What’s wrong with America
Before you start thinking that this is going to be a “let’s bash America post”, think again. You won’t find that here; I love this big lug of a country. But, one thing that really disappoints me is our architecture, or lack there of. Yes, our architecture is the one thing I choose to bitch about.
If I had to choose another job, something other than web development, I would have been an architect. I love design and I love architecture. When I build a website, I am very meticulous and am very attentive to all aspects of details. So when I see new buildings going up around town and they look like boxes with windows it just sickens me.
The problem is the entire paradigm in which things get built in America. Most commercial and residential buildings are built by the people that said they could get the job done fastest and for the least amount of money. With that as your driving force you will never get something like the Blue Mosque or Neuschwantein Castle.
If your goal is to get it up as quickly as possible and for the least amount of money then you will get boxes with windows. I realize that the 1st bank on the corner can’t look like the Blue Mosque, but couldn’t we shoot for something aesthetically pleasing? Shouldn’t we?
Shouldn’t our goal be to make the community around us as nice as possible? Don’t we all want to live in a beautiful area? So then why do they build housing communities with no parks? A couple of years ago they put in a community swimming pool in my area; very nice, but they didn’t put in any trees around the pool so you could get out of the sun. Nor did they put in a volleyball net. They simply built the pool for the least amount of money with no extra frills.
And what about the architects? These poor guys went to college and I’m sure had dreams and aspirations of building something great, something beautiful, something they could be proud of and say, ‘that is great and I designed it.’ Only now, they have to take jobs that have little budgets and forced to get the job done ASAP.
I know if someone made me build websites that were crap I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning; I would hate my job.
Look, I would gladly pay higher taxes if it meant a better community in which to live.
For your enjoyment, some of the world’s great architectural marvels:
- The Red Fort
- Angkor Wat
- Taj Mahal
- The Sagrada Familia
- Sacre-Coeur
- Chartres Cathedral
- Petra
- Parliament Building Hungary
- St. Basils Cathedral [from Steve]
August 14th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Nice pics!
I thought St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow was pretty impressive… although the sight of it gave me the peculiar urge to play Tetris.
August 14th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Dude, you forgot that giant hotdog outside of LA that sells . . . hot dogs.
Seriously, I agree. The best part of a visit to Europe is the amazing architecture. I actually think America’s best offerings are some Churches and some of the older Baseball Parks. Other than that, we are pretty much a homogenized Circuit City strip mall of a country. Pretty sad, actually.
Ben O.
August 17th, 2006 at 10:46 am
that’s another thing about amerca, everyone expects the frills.
i think you need to take a closer look. have you seen how drab the industrial parts of moscow are. how about mexico for cement and repetitiveness in architecture. Hong Kong is even worse. Compared to nearly every other country on the planet - excluding european contries whose architecture is incredibly old and often unharmed by war, time, and man - amierica has it nothing to complain about. maybe you just need to give it the 1000 years that europe has had.
August 17th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I think your argument is flawed hubs. I see 3 reasons why your argument doesn’t hold:
1. Mexico city and Hong Kong are two of the most over populated places in the world. Their architecture simply reflects that.
2. America is one of the richest countries in the world, unlike some of these others. We HAVE the money to make our buildings better, but we choose not to.
3. I can’t subscribe to the theory that their architecture is better simply because it’s older. With todays technologies, shouldn’t we be able to build stronger, faster and cheaper, and yet still, if we wanted to, make them aesthetically pleasing?
Also, I was in Germany a few years back and they did have to rebuild some of their war torn buildings and they chose to build them back to blend into their already existing architecture. At least where I was…
It’s not to say America doesn’t have its great architectural buildings. There just all in Vegas
November 9th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Thought about whats wrong with america
What’s wrong with America
The Society
1. Lets start with ancient china years ago china paid people by the importance of their job to living
They paid Soliders the most because they would be unable to live learn or eat with out them they could not exist with out a military
Farmers made food so food was second on the list
Carpenters and construction workers made homes to live in so they were 3rd most important and paid accordingly
Everyone else came some were in between the list above and sales men
Sales men were of least important to survival so were paid the least and considered the least on the social scale
Does that make sense well fast forward a few hundred years in the united states of America and it seems to be reversed Soliders get paid very low amounts of money work hard and die, farmers are so poor they can barely eat, carpenters fair ok but not great and sales men do awesome some sales men make between 30,000 to 500,000 dollars a year along with managers. The irony of this is that company upper management make veterans work on veterans day while they are off spending time with there family and they maybe have a support the troops bumper sticker on their car. Maybe they should think that they may not be free or alive if it was not for the veterans that they take advantage of.
I am not saying to go back to the ancient Chinese society but the idea was intriguing
February 21st, 2007 at 10:49 pm
hubs and golgota, go suck on one, as for Greg, nice point.
I myself want to be an architect, in fact im in collage studing to be
an architect. I will be flying to Hong Kong for a 10 days shortly and
do believe that fo the most part architecture was not incorperated
into america as much as Japan or China or Mexico which by the way
i believe is incredible. Look at the conurbation of San-San here in
Cali, we hold 30000000 people there and are architecture still sucks
except for the library tower in los angeles. but for the most part
your right dude, the USA sucks at architecture.