Rebuild Christchurch Basilica
by Stephen SchmalhoferThe Diocese of Christchurch, New Zealand, should rebuild the destroyed Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in its former style—not give it a new design. Continue Reading »
An Empty Parliament
by Peter HitchensThe architecture of the Palace of Westminster, which once seemed to dignify the business of the place, has been diminished by the Parliament inside it. Continue Reading »
What Jane Jacobs Saw
by Michael J. LewisSome influential books fade as their ideas become conventional wisdom, but Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities remains as startling as when it appeared in . . . . Continue Reading »
The Other Assisi
by Matthew MillinerIt turned out there was no need to condemn Sigismondo to hell—his own defeats brought him to his knees. The Tempio Malatestiano, moreover, is now an active church, and people are trickling in for Saturday confession. Our group stops for discussion, and we concede a reluctant parallel with our own American Sigismondo, and then we imagine the ruins of a bankrupt Trump hotel, its deserted lobby the setting for a humble Mass. Continue Reading »
Monument to Failure
by Justin ShubowThe General Services Administration, together with the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office, has determined that one of the most banal buildings in the nation’s capital is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It is the Department of Education’s headquarters, originally . . . . Continue Reading »
Making the Garden
by Christopher AlexanderIt has taken me almost fifty years to understand fully that there is a necessary connection between God and architecture, and that this connection is, in part, empirically verifiable. Further, I have come to the view that the sacredness of the physical world—and the potential of the physical . . . . Continue Reading »
Re-Styling Tradition
by Gregory S. BucherA new Roman Catholic church, dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas, has risen at the Newman Center of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Designed by architect Kevin Clark, the church and center together came in at a cost-effective $25 million. St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church is a classic . . . . Continue Reading »
Building on Truth
by Philip BessBuilding is a willful act of symbolic import, sometimes intended and sometimes not, and all architecture expresses the power of its makers and their aspiration to legitimate authority. This is true of individual buildings, public spaces, and all human settlements. Temple, forum, cathedral, city . . . . Continue Reading »
Rebuild Penn Station!
by R. R. RenoYes, it sounds like a pipe dream. Rebuild Penn Station? Why imagine that’s possible when New York can’t even build a new subway line or bring a direct rail link to any of its three airports? Continue Reading »
Henry Hope Reed, Defender of Decoration
by Catesby LeighThe distinguished architectural historian Henry Hope Reed died May 1 at age ninety-seven. More than any cultural figure of his generation, Reed perpetuated an awareness of the classical tradition’s enduring role as the indispensable means for improving the human habitat … Continue Reading »
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