SEPTEMBER 2016 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
15
Colorado Pulse
one wince when passing by. In the other direction, a huge,
new 8,000-square-foot house spanning two full lots was
just completed. It sits between two tiny 800-square-foot,
one-story homes on either side. Three-story pop-tops are
dotting our once-humble neighborhoods citywide, creating
a messy hodgepodge of heights, proportions and styles that
are anything but contextual or inviting. As I stroll the same
streets each evening, I can’t help but wonder where all the
beauty I enjoyed for so many years has gone.
Monstrous homes now block our once-cherished views,
beautiful old trees are being mowed down in the name
of greater real estate value, character is being systemati-
cally destroyed in the name of density, and rows of poorly
designed stucco boxes are rapidly replacing harmonious
housing in our beloved, quaint post-World War II enclaves.
These are neighborhoods many of us chose to live in be-
cause of their unique beauty that is now being destroyed.
So our cities are not only adding very little new beauty to
our lives, but also they are removing the historic charm and
character longtime residents have cherished and worked
hard to sustain.
Some 150 years ago in the book “The Stones of Venice,”
Victorian-era art critic John Ruskin was quoted as saying
that architecture has two missions: “to provide shelter, on
the one hand, and to glorify on the other. Buildings not
only speak to who we are, but to who we hope to be.”
To Ruskin's point, are our Front Range communities
speaking to who we are, or who we hope to be? I’m not so
sure.
Beauty & Architecture
The bottom line is that the beauty of our buildings and
spaces is important in our lives, and our pursuit of it matters.
“Buildings have always embodied an aspiration,” declared
British philosopher Alain de Botton. "They were intended as
a goad to virtue. They were a kind of propaganda … a building
can exhort the user to imitate and participate in the quali-
ties implicit in its form. It makes us see that every conscious-
ly created object is trying to tell us something. … [buildings]
represent attempts to lend dignity to our surroundings, and
that – assuming the ceiling doesn't cave in – may be one of
the most serious and traditional functions of architecture.”
Brooks explained, “The shift to post-humanism has left the
world beauty-poor and meaning-deprived … we accidentally
abandoned a worldview that showed how art can be used to
cultivate the fullest inner life. We left behind an ethos that re-
minded people of the links between the beautiful, the true and
the good – the way pleasure and love can lead to nobility.”
But, Irishpoet JohnO’Donohue best capturedwhy beauty is so
critical in our lives in his book, “Beauty: The Invisible Embrace.”
He writes, “Some of our most wonderful memories are beau-
tiful places where we felt immediately at home. We feel most
alive in the presence of the beautiful for it meets the needs of
our soul … Without beauty, the search for truth, the desire for
goodness and the love of order and unity would be sterile ex-
ploits. Beauty brings warmth, elegance and grandeur.”
Is it time to make beauty a part of our daily design dia-
logue again?
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