Why have we left it behind? What happened to explain our exodus?

Twitter ^ | April 18, 2024 | Culture Critic

[Racketeer]

This world has seen so much beauty, both natural and man-made. Yet current design does not hold a candle to our tradition. Even our families have broken down.

Looking through the past we have to wonder how did this happen? Who is at fault? Will we ever see this again?

[No name given]

This is the consequence for turning our back on God and kicking Him out of our hearts and the public square.

[SaveFerris]

(Will we ever see this again?)

Unfortunately, no.

[nopardons]

The writer is an uneducated doofus, even though he is correct about preservation of traditions and the now degradation of our culture and architecture.

The first set of photos are from World's Fair's, which have ALWAYS, the world over, for the vast majority of the structures, are built to ONLY last during the time of the fair!

In Chicago, a few buildings were saved and put to good use as museums of different kinds.

In NYC, fewer buildings were saved from the '38 World's Fair; however, one building was then turned into a public ice and rollerskating rinks.

[nopardons]

No it isn’t, some things have always been built as short term, leading to obsolescence.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Welcome to FR!

Turn to Jesus - NOW.

He is your only hope.

[FateAmenableToChange]

So glad you made this point. Even North Korea can carefully manufacture the appearance of a perfect society for Western tourists who bother to visit. World’s Fairs, Olympic Villages, Communist utopia Cities, it’s all the same concept. If it’s temporary and the forces of the state command and fund its construction with the ideal of looking good, it will look good. If it doesn’t look good in a capitalist regime, the private actor loses business. If it doesn’t look good in a centralized regime, the [chosen scapegoat] gets to experience the wonders of social justice.

[verum ago]

how did this happen? Who is at fault? Will we ever see this again?

It was actively destroyed. First in the name of Progress, then in the name of Progressives.

Will we see it again?

I suspect not. I lament the tearing down of beautiful old buildings, especially those made of stone, but don't forget that such architecture is wildly expensive, tends to become wildly maintenance intensive, generally very inefficient, and very vulnerable to fire and seismic movement. Sometimes progress really is progress.

Yes, I'd love to see more classical style architecture, but I'm also not one to find making a modern, code-compliant ver$$$ion of it a good expenditure of my hard-earned tax money. For a major monument, to commemorate something for all time? Yeah, maybe. But a neo-classical marble city hall for a city of 50,000 that costs $200,000,000? Hell no.

The simple fact is that labor and materials (and life- all those old grand construction jobs had a list of dead workers) just aren't as cheap as they once were.

Now if someone wants to expend private funds to make something beautiful... power to them.

[Racketeer]

I beleive I read that POTUS Trump is promising to bring back the World’s Fair. My comments to the attached twitter link had more to do with the art and buildings still standing today and the one working parent family with a nice house, cars, and college education for their children.

What happened to that?

[bigbob]

Let’s look at cherry-picked examples to support a weak thesis

[married21]

In San Diego, Balboa Park preserves the setting and various buildings from its Pan American expo in the early 1900s. They were indeed built to be temporary and have had to be fixed over the years.

[MotorCityBuck]

History probably wasn't your strong point. Just sayingLOL! Take care. One, and out.

[BradyLS]

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

Golden material for a tagline!

[ansel12]

“””””In San Diego, Balboa Park preserves the setting and various buildings from its Pan American expo in the early 1900s. They were indeed built to be temporary and have had to be fixed over the years.”””””

When the Balboa park Old Globe Theater burned in 1978 I was one of the volunteers helping to rebuild it.

https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/a-look-back-at-the-1978-old-globe-theatre-fire-in-san-diego/509-8eda82f1-0f7a-4a7f-8713-1dde098cadca

[Buttons12]

While I appreciate the point being made, most of the glorious 1893 buildings at the fair were made of plaster of Paris and were never intended to stand permanently. They were built fast (not fast enough to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus) and were basically eye candy.

[Buttons12]

Ditto, St. Louis 1904.

[Buttons12]

“Tradition is not...”

Yes, that quote alone makes this a worthy thread! But clearly freepers are wiser than tweeters. We know stuff ;)

[nopardons]

Exactly so and thank you for being able to see the reality, unlike the the person who tweeted this nonsense!

[married21]

Very cool! I was in high school when that fire happened. Just a few years later, in college, I got to usher in the rebuilt Old Globe. It’s a treasured San Diego institution, for sure.

[ansel12]

Interesting, if you ever ran into a really good looking guy drinking beer on the beach, that was me.