Architecture & Design Entropy | 09 Feb 2012
The Value of an Architecture
What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places.
To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation. The Congestion and aesthetic blandness define Penn Station.
Grand Central Station - NYC
The original Pennsylvania Station which was razed in 1963.
There is historic justice in trying to rectify a crime committed a half-century ago that galvanized the architectural preservation movement. “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat,” is the familiar lament from Vincent J. Scully Jr., the Yale architectural historian, about the difference between the former and present Penn Stations.
But history moves on, and New York remains vibrant because it is not stuck in the past. The lesson to be gleaned from the destruction of the old Penn Station is about the importance of preserving McKim’s public-spirited ideal for urban splendor as much as it is about preserving venerable buildings..
Pl read the the feature Restore a Gateway to Dignity on New York Times here
on 25 Feb 2012 at 8:51 pm 1.Dosia McKay said …
We are all influenced by the color scheme and the spacial relationships around us.
So true that the architecture can ennoble or demean us.