Architecture

Make Government Buildings Great Again

An executive order on President Trump’s desk promises to put an end to the reign of mediocrity in federal architecture. Continue Reading »

25 Feb 2020

Notre-Dame de Paris, by Gérard de Nerval (1808–1855)

by William Flesch

Notre Dame is quite old: one will see it perhapsStill bury that Paris it saw at its birth;But in a few thousand years Time will cause to collapse(As wolves do to cattle) this carcass to earth,Twist its tendons of iron, then with a deaf toothChew its bones made of rock, which fills us with ruth.From . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2020

Building to No Purpose

by Catesby Leigh

Architecture can reflect the progress of a civilization, but Hudson Yards is not about civilization. Its buildings reflect the futility of a “progressive” design sensibility cut off from the past and wedded to novelty and formal dissonance as ends in themselves. The mixed-use development rises . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2020

Fishy Architecture

by Hans Boersma

The recovery of meaningful church architecture hinges upon the retrieval of a realist metaphysic. Continue Reading »

9 Jan 2020

Letters

by Various

Hadley Arkes, echoing themes he has developed for many years in his work, offers a forceful argument (“Backing into Relativism,” June/July) that the Supreme Court’s aspiration to contentless neutrality in its Speech and Religion Clause doctrine is a jurisprudential dead end—a “descent . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2019

Cultural Nihilism

by R. R. Reno

The decline in life expectancy in the United States is a symptom of a failing culture. It is driven by deaths of despair: Suicide rates are up, as are drug overdoses and alcohol-related diseases. Those are hard, cruel facts. There are other signs of failure, more auspicious ones. We read about young . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jun 2019

Crimes in Concrete

by Theodore Dalrymple

Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism by james stevens curl oxford, 592 pages, $60 In a recent debate in Prospect magazine on the question of whether modern architecture has ruined British towns and cities, Professor James Stevens Curl, . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jun 2019