Ada Louise Huxtable
The New York Times recently featured a refreshing interview with Ada Louise Huxtable, the doyenne of architecture critics, by writer Phillip Lopate.
The occasion is Huxtable's newly published collection of essays (for the Wall Street Journal and others), “On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change," which may be worth buying for the white-on-white cover art alone.
The NYT piece is remarkable for its candor; usually, folks with new books to flog aren't so opinionated. But that's Huxtable's job–to explain why a new building (or seaport, or city) either works or doesn't, and whether it looks good doing it.
Here's a typically pithy Huxtable quote about the glut of computer-drafted "wow" buildings in the current and late 20th century:
"Yes, computers can produce these endlessly repeating, beautiful curving, sculptural forms. Now we’re finally reaching the stage where we begin to recognize, “Aha! Right off the computer!” and we don’t accept it as readily. ...On the other hand, if it doesn’t take us to another place, it’s nostalgia, and there’s an awful lot of nostalgia operating out there today."
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Reloading tweets…
Ada Louise Huxtable wrote "The average New York taxi is a combination of dilapidation, filth, inefficiency and acute Rube Goldbergian discomforts designed to torture, humiliate and frustrate, for a price," as the architecture critic of The New York Times. I emphatically assert that the single greatest contributing factor in the truth of her statement is the Rube Goldberg style partition. There has been plenty of discussion about partitions over the years. Unfortunately, compliance with federal auto safety laws is rarely mentioned. When it has been mentioned it seems that there is much confusion about to whom the federal standards are applicable. The TLC asked car makers to certify vehicles with partitions. The TLC needs to be sure the partition maker, not the car maker, certifies compliance. I build federally compliant partitions. I have endeavored numerous times over the last couple of decades to get the TLC to engage in dialog with me about partition safety, viability and compliance. The responses I've received from the TLC indicate that those issues are not 'on the table' for discussion. Could you recommend a contact person for me, within your organization, the TLC or the Design Trust? I need to discuss the beautification of taxis that my partition design accomplishes. Sincerely, Steven Crowell
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