I love threads like this, seeing references to types of architecture or architectural elements. Googled "enfilade" and I like the dual meanings.

I like it. There's something very alive to it.

Did Venturi not care for his mother very much?

She liked the house very much, and it's considered the first American Post-Modernist residence.

It looks like a warehouse. If someone showed that on Houzz as a possible design,(if new) it would be ripped apart...

Post the plan and see what people think.

Lol, pal! We know who would say what, here,. It doesn't matter to me, anyway. I don't have to live in it. There is some "great" architecture that I think is just plain ugly...

The Houzz hive mind is not for the adventurous or iconoclastic.

And there are sycophants all over the place.

I'll take a stab at what I imagine would be said. ( I'm on my phone though so please forgive)...They would rip apart the window placement for sure...and the kitchen layout....probably they wouldn't like the stone hearth? And they would complain about the doors in the dining room. And probably say something about lighting and LED's, idk...I don't mind the inside too much actually, as I'm a simple person . I just can't get past the exterior...

Intentional ugliness was a part of Venturi's vocabulary.

I don't find the house pretty in any way, but essentially I think it is a good house in terms of meeting the program requirements. I think it's possible to appreciate some things like this in the abstract, and to appreciate something odd or unusual as a milepost or a turning point without being a sycophant.

Very true. Everyone has different tastes (mine is not mainstream at all) and that's what makes life interesting. Can a mom say "eww, no". to her kids, though? Food for thought...

ETA:. The one thing that I truly cannot comprehend because it hurts my soul is brutalism. Cannot appreciate in any way.

Can a mom say "eww, no". to her kids, though? Food for thought...

In 1962, to an adult child? Hell, yeah.

The delicate-psyche-who-can-never-be-denied is an unfortunate construct of a later period.

(I learned several new words, so thank you)

also..I started thinking..if we all were houses..how we'd look?

because I thought-maybe his Mother was actually very involved..maybe she loved it..maybe that's how he pictured her..well, personality-wise..as a translation to architecture? strong lines..a bit of assymetry..not too open-yet open nevertheless..smth "I don't give a damn" about it..I wonder..

I hope I don't sound..well..like I usually sound. lol

it's just interesting. you have an idea. you execute it. you have your own vocabulary. you have your intent. how everything comes together in such a way to translate your idea in the best way available to you?

Even this one?

https://philly.curbed.com/2018/2/20/16956130/louis-kahn-esherick-house-tour-savidge-macey

It would be interesting, April....especially if we could see both versions, that of others as well as how we see ourselves...my own as a reflection of myself would be something easily forgotten--a cave, maybe.

as somebody who'd been to caves-no..not easily forgotten))

that last house is very not me yet very appealing as a house

(and in order to look at the pediment house I registered on the site or wouldn't let me see all the pictures-so I already had two calls from Nashville TN, and two emails from Nashville TN..guys work fast))

Can a mom say "eww, no". to her kids, though? Food for thought...

Vanna Venturi? Yes. Plus she knew she was out-of-step with most people at the time, men and women alike. Born in 1893, she was an intellectual, feminist, socialist, pacifist who would become a Quaker, vegetarian, and keen reader especially after having to drop out of high school to work. She married Robert Venturi Sr. relatively late in life for the times, when she was 31. She was also very interested in art and design, known for her elegant taste in fashion, making her own clothes, and antique furniture, which she collected.

So I'm fairly certain that she would have told him what's what, especially because Mrs. Venturi was around 70 years old at the time of the project. And she had a number of requests for the house that her son honored -- one-floor living her with space for a companion/caretaker on the second floor, no garage because she didn't drive, and able to accommodate the antiques she'd been collecting for 50 years.

april, I used this link and haven't had any calls or emails : ) .

Pal, at the risk of going way OT would you consider the Kimbell Museum of Art brutalist? It's one of my favorite buildings, and I like brutalism quite a bit.

becky:) there are very few things you don't know..I'm in awe every time reading you. Really.

you finding a better link comes as no wonder to me)) given the big picture

(yeah I knew I shouldn't register there, was impatient. but I never expected such amount of attention I must say. within 5 min. incredible..)

april, I was a history major and also a reporter, and have worked as an editor for many years. I have good research skills and like to read, and would also rather read than do housework (or farm chores when it's 40 below) lol.

All this talk of Venturi and his relationship with his mother had me look up Guild House to see if I remembered correctly that he had adorned the top of that building for the elderly with an TV antenna. He did use that decoration. Interestingly, the antenna appears to be gone now.

He built his mother's house, known as Vanna Venturi House, and Guild House almost at the exact same time.

I like the Kahn Esherick house! Blocky yet linear, solid yet full of light. People are using old shipping containers to stack and align in similar configurations.

I love that it can be appreciated from both sides!

