October 2011 | Eyesore

Architectural Abortions from the USA and Around the World (And Sometimes Other Miscellany Infecting the Landscape)

Presenting the ATT Arts Center (including the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater) Dallas, Texas, designed by New York City based REX architects. Do you think they communicated the essential cube-ness of the building? I do. The slit-and-slat windows are a nice touch, too. So uniquely unoriginal, in the highest tradition of kitsch. But my favorite part of the project is the context to which it is the latest addition (see below): a howling wilderness of surface parking! In the middle of an epic demonstration of What Is Wrong With How We Build The Human Habitat In America. Notice the death-funnel patron car-dropoff that scoops down into the building podium. In the top rendering, it's all "greened" up with trees; but notice in the bottom rendering the trees have been dispensed with – the traffic engineers surely wrinkled their noses at these obstructions to safe motoring! Way to go, Dallas, Texas, leading the nation into The Long Emergency!