Architexturez. wrote:
A survey of Americans' favourite architecture reveals the triumph of
familiarity over beauty.
Dan Glaister
American architecture turns drab
Published Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:00:00 GMT
How commercialism, technology impact built environment
Arrol Gellner
Inman News
Traveling the United States has, among other things, gently tutored me
that the residents of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., pronounce their town's name
WILKS-bree, not Wilks-BAR; that the good citizens of Vermont call their
capital MontPEELyer, not MontepeLEER, and that that lovely town in
southern California is called LaHOYA even though it's spelled La Jolla.
These are nuggets of everyday wisdom that book learning can seldom
impart, but that being on the spot can teach one in a hurry.
Alas, traveling the U.S. also reveals a dismaying transformation that's
more obvious year by year: What was once a nation of kaleidoscopic
architectural variety is slowly being turned into a homogeneous
landscape stretching from coast to coast -- one in which freeways and
boulevards, suburbs and downtowns all look more or less like their
counterparts everywhere else.
As a nation founded on individualism, it's a sad trend, especially since
it's being furthered by a number of forces we usually think of as positive.
cont'd....
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