fajrdrako: (Default)
[personal profile] fajrdrako
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. - Frank Lloyd Wright, 1869 - 1959

Date: 2006-10-20 03:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com
Any particular building in mind here?

There are a few in Centretown that put me in mind of Anton Furst's visions of Gotham of late...

Date: 2006-10-20 06:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Any particular building in mind here?

I suspect Frank Lloyd Wright might have been thinking of one or two!

When I think of the buildings in Ottawa that I like and don't like... well, it would take a little more than ivy to fix the mistakes. Anton Furst would be a distinct improvement.

Date: 2006-10-20 08:08 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I'm not entirely sure of that, but at the least, it makes for buildings worth taking a camera and sketchbook for from time to time.

Whoops.

Date: 2006-10-20 08:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com
That was me. Sorry for leaving it unattributed.

Re: Whoops.

Date: 2006-10-20 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Hee - I wondered who the man of mystery was.

Date: 2006-10-20 08:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
An interesting project. I do like a great deal of the architecture of Ottawa; it's full of wonders, including all that Neo-Gothic and - I'm not sure what the style of the Chateau Laurier is, but it's fun. I could make a long list of favourite buildings: the one at the NW corner of Queen and Elgin, for example, or the old Teacher's College, or the National Gallery, or some of the funkier embassies.

Date: 2006-10-20 10:43 pm (UTC)
ext_120533: Deseine's terracotta bust of Max Robespierre (Default)
From: [identity profile] silverwhistle.livejournal.com
Glasgow University (http://www.gla.ac.uk:443/pictures/) is Hogwarts, I am convinced (within walking distance of the Silverwhistle Garret).

Date: 2006-10-20 11:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Very nice! Now, am I looking at real Gothic or Neo-Gothic architecture? If it were Toronto I would know, but Glasgow? Not so sure.

Setting aside the contention of any observant tourist that true gothic architecture is recognizable only by the scaffolding around it while renovations take place.

Date: 2006-10-20 11:26 pm (UTC)
ext_120533: Deseine's terracotta bust of Max Robespierre (Default)
From: [identity profile] silverwhistle.livejournal.com
19C mock-Gothic. Glasgow demolished its city-centre, genuinely Renaissance university to build a mock-Gothic campus university in what was then the far outskirts of Gilmorehill.

Similarly, in St As, the original mediæval quad of St Salvator's College was demolished to build a mock-Jacobean one in late 19C.

Date: 2006-10-20 11:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
It seems a shame to lose the really old buildings - I love them so much, and of course we don't have any of them here. In these parts, 19C is old and I find that kind of depression.

And when they tear down the beautiful old buildings, they replace them with glass and steel, not Neo-Gothic. What is wrong with people?

Date: 2006-10-20 11:56 pm (UTC)
ext_120533: Deseine's terracotta bust of Max Robespierre (Default)
From: [identity profile] silverwhistle.livejournal.com
Indeed - I do wonder!
At least we still have this in Glasgow (which I've not yet seen, as one has to go through a dodgy area to get to it): Glasgow Cathedral (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sstewart1873/Index/webpages/Picture%20Tour.htm), which is mostly late 13C onward, on an earlier site.

Date: 2006-10-20 11:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Oh, wonderful! Now, that's what a building should look like!

Date: 2006-10-21 12:05 am (UTC)
ext_120533: Deseine's terracotta bust of Max Robespierre (Default)
From: [identity profile] silverwhistle.livejournal.com
And in St As, our Mediæval History Department (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/academic/history/medhist/dept.shtml) was partly mediæval. Some of it (St John's House) was a former Hospitaller property (and Templar before that!). Barrel-vaulted undercroft, & c.

Date: 2006-10-21 12:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Having medieval studies in a medieval building is particularly exciting! Most of my medieval studies in London were in Victoria buildings - except for the ones built since WWII. The compensation was that I got to live in Crosby Hall, which was at least Plantagenet/Tudor.

Amazing how many properties the Templars and Hospitallers owned.

Date: 2006-10-24 08:48 pm (UTC)
filkferengi: (Default)
From: [personal profile] filkferengi
Positively Barrayaran, one might say! ;)

Date: 2006-10-24 09:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
No wonder I love Barrayar.

Date: 2006-10-21 01:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com
You get the feeling that our local -- and not-so-local -- architects haven't quite sorted out what an "Ottawa School" should be yet?

Date: 2006-10-21 03:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Obviously they haven't a clue! Such a mish-mash of buildings.... some great, some pathetic. Perhaps the worst are the government offices, where you'd think they could be distinctive and attractive, but they just aren't.

Date: 2006-10-21 02:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] duncanmac.livejournal.com
Does this mean that an architect must have divine guidance? :-)

Date: 2006-10-21 02:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Bad enough you pun in person, now you're doing it on LJ... bad [livejournal.com profile] duncanmac, bad!

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