“I DON’T SEE THE REGIONAL differences in design that were apparent in the past,” states Paul Goldberger when asked what American architecture looks like from his perspective at The New Yorker. “Trends today are national or even global. Sustainability is certainly one. We should be doing more on this, but we’re doing more than we did in the past.”
He also talks about “the democratization of architecture,” a process that in recent years has brought Modernism to the masses, or at least, to a larger audience. “What you can get at Ikea and Crate & Barrell is a lot better than what most people used to buy for their homes. At the same time, major architects are finally getting to design large commercial developments in New York,” he says, mentioning Norman Foster’s Hearst Tower, Frank Gehry’s Atlantic Yards complex, and Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building. “The results are mixed. When things move into the mainstream, they inevitably get compromised. I think, though, where the center of the dial has moved is more important than where the cutting edge is.” He is also encouraged by a growing audience for architecture within the general public, noting the popularity, for example, of the Web site Curbed (curbed.com). “It’s gossipy and sometimes it’s silly, but it shows a growing level of engagement with the built environment.”
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