Based on the work of the Italian artist and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi, David Mayernik's watercolor shows the approach to San Giovanni in Laterano... [more]
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All Things Classical
The Classicist No. 7: 2005-2007
with essays by Francis Morrone, David Mayernik and Dino Marcantonio
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, New York, NY; 2007
204 pp.; paperback; $45
ISBN 978-0-9642601-1-5
Reviewed by Will Holloway
If the most recent edition of its scholarly journal, The Classicist No. 7, is any indication, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA) is inarguably succeeding in its stated mission: "[…] advancing the Classical tradition in architecture, urbanism and their allied arts." Packed with essays on topics of interest to practicing traditional architects and architecture and urbanism enthusiasts alike, as well as photographs and drawings of scores of recent projects, The Classicist No. 7’s 204 pages are an impressive collection that underscores and perpetuates the enduring qualities of the Classical tradition.
The first three essays examine subjects that feature prominently in current architecture and urbanism discourses: additions to historic buildings and new buildings in historic districts; contemporary traditional urban design; and value of the transect. In considering historic preservation in "The Classicist at Large: Of Our Time," architecture critic, literary historian, lecturer and teacher Francis Morrone writes that the consensus today is that additions should differ in appearance from their surroundings, thus being "of our own time." As examples, he highlights the renovation and restoration of Grand Central Terminal in New York City and the expansion of Soldier Field in Chicago.
Beyer Blinder Belle’s desire to complete Warren & Wetmore’s original intentions at Grand Central by introducing an east stairway to match the original west stairway resulted, following a decision by the Landmarks Preservations Commission, in a more contemporary east stairway. Morrone notes that today's craftsmen are capable of the elaborate workmanship of the west stairway – "Yet," he writes, "a defining feature ‘of our time’ seems to be to keep up the pretense that such work is no longer practical or possible."
Soldier Field, the home of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears, was completed in 1926. It was recently expanded with a "parabuildling" – a new structure that, not unlike James Polshek’s addition to the Brooklyn Museum and Norman Foster’s tower on the Hearst Building in New York City, may "engulf the old" or "otherwise sticks out like a sore thumb from the original." Morrone argues for a more sympathetic approach and takes exception with the argument that, by contrast, today’s Classical architects simply re-create the past. "The architects I know and admire," he writes, "seek to create new, sometimes even novel, works in an idiom continuous with that of the past."
In "Urban Echoes: Listening to the Lessons of Rome," David Mayernik, an associate professor at the Notre Dame School of Architecture, assesses contemporary traditional urban design. Its focus on "recovering the formal and functional patterns of the traditional town," he writes, is "[…] insufficient to create a true renaissance of the complex intellectual and cultural fabric of the great Western cities." To illustrate this, Mayernik looks at Saint Peter’s and San Giovanni in Rome – "[…] their echoes across the city are metaphors for the ways in which humanist culture understood the connections that a reasonably informed spectator would make."
In "The Classicism of the Transect," Yale School of Architecture lecturer Dino Marcantonio discusses the genesis of the Urban Transect and suggests how it might be modified. The Urban Transect is a zoning tool that breaks down large geographic regions into divisions by density, from rural (T1) to urban (T6). Marcantonio explains that it was developed a quarter of a century ago by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who added human habitats to 19th-century "Transect" diagrams used to analyze the ecology of regions. "[I]t has already proven useful," Marcantonio writes, "for the design and coding of towns which are more civilly laid out than the mono-functionally zoned pseudo-cities that currently dominate the landscape."
While stressing that the Urban Transect has been incredibly beneficial as a zoning tool ("We have so emphasized individual expression in our day, that the cities we have built are little more than a cacophony of monologues, our streets a ragtag collection of babbling façades"), Marcantonio has a few suggestions. First, he posits that the categories of urban type (Hamlet, Village, Town, City) ought to be bumped up a division so that the Hamlet moves from Suburban (T3) to General Urban (T4) to reflect his belief that "[…] all categories of urban type ought to have a transect zone at their centers that can be described as urban. The hamlet, although small by definition, is nevertheless an urban place rather than a free-standing suburb." Second, Marcantonio suggests that the principles of the Urban Transect – jurisdiction, hierarchy and coherence – "[…] can also be taken down in scale to help us understand individual buildings as well."
The "Portfolios" section, in which numerous recent projects are briefly described and presented through images and drawings, makes up the bulk of The Classicist No. 7. The "From the Offices" chapter includes Franck & Lohsen Architects’ Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Sioux Falls, SD; Leon Krier’s Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL; Michael G. Imber Architects’ KingHart Ranch in Lipscomb County, TX, and Palazzo San Antonio in Bexar County, TX; and Torti Gallas and Partners’ Alban Towers and the Residences at Alban Row in Washington, DC, and the Garlands of Barrington in Barrington, IL.
"From the Academies" showcases work by architecture students from a number of institutions: the ICA&CA, Judson University, the Unitec Institute of Technology, the University of Arkansas, the University of Bologna, the University of Miami, the University of Notre Dame and Yale University. "Competitions" includes Fairfax & Sammons Architects’ proposals for the Ruth Wittenberg Memorial Competition and the New York City Streetlight Competition; Dino Marcantonio and Paloma Pajares’ proposal for the Pentagon Memorial Design Competition; and John Simpson & Partners’ proposal for the International Design Competition for a General Urban Layout Plan for the Bertalia-Lazaretto Area in Bologna, Italy.
In addition, the "Portfolios" section includes "The Grand Tradition, Faith, and Mentorship: A Visit with Quinlan Terry"; the "Good Practice" section features an essay entitled "The Shared Language of Architecture: Architectural Woodwork and Millwork"; and the "Allied Arts" section features a pair of essays: "Classicism within the Realism of Claudio Bravo" and "Recent Work by Two Master Cabinetmakers." All in all, The Classicist No. 7 is a veritable trove of all things Classical architecture, urbanism and their related arts. TB
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