[FORUM] What do you think of architecture conservationism and innovation?

Castrovalva had a link to an interesting essay defending the idea of modern architecture and opposing architecture conservatism, by defending the destruction of the Euston Arch. Some cities need to be rebuilt after trauma, true, Ypres and Warsaw being raised by the author, but that's exceptional. Most cities are substantially functional.

[A]n act of reconstruction is also an act of erasure: it wipes away the circumstances of the destruction. When the destruction was the result of a vast national trauma like a war, one can understand the desire to promptly rebuild things as they were, as part of a national recovery process that is as much psychological as it is to do with restoring buildings. But the Euston Arch was not the result of a war or invasion, and its loss – whatever the Euston Arch Trust might say – was not a comparable national trauma.

[. . .]

To restate what I said in the piece, the destruction of the arch was a symbolic defeat for the forces of conservation and traditionalist architecture in this country – and its symbolism has grown steadily over the years, judging from the melodramatic prose used to describe the demolition. The campaign to rebuild is about undoing a defeat more than any other consideration – any other rationales are simply convenient cover for this prime objective. It’s part of a broader cultural effort to discourage the modernisation of the UK in the later 20th century, and to present post-war modernist construction as a malign mistake to be rectified.

Central to this heritage-militancy is a national loss of nerve about the New. In the minds of the likes of Jenkins, the New was a modernist invention, but in fact centuries of British architects and city-builders had faith in the New over the Old. The Georgians swept away medieval cities and the Victorians swept away Georgian cities, and hundreds of good and tens of thousands of indifferent buildings were destroyed and places changed their character for better and worse long before the modernists appeared on the scene. The idea – often repeated by the Prince of Wales and others – that previous generations tended their cities bonsai-like, with nailclippers and tweezers, is a myth. And because there aren’t photographs of those pre-existing eras, just unfamiliar paintings and drawings, we don’t grieve all that much. And Stamp, to his credit, sees this, acknowledging in his introduction that the railways (for instance) were terrifically destructive…. The wholesale rejection of the New has completely failed, giving us only amnesia and routine philistinism. In distrusting development we have, as a country, not stopped development but ceded our ability to shape it and even plan it.

Me, I agree with the author. The below skyline pleases me.



I snapped it from the landing of Toronto City Hall, this picture shows, from left to right, the Eaton Centre's office tower, Old City Hall, and the office tower on the southeastern corner of Yonge and Queen Street West. Isn't the mixture of old and new, successfully conserved and excitingly new, fantastic? The same with the innovative new recladding of First Canadian Place I photoblogged, similarly; updating is wonderful!

That's my question for you today (alas, I overslept Sunday, consider this post yesterday's [FORUM] post): To what extent should architectural conservationism exist? Should the desire to make cities new predominate?

Discuss.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• 3 Quarks Daily checks with a collection of writers as to their thoughts on the outcome of Egypt. Cautiousness is common.


• Anthropology.net reports on Saudi Arabia's exceptionally hostile approach to archeological ruins, pointing out that artifacts predating Islam aren't favoured at all.


• Arctic Progress observes that, as northernmost Europe becomes more integrated, Norway and Finland are taking up the study of the Russian language.


• The Burgh Diaspora observes that New Urbanist haven Portland, Oregon, isn't doing well at all.


• Daniel Drezner is somewhat critical of those who criticize political scientists for not predicting the Egyptian revolution.


• Extraordinary Observations' Rob Pitingolo makes the excellent point that assuming badly-hit cities like Detroit to be without any redeeming value, and talking about them that way without having been there, is lazy. Touché, here.


• Language Hat notes a study suggesting regional dialects as demonstrated in Twitter posts.


• At Lawyers, Guns, and Money, Charli Carpenter wonders why the Egyptian military hasn't intervened bloodily. She suggests that the training of Egyptian officers in Western militaries which emphasize good conduct had an effect; others, and I, think that the origins of the military among conscripts is at least as important.


• The Numerati posts a review of a book (In the Deep, Reed and Fitzgerald) that examines British Petroleum's catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico from the perspective of a corporate culture that cared as little for safety as much as it did for profits.


• Nissology PEI has the cool coat of arms of the South Atlantic British island of Tristan da Cunha.


• The Pagan Prattle features a character who's trying to auction off an umbrella with a picture of Jesus on it.


• Registan points out that the revolutions in Tunisia are hardly likely to be repeated in totalitarian Uzbekistan.


• Slap Upside the Head notes that Charles McVety, a man whose show on a religious channel was sanctioned by the federal comunications watchdog for its regurgitation of the same old anti-gay bigotry, has had his show dropped because he refused to stop.


• The Yorkshire Ranter, Alexander Harrowell, takes a look at the trope of Egypt's being a Twitter revolution.

[LINK] "Orbiting Ganymede and Europa"

The prospect of sending probes to the Jovian system--NASA probe to Europa orbit and an ESA probe to Ganymede orbit--is discussed by Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams. Might there be a joint strategy for exploring these two interesting worlds of the Jovian system?

