tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578496623140464256.post5083000874949533410..comments2023-05-11T08:00:50.001-05:00Comments on A Glass Darkly: Beauty in architecture, old and newDenis Haackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04401098607183612613noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578496623140464256.post-23305690551883359922010-02-05T15:54:11.684-06:002010-02-05T15:54:11.684-06:00First, I find it interesting how many times I have...First, I find it interesting how many times I have heard people use the Louvre Pyramids as an example of a lack of architectural integrity, when in fact, I think that I. M. Pei was trying to be as honest and respectful as he could! Let me explain:<br />If you look at images of the western facade (near the pyramids) and the eastern facade of the Louvre, you would be forgiven for thinking that you were viewing two different buildings. The reason for this is that the eastern facade was redesigned by architect Claude Perrault in 1665. His design was excessively Italian in scale and ornament, very different from the rest of the building. So the Louvre already had a history of mixed architecture before I. M. Pei ever entered the picture. When Pei was commissioned to design the entry, he didn't want to merely copy the existing architecture, because then it would look like a new building copying an old. That is never honest. Yet he wanted to respect the historical roots of the buildings, so he chose to build the oldest form in archictecture, the pyramid, and rendered it in very modern glass and steel. I. M. Pei didn't ignore the buildings, he set them off with a two sided counterpoint. He did the only thing he could do without condensing the original buildings to nothing more than a template. <br /><br />All that being said, I LOVE the Chicago highrise! Thank you so much for bringing to our attention such a beautiful example of quality design. Being something of a computer graphics geek, the facade reminds me of some early 3D work with a flat plane of water, represented by the glass, rising out of an undulating land mass, formed by the concrete terraces. Beautiful.Seth Greenwaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02493143576457392610noreply@blogger.com