"Inferior Architecture for Culture in Decline"

Roland Park Enoch Pratt Library, models

A recent Op Ed contribution in the Baltimore Sun caught our eye this week. Rene J. Miller, who lives in Baltimore and writes about architecture for the Sun, critiques two renovations of historic buildings. Just to let you know, Miller's not happy. We think one of the values of the piece is the access it gives the reader to the visual language and substance of architectural critique. Opening paragraph:

In the early 1990s, New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan spoke of "defining deviancy down," by which he meant that Americans were becoming more tolerant of bad behavior. During the last three decades, much of what has been built in this country has also been "defined down," falling short of standards adhered to earlier

Read on.

(Sorry we were unable to snag an image of the Raymond Loewy, Caldor Building addressed in Miller's article.)