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Yale has just completed two new residential colleges near the heart of campus: a superblock of neo-Gothic fantasy. This reversion to an archaic visual language exemplifies a troubling trend. With their new architecture, universities all too often abdicate leadership in promoting artistic innovation as they pander to plutocratic donors. — Places Journal
Columnist Belmont Freeman takes a critical look at Yale's RAMSA-designed Benjamin Franklin College and Pauli Murray College in his latest piece for Places. While Freeman marvels at their extraordinary evocation of tradition, he argues that their historicism represents a missed opportunity to... View full entry
![Rem Koolhaas, working on an exhibit on Wallace Harrison at the IAUS, and Wallace Harrison. [from The Making of an Avant-Garde, directed by Diana Agrest]](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/e5/e5s1fkha5s1adz2e.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=514 "Rem Koolhaas, working on an exhibit on Wallace Harrison at the IAUS, and Wallace Harrison. [from The Making of an Avant-Garde, directed by Diana Agrest]")
I wish that it still existed.
— Frank Gehry
It would be the world's biggest nightmare if the Institute were still alive.
— Mark Wigley
It was the moment for something to happen.
— Diana Agrest
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— Places Journal
In 1967 Peter Eisenman founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and until it closed in 1985 the Institute — a heady mix of think tank, exhibit space, journal publisher and cocktail party — was one of the centers of American architecture culture. Belmont Freeman... View full entry
![Ricardo Porro, School of Fine Arts, Cuban National Art Schools. [Photo by Belmont Freeman]](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/pf/pfyvgnfof2pmak5e.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=514 "Ricardo Porro, School of Fine Arts, Cuban National Art Schools. [Photo by Belmont Freeman]")
After I mentioned attending a screening of the new documentary film, Unfinished Spaces, about the National Art Schools in Havana, [my dinner companion] burst out: “What is it about the Art Schools? Why do foreigners love them so much? There’s nothing Cuban about those buildings. They’re ridiculous architecture for Havana and I always hated them.” — Places Journal
On Places, architect Belmont Freeman reconsiders the National Art Schools in Havana — the subject of John Loomis's groundbreaking book Revolution of Forms, as well as a new documentary film and an opera, and a cult favorite among architecture buffs. Does the North American obsession... View full entry
