Chicago's "lukewarm" commitment to saving buildings, the Mayor's attempt to disguise London's "blandness" and nondescript architecture in Playa del Rey.
"The City has made a very lukewarm commitment to saving just one Gropius building, which is a revelation, but simultaneously they announced that the wholesale demolition of the rest of the campus will be starting immediately. Saving one out of eight buildings is unacceptable."
The Architects' Journal
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"The Olympic landmark is a pet project of the Mayor's. It's an attempt to counter the deep, cautious blandness of most of London's Olympic architecture with something iconic and interesting-looking, a thingummybob or wotsit to detain the world's TV cameras during the Games."
London Evening Standard
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"Today, it is a sliver of a town composed of nondescript architecture and mini-neighborhoods like 'the Jungle', jammed with 1950s apartments and gentrified condos a stone's throw from the beach. Up on the bluffs, more luxurious homes have taken root."
LA Weekly
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"Why does a mosque have to look as if it had been transported directly in from the Middle East? There is no specific directive in the Qur'an about minarets. The building simply has to face in the direction of Mecca. Just that. But over time we have come to stereotype the mosque. The traditional has become the conventional, and convention has become thoroughly identified with sanctity. Cupolas, domes and minarets are it."
Guardian
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"What this Congress will put together will be no easier to fix than clunker engines blown apart by a judicious insertion of sodium silicate solution. So earth to Congress, just cool it. Your political ambition far outstrips your mastery of regulatory technique."
Forbes
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