“There Are So Few Modern Masterpieces and We Know Them by Heart” Leon Krier at Georgia Tech.

Thanks to my Blog, Twitter and Facebook friends for saying hello. I'd sure enjoy your comments. Tech usually puts these online. I'll let you know.

Leon Krier spoke last night at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. It was the first annual Academy of Medicine Distinguished Architecture Lecture. You should have been there.



I hoped Mr. Krier would attract outsiders to the Tech campus: folks who are interested in design, new urbanism, city planning, placemaking, traditional building.

And who isn't?


These lectures are usually cutting edge: Top international design talent discuss the the latest in everything. And this is a very challenging field.

And honestly, they often talk in another language. Their presentations are provacative but rarely pretty. Afterward I sometimes need a translation and couple of aspirin.



When I enter the auditorium, I'm always excited AND a bit wary. When I leave, I'm always happy I was there.


Tech is loaded with design talent, both students and faculty. These folks are going to plan and design our future.

After the lecture most went right back the studio. The lights never dim in the architecture building.


I hoped Leon Krier's lecture would break from the cutting edge. (That's Assistant Professor Jude LeBlanc in the center. He put this lecture series together.)

Is new urbanist influenced planning is cutting edge? In any case it's easy for the layman to grasp.


His slides didn't need any translation. Can you put Le Corbusier anywhere? Everywhere?


The place filled right up.


Standing room only.


Finally he began.

And for me it was one great aphorism after another. Like this: "Skyscrapers are vertical cud-de-sacs, only one way in or out."

 
The Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium is a fine place for a lecture.


Thanks to Jimmy Trimble & Betty Dowling (above), Gene Surber (below), and the rest of the Academy of Medicine Board for saving the Academy of Medicine, donating it to Georgia Tech and endowing the lecture.

 
For Atlanta insiders: Do you recognize Gene Surber (center)? You are probably familier with some of Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects' preservation projects and more.

I recommend you subscribe to the Georgia Tech College of Archtiecture News so you won't miss any more of these.

See you there?