Love Letters to Dead Architects: Demo-cracy

Dear (INSERT NAME HERE) ___William Levitt_____,

Congratulations! You have made it to the Love Letters to Dead Architects. I am personally excited about your addition(s) to the architectural world. Surely your work in standard, modular design will live forever in our minds and hearts. Through your innovation (s) in creating a/an available and easily constructible home standard for veterans returning from WWII that could be customized in small ways like, for instance, color you have really made a difference. Nevertheless, as is standard, there must be some criticism; we here at Retly Corm have found a few issues with your design which are listed below:

- How does this address natural landscape? Like, AT ALL?
- There is now an overwhelming dependence on cars
- Why is it just white people? The lack of diversity seems highly suspicious.

Despite the obvious flaws however, you did create/change the face of the American suburb, and in many ways set into motion the social revolutions of the 20th c. you have one of the few instances in which architecture is capable of actually changing the world, the field expects revolutions to come frequently but they rarely do, the movement that you began cannot be ignored as legitimate architecture.

Again, congratulations on your Love-letter,

Sincerely,

Retly Corm

Dear Charles Bullfinch,

You know what you are Chuck? You are a Faberge Egg Repair man. Big, pompous, delicate structures that, for some reason, have fallen into your hands and for that I’m sure no one has ever apologized. They should have, you deserved better.

The best example? The US Capitol building, what a nightmare THAT is. That project is the village bicycle, everyone has had a ride. I hope you know that now that you’ve been in that building, you’ve been with every architect it’s ever been with. Gross. Good work finally getting a roof on there though, surely this will be the only example of politics messing up art architecture. Ever. EVER.

Some people later may call your structures plain and so mired in enlightenment thinking that it does not become anything more than a pedantic fill in the blank solution. I think you’re more than that. I think you care about your country, I think you care about how they’re perceived by the international scene, if that means playing by their rules, so be it.

Yours ever,

Retly Corm

Mon Cher, Francois Mansart,

I saw your roof through the trees yesterday, and my heart stopped. Something so structurally practical and yet so beautiful has not been available since the tri-beam truss. Oh those Etruscans. While I can see the influence of your master, Solomon de Brosse, pretty clearly through the forms, they are clumsy first attempt at a post renaissance French style, waiting to be perfected by your hand.

Truly you are the best of your age, wrapped in baroque, but never stagnant, always moving towards the next idea.

However, why must you be so exclusive? Isn’t it possible that your search for perfection in architecture will set up a visual divide between the rich and poor of France so drastically that people will begin to question the use of their tax funds? Not only that, you may be setting a precedent for others to follow. Oh! Don’t look so serious! I’m sure that’s not exactly what’s going to happen, in like, a century. Après vous, la deluge arrive pas,
Avec amour,

Retly Corm