ruminations about architecture and design

Thursday, July 18, 2013

the longest way around


The industrial legacy of the ancient empire Massachusetts. Almost as good as aqueducts, and with more variety in form and scale. A place like this could be more than what it is, but it might be in the wrong Place. Architects are always confusing Place for place. Place (with a capital "P") is the broad platform of history, culture, money, and infrastructure. It may be ugly, but it has to be of sufficient mass to support "places" (lower case "p"). A nice "place" is useless in the wrong Place.

I've been through this before. Curiously, bad buildings in good Places are actually good things because it means that they will be torn down and replaced. Nice buildings in Bad Places have romantic value, but they can lead well-intentioned people astray.

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