thanks George!
LOL Thayer.
Save the cupola/lantern and appendages at top, it looks like any post-Fascist modernist train station somewhere in central or northern Italy. It's pretty bad. Maybe Stern doesn't like Bush. I've seen better theses than that.
There is also an "extraordinary rendition" exhibit in the basement where you can be water boarded and don't forget to try out the audio-tour where you're aurally blasted with the torturous tone of Dubya narrating as he makes mince-meat of the English language.
How exactly was Cret a crypto-fascist?
Donna et al
Over at Atlantic Cities blog Henry Grabar used phrase "Texas Modern". Also had a photo ft inside of the "cupola" feature.
Although I don't like the whole aesthetic that is one "sexy" atrium...
OMG no.
A better view of the building.
Looks better from this side. I wish they'd build these things. In an urban environment though. The 'arms' might be more than just a compositional element.
zomg, loving the bollards & security cameras as prominent landscaping elements.
Don't it feel good to come home! /sarcasm
I have to admit this building is growing on me. It feels dirty to say so..... haha.
As far as the entrances go--it's nice. But that brick modernism in the rest of the building is where it goes wrong for me. It screams "my 1950s high school"
Although I don't like the whole aesthetic that is one "sexy" atrium...
It's one cluttered atrium. The amount of, and style of, the detailing is inconsistent with the rest of the building. I really don't like much about the building. The only thing missing is another civic building to commemorate Rick Perry. Now that would be scary, befitting "Scary Perry."
I wonder whether GWB will ever visit this building, seeing that it is a library. Btw, Robert Stern recently wrote a foreword to the reprinted Krier book on Albert Speer. Go figure.
I wonder whether GWB will ever visit this building, seeing that it is a library.
Classic! Probably not. I think that whatever library time he did at Harvard Business School fried whatever brain cells he had left.
No comments about the "mountain-sky-water" mural wrapping the interior atrium second floor level? I don't understand how it is relevant or appropriate. Some input, please.
tetra means four (yum taxonomy - always super helpful)
tera means monster.
seems terastyle to me.
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