[Mia T]

I think Stern is a reasonable choice for UVA architecture. I see superficial similarities between his work and Jefferson's, e.g., the exaggerated neoclassical gestures, the aesthetic sensibilities and the pride of place, to borrow a phrase. I think Jefferson was more experimental and innovative, however.

Architecture criticism has always seemed somewhat oxymoronic to me; its pretentiousness often serves to rationalize bad design.

Your 'mobius strip...outta the loop' pun indicates otherwise.;) I studied math, not architecture.

Möbius (Moebius) strip

Written by Paul Bourke
May 1996

---

The Möbius stip is the simplest geometric shape which has only one surface and only one edge. It can be created by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half twist along its long axis, and then joining the two narrow ends together.

The Möbius strip in 3 dimensions can be represented parameterically f(s,t) as follows

where s ranges from 0 to 2*pi and t ranges typically from -0.4 to 0.4

An example of such a strip is shown below.

Featured in "mama 27", November 2000, pp 91, Figure 17.

The band for different values of t are illustrated below.

t = -1 -> 1

t = -0.1 -> 0.1

t = -0.5 -> 0.5

Increasing the range of t even further yields interesting folded and increasingly convoluted forms.

[sultan88]

Wow, you sure brought back some [bad] memories. LOL. I studied the Mobius Strip as a Math Major, too. It's really amazing, isn't it?

[Mia T]

Architecture criticism has always seemed somewhat oxymoronic to me; its pretentiousness often serves to rationalize bad design.  ;)

WRITTEN IN STONE: AN ARCHITECT DEFINES THE CLINTONS

 

by Mia T, 12-30-02

 

If mutability of meaning was necessary for the survival of the clintons--their survival hinged ultimately on the deconstruction of words and laws--it is more than a little ironic, and a manifestation of the special sway and shortsightedness of the pathologic ego, that clinton's monument to himself will necessarily define the clintons with the permanance of great inviolate places of iconic architecture.

Whereas a huckster removes meaning from institutions --the wife picked up where the husband left off--an architect encodes meaning in buildings. James S. Polshek, the architect with the dubious distinction of having been commissioned to build the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, believes that a successful architectural solution must necessarily be rooted in relevance.

Just as Polshek's buildings have physical layers, so too do they have layers of meaning. His Rose Center for Earth and Space, for example, is informed formally and programmatically by the historic architecture of a designated landmark even as it redefines itself, (often too self-consciously, in my view), in Star-Trekian terms. Reduced to its essence, the building is the nascent universe before the Big Bang, the promise of the undifferentiated cell in its mother's womb.

The "bridge to the 21^st century" was, perhaps, clinton's most delusional conceit, so it is not surprising that it would become clinton's self-referential metaphor of choice. His library was to be that bridge, if he had anything to say about it...

The architect is often the master of the inside joke, witness Robert Venturi's postmodern chairs. Venturi exploited--unabashedly and with abandon--the vocabulary of Las Vegas, its stage-set-as-reality and its roadside culture--bright, clashing, ugly and fake. The architect's inside joke is his hedge against the sycophancy that comes with patronage.

The flip side of the encoded meaning of the architect is the terrorist's decoding of it. To bin Laden, the World Trade Center was Jewish capitalism encoded in urban space. If Polshek's vision of clinton's library is a bridge, the inside joke is that, at best, it is a bridge to nowhere.

More likely, it is a bridge to the 7^th century...or a doublewide to house clinton double-speak. Take your choice.

 

copyright Mia T 2002

[Mudboy Slim]

"Your 'mobius strip...outta the loop' pun indicates otherwise.;)"

Believe me, my FRiend, anything UN-nonsensical that you derived from my comment was entirely happenstance...my "outta the loop" regarded to Tigerman's marital status or Tigerman's body of work in general...LOL!! "I studied math, not architecture."

I usedta love math...I shouldda been an engineer!! Math major, eh?! Yer a smarty-pants!!

FReegards...MUD

[jla]

You're fabulous...in addition to being intelligent & talented. (Referring to the lady of course...just in case Murrymom's tango partner gets to thinkin' I meant him)

Wouldn't it be something if one day I clicked on rushlimbaugh.com & seen your political expertise gracing the homepage of the EIB.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Increasing the range of t even further yields interesting folded and increasingly convoluted forms."

Seriously now, that was the first thing I FOCUSed on...MUD