A plea for beautiful buildings
Culture | Proposed executive order challenges soul-crushing architectural fads
by Janie B. Cheaney
Posted 3/12/20, 03:48 pm
Most of us don’t think about architecture unless it slaps us in the face. That may say more about bland, blocky public buildings than we’d like to admit, but several years ago I was slapped by the central public library in a Midwestern university town. The entrance, opening to a four-story atrium, resembled an upended, corrugated, glass-and-aluminum Dixie cup. The main body of the building, constructed of native red granite, sloped slightly inward, decorated with random strips of window.