“The advantage the English situation has over ours in the U.S., in my view, is well-articulated and actively defended official positions with established organizations to lead the debate. Would this not be a good model for American discussion of these issues?”

—Steven Semes, architect, educator, author, blogging about the role of building conservation and historic preservation in the United Kingdom

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“We have created a second America since WWII, and this second America is ugly. We have created a physical world that has no joy or energy. We have destroyed both the city and the country. It’s the profession’s greatest challenge – to turn that around.”

—Michael Lykoudis, dean, School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, speaking at the
recent conference in New York City on the
progress of post-modernism

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“The words could apply to so many rooms shown in this book: ‘If there be paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this!’”

—Eve Kahn, reviewing a new volume on the exquisite glories of Mughal architecture

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“The current proposal for the Eisenhower Memorial is massively disruptive to the architectural harmony of the National Mall – and is bad urbanism, plain and simple.”

—Clem Labine, writing in his latest blog about the proposed design, by architect Frank Gehry, for a monument to Dwight D. Eisenhower on the National Mall in Washington, DC

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“So, if you have an existing parish and the experts tell you that you need to buy a cornfield, buck the conventional wisdom, and consider the benefits – communal, spiritual and monetary – of staying in town.”

—Duncan G. Stroik, Duncan G. Stroik Architect, LLC, writing in the December issue of Clem Labine’s Traditional Building, about what he describes as the false perception that every new church needs to be built on at least 20 acres of land

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“I’ve spent a lot of time and words talking about the importance of making things by hand, but recently I’m finding reason to question the validity of that statement.”

—Rudy Christian, ruminating on the contemporary meaning of the word “handmade” in his most recent blog

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“Libeskind’s false – but widely believed – linking of architectural style to outmoded political beliefs should give pause to those in the traditional design community who have cautioned against speaking out about the absurdities of Modernist polemics.”

—Clem Labine, blogging about controversial Modernist architect Daniel Libeskind’s assertion that new work of his in Dresden, Germany, is a democratic counterpoint to the authoritarian severity of classical design

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