Could the choice of a traditional architect to build Yale’s two new residential colleges actually betray the University’s tradition? That’s what some are arguing one day after University President Richard Levin announced that he had tapped Robert A.M. Stern to design colleges 13 and 14. Some critics counter that the selection betrays Yale’s legacy of pushing the architectural envelope. Yale Daily News | prev. | in the forum
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what's the big deal? better than a frank goldberg stinking up the place. sure, everyone knows that stern's buildings are pieces of crap- most likely he himself knows as well. if they are built, and he is long dead, people will continue to look in awe at the work of kahn on their campus and realise that the architecture game was, is and will always be dominated by less than half baked work, excessive cronyism and money. this may persuade a yale student to find her or his own way against the numbing mediocrity of this discipline we call "architecture"
i'm no fan of stern's work but i have to say that the projects i have seen ARE very well made - not exactly 'pieces of crap'.
Remember also that many of the existing residential colleges, designed in the 1930s by James Gamble Rogers, were historicist. Half the campus is a tongue in cheek, almost Disneyfied, copy of Oxford, complete with false perspective to make the upper stories look taller, and acid poured down the walls to prematurely age the stone. 'Architectural Traditions' at that campus are pretty diverse.
as long as they come with cast plastic full figure pose of mr. stern on the reception desk in the front lawns of the major buildings, i'd say go for it..
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