Quote of the Day

The students at Yale dress down and slouch like those at IIT, but their surroundings engage them differently. While Koolhaas’s buildings make them look out of place–somewhat ridiculous–as if amiable but clueless barbarians inhabited the constructions of a vanished great civilization. At Yale the students and the architecture are at odds. But there is a chance that the architecture will prevail; that over time some of the students will sit straighter, dress more fittingly, converse and socialize in a more sophisticated manner. The buildings engage in a civilizing mission, and the young learn to respect the mastery of their predecessors.

Andres Duany, on Koolhaas’s new “class-B office park” of a student center at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Commentary is in the latest Metropolis mag.

April 2nd, 2004