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An Architecture for Our Time:
The New Classicism
A Preservation Institute Publication
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Modernism as the Status Quo
“During the 1950s, modernism was not only on the leading edge esthetically but also on the leading edge of social reform. By the 1970s, modernism was the status quo, and it was oppressive. The glass and steel high rises towering over the old downtowns of our cities looked cold and impersonal, like the technological economy that produced them.”
Traditionalism as Social Change
“Unlike the avant gardists, the New Urbanists are part of a powerful movement to reform society. If their neotraditional neighborhoods are more livable than conventional automobile-dependent suburbs, that fact is a real challenge to General Motors, ExxonMobile, and Wal-Mart – while the self-consciously radical gestures of the avant gardists do not challenge the modern economy at all.”
Avant Gardism Versus Humanism
“The meaning of the fragmented and twisted forms of today’s avant-gardist architecture is this: whatever technology makes possible, we will do – even if it makes the building’s users feel uncomfortable and disoriented.”
This book may change the way you think about modern architecture – and about modern society.