There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on in the new-urbanist camp. The CNU has surprised everyone by giving the shiniest of all ‘starchitects’, Frank Gehry (mates with Brad Pitt, appeared in The Simpsons), an award for good urban design for his LA Philharmonic Building.
I haven’t visited the building in question, so I’m poorly placed to get involved, but the ins and outs are being well documented by David Sucher over at City Comforts. Right now, from up here on the fence, I find myself beginning to be drawn (despite my previous Gehry entry) towards the side of the CNU.
For God’s sake, some place in our T6 universe there may be a place for a pure, unadulterated object.
I am concerned that our new urbanist eyes are so colored by what we are trying to project into the built world, that we have stopped feeling or empathizing with others who feel that certain buildings elevate their existence.
That was Stefanos Polyzoides on the Pro-Urb mailing list. Sounds good to me, but what the hell is a T6 universe? Answers on a postcard please. As for the pure, unadulterated object, it sounds like he’s suffering from the same crisis as me when I’m confronted by the likes of Anish Kapoor’s sculptures.
from a previous Kapoor entry:
Note to self: That’s me, that is. I lose site of the art in all the process and technique. This is exactly why my love of Anish Kapoor’s work feels so dirty.
It’s a crisis that could be solved if one were to just let go and stage dive off the moral high ground to be carried along by the hands of all those that are sufficiently at peace with the world to simply say: Because it’s beautiful.