On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:42 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> I'm guessing he also says it wasn't always so and he'd be right.
>
> Last week I picked up a used copy of "Twentieth Century Design" from
> the new Oxford History of Art series. That's a great series with
> lots of illustrations. I was leafing through looking at all these
> pictures of cool sound equipment and furniture, much of it designed
> right here in the good ole USA. Then there's a section about
> Levittown and I'm thinking you can date the beginning of the ugliness
> of American product from there.
Yeah, it seems to be post-WW2 in architecture, later in industrial design. Doesn't every small town in the Midwest have a beautiful old bank building? I saw one in Grinnell, Iowa, a few years ago, and was mighty impressed. Big old beautiful houses all over the place, too. Brownstones in NYC. San Francisco. Now it's manufactured housing and Toll Bros. mansions.
There's a story in Cary Reich's bio of Andre Meyer about the building of the hideous Lincoln Towers on the West Side of Manhattan in the 60s. The developer, William Zeckendorf, wanted to hire a good architect and make a beautiful set of buildings. Meyer, his financier, said no, we'll make more money if we don't do that. No doubt he was right.
Doug