To say I don’t know much about architecture is to insult far more knowledgable people who still consider themselves fairly ignorant. Still, in response to my earlier post, lots of folks are writing in to defend St. John’s University’s architecture by noting that much of it was designed by Marcel Breuer, a leader of the “brutalist” school.
Here’s the thing: I don’t care.
I remember hearing an NPR interview with some architecture muckety-muck in which he noted that the tastes of architects and the tastes of the public at large are further apart than in almost any other area of the “art” world. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, I’m with the public. I really dislike the vast bulk of modern architecture (I don’t necessarily feel the same way about interior design). I think the folks who tore down the old Penn Station are just shy of criminals.
I think architects have a habit of making buildings for other architects not for their own societies. In short, I don’t like ugly buildings. I think buildings should be functional, attractive and comfortable. They don’t have to be old-fashioned, though I think old-fashioned buildings are nifty. And if they aren’t going to be old fashioned, they shouldn’t be ugly or communicate a sense of dread and foreboding. Ideally, they should have some connections with the traditions of the community and the larger society. Minimally, they shouldn’t mock those traditions
If that makes me bourgeois, or a know-nothing, or philistine, I say: Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care.
Update: As for St. John’s itself, here’s a defense from Jon Schaff, of South Dakota Politics:
Jonah,
As I am a St. John’s alum, may I say a word, but only a word, in defense of my school. I don’t know what you saw of the campus, but I think St. John’s has some of the finest buildings of any campus I’ve been on. The Great Hall and attached buildings that make up the Quadrangle are simply wonderful old buildings, as inspiring on the inside as they are on the outside. Some of the more recent buildings have kept in architectural harmony by using red brick and matching the aesthetics of the older parts of campus.
Sadly, other recent buildings are products of horrible 1960s architecture that fell in love with bland boxes more useful in keeping one safe in case of nuclear war than helping one appreciate beauty. Regretfully, the big abbey church looks eerily like a space ship that descended at some point in the past and no one bothered to move it. Its visual unpleasantness is only enhanced by the incongruity with the lovely monastery buildings right next to it.
Regarding the pub, in my day it was a dank hole in an old building, perfect for playing cribbage while sipping a beer. It really had an old English pub feel. I believed they’ve classed things up a bit, but frankly I prefer the dank. You can’t imagine the reaction of my students, who are told alcohol is from the devil and exist on a dry campus, when I inform them that not only was beer allowed at St. John’s but that the school was selling it to us! Ah, St. John’s. Ever may her beacon shine.