Eyesores

Can't believe I didn't know about this site sooner: James Howard Kunstler's Eyesore of the Month: a brilliant, funny, curmudgeonly commentary on the dismal state of architecture in the United States. Kunstler does to architectural design what Jon Stewart does to media and politics: he tells it like he sees it.

An excerpt, from October 2004:

The new Marriot Courtyard in Saratoga Springs, a hotel designed to look like a forensic pathology lab. You can practically smell the formaldyhyde out in the parking lot. Now some folks might say, "no fair, that's the side of the building." Yes, it is, but it also happens to be most conspicuously visible side from any possible vantage point. This building was rigorously vetted by the city planning board and design review commission. We are hostages to our own miserably low standards.

If only Kunstler's output was more frequent than once per month. I'd prefer once per day, and surely there's enough material across this great land to provide inspiration. (Perhaps someone could create an "Eyesore of the Day" photo group on Flickr where interested parties could share their miserable findings...)

p.s. actually there's more on his site than just Eyesores. For instance, his newsletter, Civitas, whose current issue goes into more detail on the Marriott Courtyard mentioned above.

Posted by brian at December 12, 2004 10:59 AM