ETA: after looking at the listing, anyone else wonder who needs that many chairs???

I'm really enjoying the architecture talk, so carry on...

Lori would you mind telling us how you find listings from photos? I've seen it done before and I am jelly. Plus I have GOT to see the rest of that place!

Venturi himself uses "ugly, ordinary" and "banal" in his own descriptions of Guild House.

The non-functional, oversized "TV antenna" symbolized what elderly people spent their time doing. The interiors, however, are pleasant and light-filled.

In an ironic twist, Venturi, who now has Alzheimers, now enjoys watching old sitcoms, reportedly enjoying "Golden Girls".

Kahn, on the other hand, a Brutalist, created a number of beautiful buildings in a style that can typically be quite ugly:

And of course the Kimbell

Venturi and Kahn were, of course, at opposite ends of the architectural spectrum, even though both were from Philly and Penn, at least for a time. Interesting opposites...!

And neither particularly appreciated in their own cities, at least coincident with their careers.

I live not far from the Kimbell. For me, it's just okay. It's less offensive to my eye.

This is what I used to live near...Perhaps this is where my dislike comes from...?

Its the inside light and volume, the negative space, that make Kahn's buildings what they are.

Brutalism in the wrong hands, which is probably most hands, is terrible.

Pal, your 3rd photo above is of the Phillips Exeter Academy library in Exeter, NH. DS attended there, so I've been in this beautiful building many times. More on PEA Library and More

I am not sure if Philip Johnson's Kreeger Museum counts as brutalism either. The pictures of the building do not capture the feel of it at all.

nhbaskets- I adore that library.

From a pediment to a lesson in post-modernism and brutalism. Thank you everyone.

Mr. Johnson, later in his career, became very trendy, moving from Moderism, to Postmodernism, and back and forth.

I think the Khan house is fabulous. Such wonderful light!

The King of Less is More has passed into the hall of immortal architects. (I can only imagine what that looks like!)

Here's our area's most prominent post-modern major structure:

I thought about this thread too when I read the news of his death the other day.

It's interesting because Philadelphia kinda has to pretend that Venturi was appreciated more here when he was alive. The city tends to be hard on the home team. When the movie My Architect was made, locally some of the people interviewed seemed ambivalent at best about Louis Kahn's importance, yet when they interviewed people in other cities or countries, he garnered a lot of appreciation.

That problem goes back to Biblical times. ^^^^

Here's a post-modern of the 1960s in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

In Toronto I like 1 & 3 Bond Ave by Zak Ghanim!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPZ8ni0vEjw

So timely to see this, with the recent passing of the "Father of Post-Modernism" Robert Venturi.

I don't mind it overall - I can appreciate its uniqueness

Now that said, when I first looked at the pic it reminded me a bit of something else from days past:

Both 1 and 3 Bond were extensively rebuilt from the originals, which prominently featured windows set at 30º angles and were coated in sherbet delight colours. Three Bond has been blandified enough to suit Forest Hill.

What I don't like about the first photograph (besides the peeling paint on the bricks) is the feet on the columns - that is a bit unsettling for me - more than the broken pediment, which I rather like. Columns should not have feet, in my book.

I sometimes like brutalism, but sometimes it is just brutal. I saw a Louis Kahn exhibit at the L.A. Art Museum, and I liked some of it but not all. Some of the exterior spaces that he created are very unwelcoming. And it is one thing to see photos of it and quite another to have to walk through it. My boss OTOH adores Kahn. He's definitely not one of my favorites, and he's on my "sometimes like" list.

We had a lecture in my History of Architecture class on Mannerism, and the professor explained that wealthy in people in Italy got bored with High Renaissance architecture and wanted to impress their friends at parties with a new style that was different for the sake of being different, and thus the exaggerated style of Mannerism was born. Historically, at least in architecture, Michaelangelo is considered Mannerist instead of high Renaissance. That's what was taught.

The columns are Tuscan, which is a Roman order, so they my correctly have a square base or foot, or not. They often seem to sit on a square base in Italy... A Greek column would sit right on the stylobate (or porch, in this case).

I am more bothered by the giant weep holes in the base, but I suppose they are practical.

That's what I'm talking about - the weep holes make "feet" at the bottom of the square base. I have no issue with the square base, but the bottom of the base should be flush with the floor. We make some similar square bases for floor lamps, and they need that space for the cord.

No architect here. I had a visceral reaction to the picture of Louis Kahn's Esherick House (love the warmth of the lighting). After looking up the interior, however, I am wondering how one can live there, with such little privacy. No close neighbors?

https://www.archdaily.com/202759/ad-classics-esherick-house-louis-kahn/503821df28ba0d599b000ff5-ad-classics-esherick-house-louis-kahn-photo

what an elevation superb