# What Kinda Architecture is This?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-architecture-is-this/307763>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 10, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-architecture-is-this/307763 "2005-06-10T17:32:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-architecture-is-this/307763/41 "2005-06-13T15:07:50Z")

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> [@Bearflag70](#):
>
> I don’t see it…

From the initial view, turn to the left so that you’re directly facing the stairs leading up to the entrance. Zoom in and you’ll see a man in a light blue shirt and gray slacks at the top of the stairs, just entering the building. To his right is what looks to me like a large cartoon figure of a cat (with white boots) inside the window.

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kinda-architecture-is-this/307763/42 "2005-06-13T16:27:00Z")

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> [@yBeayf](#):
>
> I much prefer to see old styles followed faithfully than to see what some random architect clumped together this morning, or, even worse, to have them watered down and adulterated into some sort of blended, hyperreal facsimile of the original style.

If you haven’t already read it, I strongly recommend the book [_The Old Way of Seeing_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395605733/qid=1118680259/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-3733624-6121604?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Jonathan Hale. His basic theme is a rebellion against the ugliness of new styles of architecture, compared to old styles, which he argues is due to a failure to consider a structure’s overall proportion and flow. Older buildings are beautiful not because they’re festooned with arches and domes or built from marble, but because their elements work in harmony; and newer buildings are ugly not because they’re geometrically blocky or built from concrete, but because the various pieces don’t relate to one another in any way. According to his view, some of the modern attempts at presenting a neoclassical facade are just as ugly as the disharmonious modernist buildings, because they slap on a collection of columns and cornices without any regard to the building as a whole. A very interesting argument, and a very compelling point of view.

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