In Praise (And Castigation) of "The Folly of Modern Architecture"
Writing in last month’s Atlantic, architect Peter Blake raised, as he put it, “nine outrageous questions about modern architecture that modern architects do not raise very frequently.” He put them in the form of “notions or assumptions” that have been “drilled into every modern architect over the past halfcentury,” (see next page) and called them all false, or “largely so.” Said Blake in summary: “I have seen the future, and it doesn’t work.” The Atlantic invited architects, writers on the subject, planners, builders, and officials past and present to respond. Herewith a sampling, traveling the spectrum from outrage to concord.
Robert Wood, Robert Woods Kennedy, James Lawrence Jr., Paul Goldberger, Ivan Chermayeff, Samuel Lefrak, Nathaniel Alexander Owings, Nelson W. Aldrich, Wolf Von Eckardt, Kevin White, and Morris LapidusOctober 1974 Issue