Comments by "Gabe" (@gabetalks9275) on "The Revolution That Is Changing Architecture" video.

100% agreed. I think people overhype classical architecture as the only possible form of beauty. It's a pretty elitist and pretentious stance to take. There are plenty of modern styles that are beautiful. Art Deco immediately comes to my mind. It's the style the Empire State Building was built in. And don't forget the iconic New Formalist Twin Towers. Sometimes simplicity can be beautiful.
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While I'm glad that beauty is making a comeback, I don't think it's impossible for modern structures to be beautiful. The Empire State Building, the Twin Towers, the Sydney Opera House, and the Eiffel Tower are all masterpieces of modernism. Art Deco has even been making a comeback in NYC recently.
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@pierrecimarra3695 Of course, but I think people obsess over how ornate a building is. It doesn't have to be. The old colonial towns of the US are also beautiful and they aren't grand by any means. I also really love that iconic New York brownstone.
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There's actually a growing movement to rebuild Old Penn Station. A proposal created by local advocacy group ReThinkNYC have created designs and renderings of a rebuild Penn Station by three architects, and it has the support of other architects and the National Civic Arts Society. I really hope it's successful. The destruction of Old Penn Station was a crime against the arts. A heinous act of public vandalism.
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@bart_u There's a growing movement to rebuild Old Penn Station. A proposal created local advocacy group ReThinkNYC have created designs and renderings of a rebuild Penn Station, and it has the support of architects and the National Civic Arts Society. I really hope it's successful.
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@yuzan3607 Not everything needs to be complex in order to be beautiful. Simplicity can be beautiful too. They'll probably grow on you over time. And they aren't glass cubes. Those are actually small steel beams that divided the windows into very small sizes. The architect behind them, Minoru Yamasaki, did that on purpose because he was afraid of heights. The beams start in in the shape of gothic arches above the lobby, then go straight up.
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@snakedogman That's completely wrong. Art Deco is an early modern style.
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@benjaminvleugels5609 The Twin Towers weren't Art Deco. They were New Formalist.
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@the_aesthetic_city The plan is a counter proposal to Governor Hochul's corrupt "urban renewal" plan that's going to bulldoze the entire neighborhood around Penn Station, along with 10 historic buildings, and replace them with boring glass office towers. The plan unfortunately is already underway, and historic Hotel Pennsylvania, one of the last surviving remnants of the original Penn Station is already gone. But fortunately, the plan is stalled because the investors are pulling out due to high interest rates and lack of demand for office space. Plus, Madison Square Garden's lease over Penn Station expires this June, and Manhattan Burrough Council, meaning the public, has voted against renewing it's permit. Other proposals for a new or improved Penn Station have been made, but ReThinkNYC's is definitely the most popular one. Not just because Old Penn Station was an iconic national landmark and artistic treasure, but also because ReThinkNYC hopes to unite all the tri-state area railroads into a single unified regional rail network with full regionwide through-running. As for MSG, they've proposed three spots to relocate it. The Port Authority Bus Terminal, Hudson Yards, or right across the street from Penn Station at Herald Square on Broadway.
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@pietervoogt I think the idea that buildings can make you depressed is honestly ridiculous. Yes, they're boring, but you can't tell me what with a straight face that the brutalist building down the street gave you chronic depression. Yes, traditional architecture should come back, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This "modernism bad" mentality is just pretentious and elitist. Not everything needs to be grand and ornate in order to be beautiful. Simplicity can be beautiful too.
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@pietervoogt The problem I have with your argument is that you seem to think that the definition of beauty is objective. It's not. Beauty is subjective. Also, no. Buildings don't cause suicide. That's absurd. People commit suicide because they're already depressed and feel they have no way to escape. Imagine someone committing suicide because of trauma, addiction, and/or bullying, and then blaming it on the brutalist office building next to their house.
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@pietervoogt I'm not saying that traditional architecture should be disregarded and that everything should stay ugly. But I think the distain that people have for anything that's modern solely because it's modern is really toxic. Modern architecture can be beautiful and creative. Holding to a totally anti-modernist extreme just suppresses the freedom of expression of artists everywhere. Also, while it's true that anything in life can have multiple causes, I don't the ugly office building down the street is the last thing a suicidal person would ever be concerned about. A suicidal person is desperate for the intimacy of people to help them, love them, and support them. Not an ornate building. The beauty of a building has no effect on what a person is suffering behind closed doors, so you putting ugliness right next to extremely serious things like abuse and addiction as a cause for suicide is honestly really insulting to people battling depression.
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@user-gu9yq5sj7c I hadn't considered the effect architectural beauty has on people in that way before, so thank you for that. But yes, variety is important, because I constantly see people saying that anything that isn't ornate is ugly unironically as if being grand and ornate is the only form of beauty that exists.
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