#34 Architecture
January 28, 2008 by clander
If you ask white people what they love about cities they don’t live in, they will say “restaurants,” “culture,” and “architecture.”
They just can’t get enough of old buildings or ultramodern buildings next to old buildings.
If you want to fit in with white people you need to learn about IM Pei, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, and a whole swath of others. Also, be prepared to say “Bauhaus” a lot.
Once you have the basics down, you should choose a city that people are unlikely to have visited, then make up a name, and choose one of the following a) opera house, b) museum, c) city hall, d) civic center. Then put all together into something like this:
“Geary is good, but I’m more much into the work of D.F. Winterhausen, he designed the new opera house in Podgorica.” Wait for a pause and then say “In Montenegro. Have you never been?”
The white person will be left in stunned silence, reverence and respect.
The reason white people love architecture so much is that deep down they believe that they could have been a great architect. They feel the same way about other professions including: professor, writer, and politician.
Also of note, white people love big books about architecture. So if you need to get one a gift, this always goes over well because it makes them feel smart without having to read too much.
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Again, it is ironic that you put a picture of one of the most controversial buildings dealing with the question of what is and what isn’t architecture. Many architects don’t regard Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao as architecture. As for me I love the experience of the Guggenheim, especially the interior as well as the surrounding city. However if you want to visit a similar piece of architecture, a building that is just as incredible on the inside as the outside, visit Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. and then go down a block or so and cross the street and see Raphael Moneo’s Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.
that’s not true at all. he’s not my bag, but together with all other architects, i regard gehry’s work as architecture, but some disparage it for having differing values and priorities to their own ‘brand’. anything that has really been thought about is architecture. otherwise it’s just building, and no-one would say that of gehry.
but getting back to the point, shouldn’t you also mention certain restaurants, (eg sketch), accessories (porsche?), watches (georg jensen) and cars (alfa romeo?).
I love it… I love this whole blog. I think it’s great, and as a white person, I think it definitely contains bits of truth. I love the picture of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain… how perfect. And if anyone is planning a trip abroad, I would visit Bilbao just for the Guggenheim… it’s worth it.
Ryan, dude, it’s a joke. It’s not really meant to be about all caucasions. It’s about educated, liberal Americans and what they sometimes take too seriously. Calling them “white people” is just funnier. And I Guess I’m a White Girl, way to propogate that canon! I bet there’s a faculty position at some architecture school for you. But I’m just another of those architects with his head way up his ass (but if I keep pushing it up further, it may pop out the other end).
Interesting….the “canon” of architecture cannot be as easily exploded as it is for art. This is so because architecture costs a lot of money. It has to be classy, or classist, if you will.
Architecture still has moral “weight” and it reflects more easily society’s biases and preferences. White people love architecture because it poses no threat to their invisible privilege… it perpetuates the canon that they know and love.
Yeah Ryan- wow! You read pretty far through the list to tell us how offended you were, how much time we’re wasteing, (finally) name drop “IM Pei”… you don’t live in Boulder, do you? And ‘I Guess I’m a White Girl’ — don’t even know where to start- Don’t you know it’s culture that makes Milk go bad! I thought about it… it’s still bad architecture.
I am personally offended by this site. If I made a stereotypical site about what black people, hispanic people or asian people like, I would be dubbed as a racist. Perhaps this was all in good jest, but until other races can take what they dole out, I will remain offended. I am tired of a double standard when it comes to that issue. There are many white people, actually the majority of them, that don’t know anything about IM Pei and they certainly couldn’t tell you much about architecture. You’re looking at one specific section of one race and using it to stereotype the rest of the race, which I find completely idiotic. This entire site is pointless.
Ryan is a grad student in the humanities… that’s why he is angry… remember White people like to get offended….
Why, then, did you take the time to ponder the information and write several paragraphs on your opinion of the sites “pointlessness?” Open your mind
Though I think this a funny post, it isn’t white people. This is like elitist art students or as I said before, elitist, upper class, pretentious white americans. You hang out with some annoying people
Ah, typical. No love for the lowly landscape architect–which you could call Civil Engineers with taste, I guess.
Oh yeah…who created the framework for urban and national parks? Right…landscape architects! (look up “Organic Act of 1916″ among other things)
The first thing the WTC memorial committee did when an architecture grad student won the design competition was make him team with a Landscape architect…I think it was Peter Walker.
But usually we’re brought in too late to make an ugly building look good.
“Once you have the basics down, you should choose a city that people are unlikely to have visited, then make up a name, and choose one of the following a) opera house, b) museum, c) city hall, d) civic center. ”
That is absolutely hysterical. I need to do that more often.
Wow, no one mentioned Gaudi?
I live in Barcelona… how many white-points do I get for this simple post?
BTW, I am not white.
I’m thinking that Spanish people are white. Everyone in Europe, including Turkey- white. Even the Greeks-mostly white.
word, word, word.
“I don’t want to be an architect but I am”
im in the same boat, and im a lady
so every conversation with a guy starts with
“i always wanted to be an architect, but…(insert banal reason here)….”
i think that is the sole reason i had to move away from san francisco (every guy in that city wants to be an architect)
and frank gehry might be a better architect if he stopped sketching fish and putting crap on them and calling them buildings.
word, word, word.
“I don’t want to be an architect but I am”
im in the same boat, and im a lady
so every conversation with a guy starts with
“i always wanted to be an architect, but…(insert banal reason here)….”
i think that is the sole reason i had to move away from san francisco (every guy in that city wants to be an architect)
and frank gehry might be a better architect if he stopped sketching fish and putting crap on them and calling them buildings.
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