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Are Sustainable Cities Even Possible?

March 10th, 2010

tb-talk“Eventually, with courage and political will, some [American] cities could return to something like sustainability, or places wherein sustainability would be possible. But without a fundamental, broad and sustained look at what is needed for sustainable cities, we’ll be left with futile, feel-good initiatives, like rainwater collecting on 35-story condominium buildings. Sustainable cities require, first and foremost, sustainable layouts and physical form, and, if they are beautiful, we will want to sustain them.”

—David T. Mayernik, FAAR, NCARB, RSA, president, David Mayernik Ltd., writing in Traditional Building’s roundtable on sustainability in an urban context

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We Understood Sustainability Once Upon a Time; Can We Understand It Once More?

February 24th, 2010

“The phrase ‘green building’ will someday be seen as a truism, as it would also have been viewed before the Thermostat Age. Originally, places and buildings had no choice but to be green, otherwise people simply couldn’t live there. They would starve, freeze to death, die of heat strokes, or be eaten by wild animals. Building sustainably was a life or death proposition. Today, even the word ’sustainability’ has been muddied by the marketers, who are attempting to turn it into the cool new way to sell their products. But in reality, it should mean what it has always meant: keeping things going in a healthy way long into an uncertain future.”

—Stephen A. Mouzon, AIA, CNU, LEED AP, principal, Mouzon Design, writing in Traditional Building’s roundtable on sustainability in an urban context

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3 Responses to “We Understood Sustainability Once Upon a Time; Can We Understand It Once More?”

  1. Mary says:
    February 27, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    This is just about the best summary of building preservationists’ true link to the green movement and the whole concept of sustainability.

  2. Barb says:
    March 7, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    Sustainability now has more to do with what products and systems you use in a design than about the design itself. And who could possibly be surprised by that? Makers of green gadgets control the marketing messages and support the media that write and talk about the gadgets. It’s the usual vicious circle.

  3. Bill says:
    March 9, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    Right on, Stephen. Much of the process described as “green” or “sustainable” design and building has been hijacked by the LEED police, who are in turn beholden to the makers of new products and systems. It’s not quite a vicious circle, but it’s certainly a profitable one for all concerned, except for those people who believe in the value of what might be called “traditional sustainability.”

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We Can Learn from Our Mistakes! Right?

February 11th, 2010

“As traditional practitioners, we can persuade others (and remind ourselves) that what we do has great capacity to respond to the imperative for lower-carbon, more sustainable settlements–with everything that entails. Meanwhile, our professional colleagues who are currently captivated by retro-modernist or avant-gardist thinking will slowly learn that traditional design is much more than a reactionary style. In the end, it offers nothing other than the simple but fundamental capacity to learn from our mistakes.”

—Michael Mehaffy, executive director, Sustasis Foundation, and chair, USA chapter of the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU)

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2 Responses to “We Can Learn from Our Mistakes! Right?”

  1. Ron says:
    February 16, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    I’m not sure what Michael’s point is, but he seems to be saying that old buildings are more sustainable, and old ways of building and develping are also more sustainable. Is that right? If so, why doesn’t he just say so?

  2. Keri says:
    February 21, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    I think he did say it, Ron. Wake up.

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What’s the Meaning of This?

January 28th, 2010

“Increasingly, I feel a new consensus emerging – a new kind of modernity, if you will. It implies that we can find effective ways of dealing with the big problems of our day, which do not oblige us to bury beneath our abstractions the very things that make life worth living. And it requires we build again the types of places we all know strike a chord in our hearts – however ‘modern’ we are, places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging.”

—His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales

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3 Responses to “What’s the Meaning of This?”

  1. Milt says:
    January 31, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    Say what?

  2. Karla Schanze says:
    February 3, 2010 at 4:10 am

    Superb writing. You have brought in a new regular reader. Please keep up the fabulous writings and I look forward to more of your intriguing updates.

  3. Margie says:
    February 6, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    And what places would those be, Prince Charles? Pubs and boudoirs?

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Is the Language of Modern Architecture Ignorant and Threatening?

January 13th, 2010

pompidou“The modernist vernacular, which conceives buildings as curtains of tinted glass raised on invisible scaffolds of concrete and steel, represents both an unusual advance for ignorance and a giant ecological threat. And architects and their theorists devoted an immense amount of intellectual labor to achieving this result.”

—Roger Scruton, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute

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4 Responses to “Is the Language of Modern Architecture Ignorant and Threatening?”

  1. Conway says:
    January 15, 2010 at 6:52 pm

    Of course, modern buildings, skyscrapers, represent enormous accomplishments in structural engineering and product development, but I guess they just add up to “ignorance,” too.

  2. Aimbot Download says:
    January 17, 2010 at 5:57 pm

    Depends in what sense you perceive the ignorance I suppose, however, I must admit I agree with you here :\

  3. Sean says:
    January 20, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    The apocalyptic tone is incredible. These are buildings, for God’s sake, not nuclear missiles!

  4. Brent says:
    January 25, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    Much ado about little.

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Is Using Salvage an Architecturally Barbarian Act?

