In a new documentary, CMU alumni pay homage to the designer of the Pittsburgh campus, celebrating his life and the legacy he left behind.
Thursday, November 06, 2014
Architectural Legacy - Carnegie Mellon University
In a new documentary, CMU alumni pay homage to the designer of the Pittsburgh campus, celebrating his life and the legacy he left behind.
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People often don’t think much about the buildings they spend their days and nights in, and even less so the people responsible for creating them, myself included. I spent countless hours inside buildings designed by I.M Pei and Partnes…and I’ll admit I spent a good deal of my time complaining about how the flow of the building didn’t make any sense, and less marveling at the beauty of the structure. It’s no different at CMU, except the history runs far past the work of Pei. It’s unfortunate that we take these things for granted, but more often we tend to view significant as that on a canvas or page. Not the hallowed halls we spend lives wandering.
It is so great that someone would take an unknown person and make a documentary on them. There are so many great people in the world that don't get any kind of recognition for their work. I didn't know that Henry had done all the work without getting any kind of credit for it. It is kind of surprising that the school would ask for him to do that. This should have been one of those situations where you say "no" to that contract, but then he wouldn't have gotten all the fame that he has. You have to take your chances sometimes, I guess.
His face isn't the only mark he left on the CFA building. It also features his ass mooning the pedestrians on the sidewalk. The story is that the President had cut funding for the building when it was almost done, so he carved that in there as revenge. There are a lot of fun gimmicks like that on this campus, if you know where to look.
I was actually talking to one of my architecture friends this weekend about the architecture of CMU's campus. He was talking about how the UC and Purnell were wretched and just stolen from Nazi architecture. He also said that the original Hornbostel campus is brilliantly laid out. However, the most interesting thing he said was that Wean was his favorite building on campus and is a beautiful example of brutalism. He said that Wean is a beautiful example of making a building centered around function and not looking at form at all. It was curious how the article also says that Hornbostel did the same thing with the layout of campus. It really proves how architecture is really another art form.
There is so much to do with architecture. Architecture can be really out there, as in it can stand out, some architecture actively tries to not stand out, some tries to stand out in the way it blends in and there is all of that here on CMU's campus. I wonder if Hornbostel would approve of all the various types of architecture on campus. When i was visiting colleges last year i noticed two types of campuses, those where all the buildings had a similar style and those where each buildings was completely distinct. Personally i like it better when all the buildings can relate to each other, because just like a city, a campus is more then each individual building. The number one rule for tshirt design is don't use so many fonts, its the same idea with cities and campuses, stick to one style and find variations of that style on the campus.
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