Spaces; Buildings Speak, but Not Always As Creators Hoped

Summary

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If our buildings could talk, what tales they could tell - of aspirations and pretensions, of faith and fear, of optimism and retreat.

And they do talk, metaphorically. The messages they convey down through the ages, however, are not always the ones their builders intended. Think of the overstuffed Victorian interiors in the novels of Edith Wharton, especially "The Age of Innocence" and "The House of Mirth." To their fictional owners, those interiors were the epitome of high style and good taste. But to Wharton, these velvet- tufted rooms represented the oppressiveness of convention in the Gilded Age.

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Extract

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Spaces; Buildings Speak, but Not Always As Creators Hoped

Which brings us to the real-life architecture of Stanford White (1853-1906), the premier American architect of that era. From Madison Square Garden and the New York Public Library to the opulent mansions and estates of...

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