Veritas et Venustas

Classical Graffiti

V&V: Nice (Three Classicists)

Post-Rapture

IF WE DON'T get a Rapture, or a great change in our morals, or a transformation in the way we live, or something - then those who come after us are screwed. The combination of our ever-increasing numbers and the way we live can not continue without a judgement day from the planet on which we live.

Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Also Raping Our Cities?

IT SEEMS that under Strauss-Kahn the IMF has promoted glass towers in cities around the world. Just as traffic engineers told cities 50 years ago that they needed to develop modern arterials and interstate highways if they wanted to remain viable modern cities, the forces of global capitalism now go around the world telling cities they must build towering skyscrapers if they want to keep and attract modern business.

Those arterials, highways and one-way couplets aided and abetted an exodus to the suburbs that killed downtowns. In their own way, the Starchitect towers promoted in Paris, Hong Kong, Houston and Dubai are just as anti-urban.

V&V: Brought to you by the experts who brought us credit default swaps, the rape of Fannie Mae, the collapse of our economy, interest free bailouts and the mega-bonuses that followed
V&V: More Signs of the Apocalypse - Paris is the new Dubai

V&V Redux: Would you like a Palladian house?

UPDATE: Notre Dame is having a conference and exhbit about Palladio.

I'd like to design one. Here are some precedents, wonderful all:

I've been to them all. Call me and we'll get started as soon as you like.

500 years of Palladio @ the ICA
From Vernacular to Classical: The Perpetual Modernity of Palladio

The View from the Breakfast Table

Plaça Reial, Barcelona

Barcelona

The Barcelonan Gothic version of Beaufort Gardens, Carrer d'Allada Vermell:

London / Beaufort Gardens

If it's Thursday, this must be Oxford

Another day in The Great Street Design Book Tour. Tomorrow, London & Barcelona.