Holl picks up awards for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Department of Philosophy at NYU, and Linked Hybrid in Beijing. More info and images at Bustler
Steven Holl is the last bastion of post-modern architecture. Because he didn't invest in the neoclassical themes of his immediate predecessors, he was able to slip under the radar and produce cartoons under the guise of pastel washes and poetry. What meaning can this possibly have in architecture today?
Where Michael Graves executed countless inflated stucco renditions of the Laurentian Library, Holl makes similar formal and material maneuvers around (for example) Ronchamp in his St. Ignatius Chapel, which somehow has also caused cascades of laurels to be flung his way. Lately he seems to be cartooning OMA with the same cheap effect, and he is still being showered in praise.
I'm baffled, and always have been, by the Holl thing. There's important work going on out there that gets half the recognition of this stuff.
those neoclassical themes are as much "po-mo" as anything else, especially because it represents a eclecticism of forms, and even neoclassical isn't quite right, since what you descirbe with neoclassical would refer to the second half of the 19th century which has been a historicising, eclectic style, with neoclassic, neogothic and neo-what-ever.
what the grays and their counter parts in europe do is nothing but retro.
I however must defend mr. holl's record, because most of his buildings are either beautiful (nelson-atkins-museum) - and if you want to talk styles are probably late or neo modernistic - others like the linked hybrid represent a fresh, extremly detailed and thought-through approach to the sometimes plain boring new residential towers that pop up everywhere and expecially in beijing these days.
fresh, because linkage could be traced to the smithsons, but nevertheless an interesting take in generating a connection system in the air and therefore offers intersting experiments in community-building whitin large residential projects.
even if you think to see formal similarities between oma and holl, I'd say it's just the time, everyone seems to be drawing up shapes, it's a more colorful world.
but the approach and result are very much unalike.
good grief. if you can't find originality and beauty in holl's work, what DO you appreciate? despite some oma references which are undeniable and, like sasha said, might just be in the air, i think an examination of holl's body of work would show an amazing continuum, a trajectory of working some of the same things out over decades of daring work.
you turn a phrase well, chp, but some of your crits don't hold up. 'countless ... laurentian libraries'?! c'mon.
_Andy_Ryan.jpg)
4 Comments
Steven Holl is the last bastion of post-modern architecture. Because he didn't invest in the neoclassical themes of his immediate predecessors, he was able to slip under the radar and produce cartoons under the guise of pastel washes and poetry. What meaning can this possibly have in architecture today?
Where Michael Graves executed countless inflated stucco renditions of the Laurentian Library, Holl makes similar formal and material maneuvers around (for example) Ronchamp in his St. Ignatius Chapel, which somehow has also caused cascades of laurels to be flung his way. Lately he seems to be cartooning OMA with the same cheap effect, and he is still being showered in praise.
I'm baffled, and always have been, by the Holl thing. There's important work going on out there that gets half the recognition of this stuff.
those neoclassical themes are as much "po-mo" as anything else, especially because it represents a eclecticism of forms, and even neoclassical isn't quite right, since what you descirbe with neoclassical would refer to the second half of the 19th century which has been a historicising, eclectic style, with neoclassic, neogothic and neo-what-ever.
what the grays and their counter parts in europe do is nothing but retro.
I however must defend mr. holl's record, because most of his buildings are either beautiful (nelson-atkins-museum) - and if you want to talk styles are probably late or neo modernistic - others like the linked hybrid represent a fresh, extremly detailed and thought-through approach to the sometimes plain boring new residential towers that pop up everywhere and expecially in beijing these days.
fresh, because linkage could be traced to the smithsons, but nevertheless an interesting take in generating a connection system in the air and therefore offers intersting experiments in community-building whitin large residential projects.
even if you think to see formal similarities between oma and holl, I'd say it's just the time, everyone seems to be drawing up shapes, it's a more colorful world.
but the approach and result are very much unalike.
good grief. if you can't find originality and beauty in holl's work, what DO you appreciate? despite some oma references which are undeniable and, like sasha said, might just be in the air, i think an examination of holl's body of work would show an amazing continuum, a trajectory of working some of the same things out over decades of daring work.
you turn a phrase well, chp, but some of your crits don't hold up. 'countless ... laurentian libraries'?! c'mon.
btw, have we left po-mo, really?
i am curious what you find more satisfying.
more satisfying? definitely the Smithsons . . .
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.