The Dean Is Dead
Architect Philip Johnson died yesterday, at the age of 98. I don’t really enjoy every single building he designed – some I downright loathe – but the man was certainly interesting. One of the original modernists, and a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, a former fascist and Nazi sympathizer who later renounced and atoned for his past, a nonagenarian architecture rock star. I’m no expert, but I can see One Atlantic Center (some call it the IBM Tower) from my window, and I dig it. Well, during the day I dig it, classical revival-slash-modern, smooth and sleek but a little gaudy. At night, however, the cupola looks like one of those crown air freshener things you see in a taxi. Kind of tacky – but then again, this is the South. 191 Peachtree, however, I’m still not a fan of, I just never thought the double cap fits with the rest of the building. Still, it’s cool to know that a work by one of the greats is looking down on me.
- posted by Liebs @ 8:24 PM