ESA’s own report on the EJSM is being presented to the European public this month, making the case for journeys to two icy moons that have long captured the imagination. Both Ganymede and Europa are thought to have sub-surface oceans, Europa’s covered with what may be a relatively thin shell that presents a dynamic surface, one that captures its history on the ice in the form of movements of ice ‘rafts’ and upwellings from the liquid below. One task of the EJSM will be to identify possible landing sights for future craft, but onboard instruments including ice-penetrating radar should also tell us much about the extent of the water under the ice. Unlike Ganymede, Europa’s ocean is thought to be in contact with the rocky mantle below.

Ganymede, on the other hand, is believed to feature a thicker ice shell, its ocean trapped between ice above and below. The contrast between the internal structures of these two worlds should make for fascinating observation, and we’ll also learn about the magnetic field that sets Ganymede apart from other Solar System moons. The plan is for both orbiters to study Io and Callisto as well, adding to our knowledge of the Jovian system and potentially contributing to our understanding of gas giants around other stars. Between the two craft, we would have 21 complementary instruments to map Jupiter’s interactions with its largest moons.

Go, read.

Question: Does anyone know of any plans to send probes to Callisto or Io? Both worlds are interesting, too, Callisto somewhat like a colder Ganymede and Io being famously volcanic, though I can imagine the Jovian radiation belts at Io's orbit might inhibit probes.

[URBAN NOTE] Why the Torontonian electorate's ready to screw over city workers

Mayor Ford today announced that the city is going to privatize garbage collection west of Yonge Street, on the model of the former western Toronto municipality of Etobicoke.

For 16 years, Etobicoke has had private curbside garbage pickup, a holdover from pre-amalgamation days that saves about $1.8 million a year, according to a 2007 audit.

When Toronto was hit with a 16-day garbage strike in 2002 and a 39-day strike in 2009, collection in Etobicoke went ahead as usual.

Toronto Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who led the privatization charge as mayor of Etobicoke in 1995, said the service became more efficient when Turtle Island took over the contract from the city, cutting the number of employees to 33 from 71.

However, that doesn’t mean Etobicoke residents are more satisfied with the quality of service.

A Star analysis found that almost half of service calls to Toronto’s civic hotline for a month last fall were about garbage, and Etobicoke residents were equally dissatisfied with their service as the rest of the city. In fact, 13 per cent of complaints for missed collection came from Etobicoke, which has 14 per cent of Toronto’s households.

Still, Mayor Rob Ford is going ahead with his election promise to contract out the service in Toronto. On Monday, he announced he has given a three-month notice to the Toronto Civic Employees Union, whose members currently collect curbside garbage, that he will recommend a competitive bid to city council.

[. . .]

Holyday said he hopes it’s only a matter of time before the whole city does away with what he describes as an “antiquated system.”

“We can do the whole city but the rate of attrition and the rate of finding amenable work for the employees that you have and the flexibility offered by the temporary people allows us to go at a certain rate,” he said.

“The union says that they would perhaps bid on this work. Well what’s going to in effect happen if half the city is contracted out and half the city is done by our own workers, we’re going to have a competition right then and there and see once and for all, head on head, who does the job the best.”

The head of the relevant Toronto union is hostile to the idea, saying that costs will increase. But then, even if people did believe the union--which they likely don't--memories of the summer 2009 garbage strike which saw garbage bags littering the parks selected as impromptu collection sites.



Mayor Ford got elected on the basis of populist outrage, particularly in the suburbs and on the newly-engaged immigrant sector but not only, against the perceived high-handedness of Mayor Miller's New Urbanist-themed government and powerful unions. People's memories of the garbage strike--and of Etobicoke's sparing of the stench--mean that, in all certainty, the partial privatization is going ahead.

Similarly, popular anger with the Toronto Transit Commission's workers, seen as hostile to commuters and--perhaps wrongly--completely unaccountable means that, during the upcoming contract negotiations, the city government is going to have a fair amount of popular support if/when it plays hardball. The union's offer to not strike during contract negotiations--part of an effort to avoid the TTC being declared an essential service, thus reducing the union's maneuvering ability--is recognizable as a desperate attempt to hold off the government. Not that it'll work, mind. The 2008 wildcat strike managed to anger everyone who depended on the TTC, one of my work managers--a calm, intellectual, well-spoken type--repeatedly calling the workers "fuckers" the morning after. With articles by populist journalists like Rosie DiManno (i.e. "TTC drivers kick courtesy to the curb") leading the cause, even if there are extra costs involved I think that an anti-union approach of Ford will do well. Who knows? He might even broaden his support.

[H&F] "Why Eurabia?"

I've a post up at History and Futility that takes a look at the origins of Eurabia. Although it's substantially an ideology of revenge (ha ha, France, you're going to get raped by Muslims), it's at least as much an ideology of envy of Muslims. We lost our conservatism, they kept it, why can't we get it back?

Go, read.

[DM] "On the Pew Forum's disproof of Eurabia"

I've a post up at Demography Matters that takes a look at the most recent study disproving, using conservative projections and well-baswed facts, the idea that Muslim populations are going to surge to take over Europe, or are immune to the demographic transition altogether, or what have you. It's a pity that Eurabianists won't consider it.

Go, read.