14
/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / SEPTEMBER 2016
A
s many of you know, Philip Johnson's icon-
ic Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan
closed July 16. As I devoured every article I
could find on the restaurant's history and design
that week, I was struck by something Jason Fara-
go said in his piece, “A Man for Four Seasons: My
goodbye to New York’s modernist cathedral” in The
Guardian, July 13.
Hewrote, “Thewinewas overpriced, the servicewas
doddering. But it didn’t matter: The beaded curtains
glistered like Titian’s shower of gold, and all around
us was the soft, reliable murmur of contentment. My
word, it was beautiful. I stayed until midnight, when
all the other diners had picked apart the cotton candy
and headed home. No doubt the martinis helped here,
but it was my last ever night in the Four Seasons, and
so I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my trousers,
and then, after all those years, I jumped into Philip
Johnson’s marble pool. I waded around, dragged my
hand through the water, and looked at the loveliest
room in New York from its very nucleus, from a van-
tage point I had never seen before. Then I walked out
of the Four Seasons for the last time, dripping, and the
history of modernism evaporated from my sodden
trousers into the New York summer night.”
Farago's description took my breath away. It was as if
I were there next to him, taking it all in that evening.
In another piece in Wallpaper, this quote caught my
attention as well: “ ‘The architecture will come first,’
stresses (Four Seasons co-owner Julian) Niccolini, al-
most conceding that the food has always been beside
the point. ‘People don’t go to restaurants just to eat; it’s
a place for magic, tremendous architecture and Beau-
ty. We could never recreate this, but we will do some-
thing special.’ ”
I share these quotes not only because they touch
on a topic that is rarely included in conversation to-
day, but also because the writing is beautiful. Sadly,
the very mention of the word “beauty” can conjure up
raised eyebrows and rolled eyes in some circles.
In his Jan. 15 New York Times piece, “When Beau-
ty Strikes,” David Brooks writes: “These days we all like
beautiful things. Everybody approves of art. But the
culture does not attach as much emotional, intellec-
tual or spiritual weight to beauty. We live, as Leon Wi-
eseltier wrote in an essay for The Times Book Review,
in a post-humanist moment. That which can be mea-
sured with data is valorized. Economists are experts on
happiness. The world is understood primarily as the
product of impersonal forces; the nonmaterial dimen-
sions of life explained by the material ones.”
He continued, “Over the past century, artists have
had suspicious and varied attitudes toward beauty.
Some regard all that aesthetics-can-save-your-soul
mumbo jumbo as sentimental claptrap. They want
something grittier and more confrontational.”
Beauty as Counterpoint
Most would agree that we’re living in a time filled
with extraordinary strife. Harsh words, anger and even
rage are a part of our society’s lexicon today. Our daily
lives are now infused with tension fed by the media
(social and otherwise), events on our streets and within
the omnipresent political dialogue. And in the Denver
metro area, the many changes happening as a result of
rapid, uncontrolled growth and the constant push for
increased density are creating subliminal pressure all
its own. We all feel it. And we are all in need of some
respite.
Fortunately, beauty offers a counterpoint – a place
for repose and contemplation; a way to transport us to
another state of mind that elicits relief, gratitude and a
sense of peace. While many head off to Colorado's ma-
jestic mountains, the tranquility of the Denver Botan-
ic Gardens or one of our beautiful Front Range parks
for a much-needed reprieve, shouldn’t our neighbor-
hoods and buildings contribute to our beauty quotient
as well?
An Excess of Ugly
Rather than introducing more beauty in our lives,
many developments in our city are actually increasing
the “ugly” instead. Over the last year, the neighborhood
I live in has added a newmemory care center in a resi-
dential neighborhood. While its architecture raises the
bar on the usual fare in that sector, the colors of the
exterior brick, paint and other finishes clash, making
Cynthia
Kemper
Principal,
Marketekture
Colorado Pulse
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 B.C.,
died after c. 15 B.C.), commonly known as Vit-
ruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil
engineer and military engineer during the 1st
century BC, known for his multivolume work
entitled “De architectura.”
“Beauty is produced by the
pleasing appearance and good
taste of the whole, and by the
dimensions of all the parts being
duly proportioned to each other.”
– Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
“In fact, all kinds of men, and not
merely architects, can recognize
a good piece of work ... ”
– Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
“Nothing requires the
architect’s care more than the
due proportion of buildings.”
– Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
