Quote:
Originally Posted by Engineeral
Public utility buildings built today sure look utilitarian. I wonder how the city officials could justify the extra cost of such grand buildings back in the 20s, 30s and 40s?
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I think that once upon a time, no justification was necessary. Back in the day there was public will (and willingness to pay) for more than the utilitarian, which wouldn't have been tolerated as an affront to aesthetics--utilitarian wouldn't even have occurred to the citizenry. They wanted something to look at and be proud of. Also, back then there were still craftsmen with "old world" experience who were willing to work for relatively little; resources didn't have to be reallocated from exteriors to internal systems such as climate control, parking, and earthquake readiness; there was more imagination and classical education among architects and developers, and there wasn't the disinterest of the latter beyond their bottom lines--all these contributed to the lack of banality of most public
and private buildings before WWII....
Quote:
Originally Posted by rbpjr
Out with the old...and in with the UGLY!
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I realize that I probably should have waited until Sunday to post that....