Been pointed out before, but between the continued effects of the internet and the acute derangement of the pandemic, a significant proportion of the population has adopted the mindset of 12th century peasants
The perfect alignment of the shadows cast by the trains with the coffers of the station vaults in the DC Metro is such an extraordinarily clever and beautiful design choice. Delights me every time I see it
Would also be v excited to wake up to a cybertruck blocking my sidewalk every morning. Calling the city, the prospect of it getting towed—smiling just thinking about it
The Edward Said reading room at Columbia’s Butler library. Houses nearly 2000 volumes from the Said’s personal collection. Lovely place to work, and where I did most the preparation for my comps at the end of 2021. Thinking about it now, for some reason
Listen, there obviously are bad brutalist buildings—anodyne, boring, gimmicky, genuinely ugly, etc—but critics of Brutalism are uniquely bad at finding them.
America has lots of fancy airport terminals with glass canopies. We also have lots of police violence. But this isn’t enough for them — we also have to believe that the former depends on the latter, that both are inextricable elements of a just society
Also, for those unaware, this exact kind of medieval-brain conspiracy theory is 100% standard fare on Joe Rogan, whose show has about 7 million subscribers. This wouldn’t crack the 10 craziest archeological theories aired on there this week
@jordanbpeterson
It’s really bad in my city. The government only allows us to drive in designating narrow corridors marked off with painted line and sometimes even barriers. You can be arrested for driving outside these zones (on lawns, sidewalks etc). It’s monstrous
Obviously Walsh is trying to be provocative to drive engagement, but truly—get your average Republican talking about clean streets and law and order for ten minutes and they’ll say much the same thing
@datadyne007
I believe they’re meant to indicate that this building was clearly not “built” in modern times, but discovered and partially unearthed. It’s basically just that buried St Basil’s meme
This whole affair w/ the secret tunnel under 770 got me thinking about the building itself & the fact that a mid-century Tudor revival house (Edwin Kline, 1940) has become a symbol of Chabad. So indelible is that symbol apparently, that it’s been recreated all around the world🧵
The annual family comedy about people who live in the richest suburbs of Chicago (Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Ferris Bueller etc) is a genre I’d like to see revived
Ukraine is home to some of Europe's coolest and wildest late-historicist architecture, pushing western trends to their formal and eclectic extremes. A sample: the Odessa Opera (1887), National Bank of Ukraine in Kiev (1905), and the Cernauti Residentia in Oblast (1882).
Fun fact: this crenelated tower on Riverside Drive (now a townhouse) is one of the few remaining fortifications from the defensive wall that was built around Manhattan in the late 14th century!
#architecturalhistory
My grandfather was a builder. He is insanely gifted. We were in a cathedral
together years ago and I asked him what it would cost to build it today. I will never forget his answer…
“We can’t, we don’t know how to do it.”
@focusfronting
My fiancé (who knows north Philly well) was coming to visit me at school a couple years ago and suddenly realized that she was driving by the exit for 4 seasons total landscaping and decided to make an impromptu stop. Said it was like visiting a holy pilgrimage site
Cool cross-section of a building in the 11e. Curious what led to the mixed use of rubble masonry and brick here, but it’s amazing to see this seam running down the wall, like vertical geological stratification
So much going on here: the main three-story arch, the wrought iron fenestration, the deep eaves over the single dormer, the strange basket-handle arches on the ground floor, the *glass brick* …
“When [Sullivan] brought in the board with the motive of the Wainwright Building outlined in profile and in scheme on it, and threw it down on my table, I was perfectly aware of what had happened … a new thing beneath the sun … was born.” —FLW
Amazing find: apparently upon the completion of the World Trade Center in 1973, Architectural Forum published a satirical retrospective entitled "WTC 2023," reflecting on the ("now almost forgotten") towers from 50 years in the future. They couldn't know how weirdly it would age
@Ted04536250
@nypost
Just FYI, if you’re riding the subway, and you see someone being loud and unpleasant, don’t murder them, even if you have a wild terror-induced fantasy/blood lust
Sumptuous cast iron relief panels ornamenting the base of the former Woodward & Lothrop department store (Henry Ives Cobb, 1902), one of downtown DC’s remaining Gilded Age jewels
The truly amazing thing about Hoover Dam is that the aesthetic achievement is nearly as impressive as the constructional one. It’s a true total-work-of-art