Bauhaus Reading

I really enjoyed this book, even though I got a little lost at times with some of the terminology and trying to follow who all the people were. I found myself with an Ah-Hah moment, when I realized why the majority of the buildings we see today in our country and particularly in the cities are big boxes of glass, steel and concrete. It isn't something I had really thought about before, it just was what it was. But as I read the book, I began thinking about all of the beautiful buildings I had seen and experienced in Europe, and even Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia, not to mention the White House and other building built when this country was new. They weren't boxes, they weren't boring, they weren't all nearly identical. When did it change and why did it change? This book was the answer.


What a dramatic and sweeping effect this movement had on American architecture and design! The majority of the buildings I have seen built in my time have had at least elements if not being completely faithful to the box design. Schools, office buildings, stores and shopping malls, hotels, etc. My grandmother's house even had a flat roof and lots of glass. The picture is Fashion Place Mall, built about when I was in Jr. High - see what I mean?


Another point I though interesting was that the heads of cities, companies, universities, even countries, were willing to let these architects totally dictate what kind of building they would build, without any input from the them. These aren't men with no backbone, these were successful, educated supposedly smart people who just shut up and "took it like men." What is really interesting is that the common people, the not-so-educated or successful people, were the ones who wouldn't put up with it, and said, in effect, "This is ugly, plain and boring - I'm not living in this."

My final thought on this - I have a friend in California who is a successful architect. Guess what his house is built out of? You guessed it, glass, steel and cement. The impact continues. . .