PART III: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, BIBLIOGRAPHY

Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (Paul Gauguin)

The unity of form, function and symbolism appears self evident as does the progression theory. But how will modernity’s “progression” appear in hindsight: early, middle, high, or most likely, late? History may record the “New American Century” as our last. However, such characterization is generally unsupported by architectural indicia of earlier progressions. Nevertheless, we can learn from the Romans whose experience most closely parallels our own. With its numerous massive constructions made possible by the invention of concrete and standardization, Roman decadence, like ours, flaunts Greek notions of natural balance and proportion with sheer volume and numbers.

What makes us different is the epochal machine (tools, heavy equipment, CAD, and especially the manufacture of construction materials) which enables modernity to construct the stuff of Roman dreams. Perhaps machine-made minimalism is our decadence; it creates a “…chilling de-senualization and de-eroticization of the human relation to reality” (Holt 29). Ruskin, in support of the Arts and Crafts Movement, discusses the anti-craftsman, manufactured aspect of The Crystal Palace (only some assembly required, batteries not included), saying the “…workman is utterly enslaved…[by uniformity]” (Kemp 189). Ruskin the art critic joins Marx the moral philosopher who first recognized that specialization breeds alienation; the more specialized the work, the more barbaric it becomes.

“They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot…” (Joni Mitchell)

We are indeed alienated… our Judeo-Christian jihad against nature has wrought unnatural existences – living in hermetically sealed buildings with “ornamental” windows, waiting for elevators to travel one floor, riding on moving sidewalks and escalators, and masticating all-you-can-eat manufactured food – virtually guaranteeing Americans’ evolution to legless, manatee-like marine mammals. The banshee’s carbon footprint cries loudly. Human nature is nature, but instead of building on our natural foundation (ever see a solar panel America’s sunniest place, the Coachella Valley or someone sitting in a parked car without the engine running?), we destroy that foundation with McDonald’s and McMansions. And thus, we destroy ourselves.

Works and Websites Cited
Adam, Robert. Classical Architecture: A Handbook of the Tradition for Today. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991 (On-line:http://www.classicist.org/handbook/)
Barrett, William. Irrational Man. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1958.
Campbell, Joseph, with Moyers, Bill. The Power of Myth. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1988
Conti, Favio. Architecture as Environment. Boston: HBJ Press, 1977
Fletcher, Sir Banister. A History of Architecture, 19th Ed. London: Butterworths, 1987
Flying Casanovas. PBS.org. December 25, 2001. Nova Transcripts, December 1, 2007 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2818bowerbirds.html
www.greatbuildings.com/ [for plates only; not institutional, but contributions made by architects]
Holl, Steven. Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture, 2nd Ed. San Francisco: William Stout, 2006.
Kemp, Wolfgang. The Desire of My Eyes: The Life and Work of John Ruskin. New York: The Noonday Press, 1990
Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985
Roth, Leland. Understanding Architecture, 2nd Ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2007
Scully, Vincent. Architecture, The Natural and the Man Made. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991
Works Consulted but Not Cited
Clark, Kenneth. Ruskin Today. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964
Raeburn, Michael. Architecture of the Western World. New York: Rizzoli, 1980

Van Inwagen, Peter. Metaphysics. Boulder: Westview Press, 2002