Friday, October 9, 2015

Buildings with Integrity

Immersed in the visual. What makes one building more attractive than the one beside it? Why do cheaply made modern houses in the United States lack dignity? What makes someone like myself gravitate, visually, to the past? To the architectural imagination of two centuries ago?

Once upon a time buildings were constructed with integrity, with appreciation of the fact that they would inhabit the landscape for years, decades probably.

I am not poisoned by nostalgia.

Driving through Woo City on any given day, one is struck by the number of visually arresting structures, some fetching even in their ruinous state. The red brick. The slate roofs. The solid granite foundations. The ornamentation.

Kerouac understood this.

There is a correlation between coincidence and karma. We set out on random dérives and consider ourselves lucky to see what we've seen. At least I do. I keep close tabs on the karma factor.