moderne wrote:
  Look at the photos of the employment bldng and go back and look at pics of the late oft lamented Law Bldng. I think the employment bldng is much more architectually interesting than the plain box of the Law. If all those projections and cantilevers of the employment bldng were covered in flashy glass I suspect many forumers would be raving about it.Â
No, not flashy glass, but some carefully placed terra cotta and brick work and forumites would be slobbering on their keyboards.
What is ironic is that this same "clear it out and start over" mentality is what caused so many "good" buildings to be wiped out during urban renewal. Back then, the old buildings were perceived to be ugly, outdated, and contrary to the sleek new forms and shapes that represented the "future." Urban renewal is when The Jetsons was on TV. At that time, that is what people thought was the right thing to do, just as passionately as people think promoting historic preservation and being frightened of progressive architecture is the right thing to do now.
Now, we are overcompensating for that by doing exactly the same thing. In a few years, without some major shift in how people respond to new architecture, what we're going to end up with is some old buildings and some uninspired new buildings that are so anonymous that no one pays attention to them. Of course, society will probably be in a coma by then, completely sedated by all the safe unthreatening mediocrity, so no one will care.