December 29th, 2009

archsalvage-vt“Design integrity has been assaulted and the salvage business is burgeoning. Rather than being restored or rehabilitated, many valuable historic buildings are being raided for salvage—and these parts often don’t impart value to the new structure. ‘What can you tell about a chicken from a nugget?’ asks Lauren Pinney Burge, AIA, a partner with Chambers, Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects…‘What can you tell about a building from its parts?’”

—Elizabeth Corbin Murphy, FAIA, partner, Chambers, Murphy & Burge Restoration Architects

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3 Responses to “Is Using Salvage an Architecturally Barbarian Act?”

  1. jack says:
    January 1, 2010 at 6:30 am

    Hard to deal with them raping buildings. :(

  2. Robert says:
    January 3, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    Using “reputable” salvage can have a part in traditional design, especially restorations, but in general I agree with the comment. Too often, it’s obtained by pillaging old buildings, which adds up to little more than stripping the structure down for parts.

  3. Patrick says:
    January 8, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    The pillaging is unbelievable, and it’s not only by people in the business or trade. Ordinary people do it all the time, figuring it’s somehow a help that this old material gets “reused”.

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Are ‘Modern’ and ‘Dull’ Synonyms?

December 16th, 2009

“For many of us (maybe most of us), modern architecture often seems chilly and dull, and ever so repetitious. How droll that early Modernists would complain of dreary repetition within traditionalist architecture, when no era in architectural history has ever produced so many totally repetitious and unimaginative buildings as our modern times since 1945.”

—Alvin Holm, principal, Alvin Holm A.I.A. Architects

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3 Responses to “Are ‘Modern’ and ‘Dull’ Synonyms?”

  1. Jean says:
    December 21, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Yes. The answer couldn’t be more obvious, even without that hideous picture!

  2. Eileen says:
    December 25, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    Bravo, Alvin! You couldn’t be more right.

  3. Glenn says:
    December 26, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    I don’t think you can compare, with any clarity, the modern buildings of the last half of the 20th century with those that came before. It’s like comparing the atmosphere on Mars to that on Venus. They’re two very different worlds.

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Should Preservationists Start Hammering Environmentalists?

December 2nd, 2009

talktb“At most, perhaps 10 percent of what the environmental movement does advances the cause of historic preservation, but 100 percent of what the preservation movement does advances the cause of the environment. You cannot have sustainable development without a major role for historic preservation. Period. It is about time we preservationists start hammering at that until it’s broadly understood.”

—Donovan D. Rypkema, principal, PlaceEconomics

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2 Responses to “Should Preservationists Start Hammering Environmentalists?”

  1. Clifford says:
    December 7, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    It’s never going to be “broadly understood.” How could it be?

  2. Jaimee says:
    December 13, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    Environmentalists aren’t likely to consider preservationists and restorationists compatible kin. In fact, if anything, they’re going to view us as antagonistic to their aims because we insist on keeping around leaky and drafty old buildings that, in their view, should give way to LEED-spawned designs and energy-efficient materials and construction.

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Is Preservation Really About Destruction?

November 19th, 2009

talk“The glass curtain wall. . .has drawn criticisms from a number of building researchers, including those who are pointing out the solar gain and the heat loss from all the glazing, plus the cost of the materials and the maintenance with the use of the building over time. Is it going to become dated precisely because it is ‘of its time,’ so strongly ‘of its time’ that in 40 or 60 years, it’s going to be torn down? Something like half the energy of a building is embodied in its construction. These are really disturbing questions that I think we have to answer.”

—Michael Mehaffy, president, Structura Naturalis, Inc.

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3 Responses to “Is Preservation Really About Destruction?”

  1. web design edinburgh says:
    November 23, 2009 at 1:28 am

    I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.

  2. Stan says:
    November 23, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    Creative destruction is at the heart of American design and building. How could it not be? Destroying the old and building anew ensure the maximum number of jobs and dollars.

  3. Brett says:
    November 29, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    We need to stop building new buildings, at least as many as we have been, and start caretaking and making more energy wise the older ones we now have, including, in all fairness, those monstrosities from the ’50s and ’60s. Fortunately, in some ways, the sour economy is doing this for us–shutting down new construction, that is–and I hope will show us the wisdom of sound stewardship.

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Should Preservationists Embrace Adaptive Reuse?

November 5th, 2009

talk“Preservationists must learn to embrace adaptive reuse. Many fight change and, though they pay lip service to adaptive reuse, do not want to allow changes that make re-development attractive to the development community.”

—Mark Thaler, AIA, principal, Einhorn, Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering, PC

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2 Responses to “Should Preservationists Embrace Adaptive Reuse?”

  1. Sharon says:
    November 12, 2009 at 9:07 pm

    “Adaptive reuse” is often just a code term for blasting the past away, so preservationists have real reason to shun it.

  2. Gabrielle says:
    November 14, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    Attitudes like yours, Sharon, are the biggest reason why the field of historic preservation and restoration has never struck a chord with a wider group of people. No wonder it’s like a silly little club.

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