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Monday, August 21, 2006

An Architectural Problem

The other day I posted this photo of a fountain in the Grand Basin in Saint Louis' Forest Park:



The public-private partnership, Forest Park Forever, recently renovated the park, including this lake. The classical balustrade is new, but take a look at this close-up:



Note the modern handrail, and the metal inserts on the balustrade. They were put there probably due to requirements of the building code.

A major problem for those practicing traditional or classical architecture is the modern "warts" on buildings, including sprinkler heads, illuminated exit signs, electrical switches and outlets, and other contemporary requirements. Studying Virturvius or the great Renaissance buildings won't help us much to solve this problem; in fact, Modern architects tell us that we must abandon all of that completely.

However, if we see the building arts as a living tradtion, perhaps there may be another solution. How can these new things and code requirements be integrated into the tradtion, in an organic way?

1 comment:

  1. You are dead right, as usual. These modern necessities can easily be designed in a way more aesthetically harmonious with the surroundings.

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