A Weekly Dose of Architecture, 1999 - 2014
It was 15 years ago this month that I started the website A Weekly Dose of Architecture. On January 18, 1999, I posted a feature on Louis
I. Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum
in Fort Worth, Texas, the first of many weekly "doses." Actually, if I
would have strictly kept to the weekly calendar this website would have
780 projects and about 500 book reviews (those didn't start until 2003),
but given my sometimes sporadic posting the actual number is a bit less
but still sizable considering it's just been me the whole time. So with
the website turning 15 years old, it seems like a good time to retire
the site. This may sound like the end of something, yet I'll still be
posting at A Daily Dose of Architecture, including the occasional project and book review.
So why retire the weekly doses? Well:
So why retire the weekly doses? Well:
- Websites like ArchDaily cover projects at such a great (visual) depth and quantity to make this website superfluous, especially if I don't take the effort to write the commentary;
- Even though the website started as a way to write about the "ideas embedded in architectural works," over the years I have come to believe strongly that place and experience are so integral to architecture that writing about a building without visiting it is a disservice;
- The weekly schedule (posts typically went online on Mondays) conflicted with other deadlines, such that the weekly doses were becoming even more last-minute than usual;
- I already have a daily blog where I can (and do) post projects and book reviews, so why maintain more than one website? (Along those lines, anybody want to take over The Archi-Tourist? If so, just email me; it's yours for free.);
- I'd like to devote the time and effort in creating the weekly doses to other things, such as my work at World-Architects, teaching at NYIT, my writing at Houzz, the occasional architectural walking tours, and perhaps writing another book.
Phew. Your devotion to architecture is really admirable. It is a good thing we still have daily doses.
ReplyDeleteTo make a comment about your comment on writing about a building without visiting it, I think it is not entirely a disservice. It all depends on the approach to writing about an unvisited building. The very act of writing from a distance, just as you experience the building from that distance, is a contribution to the architectural discourse in itself.
When composing the post I kept wondering if "disservice" was the right word. While it might be a bit of an overstatement, it has as much to do with me (if not more so) that writing about architecture in general. If I'm going to write intelligently and critically about a building, then I need to visit it. I've learned to dig beneath the surfaces of photos, but the experiences that can only be had by navigating the spaces, touching the surfaces and so forth are increasingly necessary for me in appreciating a building to its fullest. I'll acknowledge that "writing from a distance" can be a contribution to discourse (the root of the weekly website was "ideas" more than experience from the beginning) but not necessarily for me.
DeleteThanks for the comment and the kind words.
Enhorabuena por el gran trabajo que haces y tu pasión por la Arquitectura ... has conseguido ser un gran blog de referencia !!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for getting my week started all these years.
ReplyDeleteThe Weekly will be missed. Each week was like getting a present, a surprise. best of luck!
ReplyDelete