archGFX

Last night was robert venturi's lecture at crown hall.  one might ask why you would have the man most famous for making sport of Mies would be invited to lecture at the 50th anniversary of Crown Hall's creation.  one might also ask why 39 years after complexity and contradiction it would still be worth hearing venturi tell me why he's better than Mies. well, not that that's really what he said, but it was still a rehash of why bob's not a modernist, which is not new.  venturi did take a few jabs at neo-Modernism (post-industiral architects using industrial symbolism), which is a point in favor of having someone with a direct reaction to Mies speak. the period at the end of that sentence comes courtesy of walking out of crown hall and being directly confronted by helmut jahn's new dorms.