A New WPA?
New York Magazine proposes a 21st-century Works Progress Administration. Considering how much of FDR's WPA we still use, and how cool much of the design is, I'd be all for it.
Incidentally, if you're wondering who the Santiago Calatrava the article refers to is, he designed the Olympic Stadium for the 2004 Games in Athens. He's also done a lot of bridges, including the Sundial Bridge in Redding, which I visited last year.
MORE (11/15/08): The writer of the article does seem a bit obsessed with "starchitects." I think some of the beauty of the WPA and CCC work was that a sense of good design so permeated the program that even minor projects like an electrical substation or a guardrail on a mountain road would have a distinctive look, monumental yet in touch with its surroundings. It wasn't the work of a handful of superstars but an army of people who knew how to make civic buildings look and work right. I'd be interested in reading more about how they managed to do that, if anyone has any good pointers.
1 Comments:
If we get a 21st century WPA, maybe it'll build us a space elevator!
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