2004-08-06
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
PIX CREDIT © 2004 | Jake Dobkin
This is not what many think warrant being saved | Which is too bad, actually | One problem that many [but not all] preservationists have is an attitude that tends to exult the architecturally pristine, that produced by [or with costs underwritten by] the upper classes, or places that would be "pretty" to the unthinking eye |
Simply put, it then comes down to save the brownstones, colonial "villages, the Philip Johnson facades, but forget about vernacular architecture and the work of ordinary Joes | I think this is wrong |
Society will always need functional, utilitarian buildings and areas, and I see no legitimate reason to always squirrel them away behind fake fronts or grassy knolls and plantings | ...not that fake fronts and grassy knolls are never warranted, mind you |
Anyway, without the everyday hand-make structures, where would we get such vibrant and alive works such as shown at Blue Jake's or at Satan's Laudromat? | There are other such sites, these are just two that have come to my attention |
PIX CREDIT © 2004 | Jake Dobkin
This is not what many think warrant being saved | Which is too bad, actually | One problem that many [but not all] preservationists have is an attitude that tends to exult the architecturally pristine, that produced by [or with costs underwritten by] the upper classes, or places that would be "pretty" to the unthinking eye |
Simply put, it then comes down to save the brownstones, colonial "villages, the Philip Johnson facades, but forget about vernacular architecture and the work of ordinary Joes | I think this is wrong |
Society will always need functional, utilitarian buildings and areas, and I see no legitimate reason to always squirrel them away behind fake fronts or grassy knolls and plantings | ...not that fake fronts and grassy knolls are never warranted, mind you |
Anyway, without the everyday hand-make structures, where would we get such vibrant and alive works such as shown at Blue Jake's or at Satan's Laudromat? | There are other such sites, these are just two that have come to my attention |
P.S. [full disclosure time] I serve as Chairman to my town's Historic District Commission
¶ 09:55
