For the Love of Architecture

Look what I got for Christmas! I've been wanting this book for so long now. After multiple trips to New York City in 2005, my parents bought me "One Thousand New York Buildings" for my birthday that year and when I discovered that there was a "sister" book focused on Paris...well, my mother effectively picked up on my excitement and she had this stashed away for many months! As everyone tore through their gifts on Christmas Eve, I was two into my stack when I opened this book and I'm sure I spent a good 20 minutes just dorking out with this book before I got back into the family festivities.

Architecture has always drawn me in effortlessly. That is how art works in general and I wonder how much nature it is versus nurture. Regardless, different forms of art draw different people in and to varying degrees. While I truly appreciate most forms of art, some...like poetry...take a more focused effort on my part to appreciate. With architecture however...it just really gets me, and often with no warning. Buildings captivate me in an instant and powerful way. When I first came upon the Louvre...my jaw dropped and remained in that position for the entire time. The magnificence, enormity, detail, and history.

Obviously, Paris does not disappoint where architecture is concerned! Everywhere I turned in Paris, I was continuously awestruck by a church, government building, museum, or just a neighborhood of apartments. From cross vaults, flying buttresses, and pointed arches of gothic architecture to mansart rooftops, the influence of Baron Haussmann (acknowledging that his positive influence architecturally also had some damaging effects), the controversial architecture of Centre Pompidou and I.M. Pei's glass pyramids of the Louvre...I was constantly in awe. Even in New York, I find myself beguiled by buildings, particularly those built in the classic Beaux Arts style - Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library, and the Flatiron Building are great examples.

In part, I think growing up on the West Coast of the United States has something to do with my fascination with architecture. We just don't have the depth of history that the East Coast and Western Europe have. Also, again adding to my love of France, the French have historically always placed a high value on the arts (including architecture), so much so that preserving art forms has been a government priority. Here in America, the mentality of "tear down the old and replace with the new" seems predominant. That mentality definitely does not prevail in France (nor many other countries for that matter). While in Paris, I really enjoyed the harmonious coexistence of old and new.

So, on that note, here are a few architectural "elements" I captured during my trip:


















*Both "One Thousand Buildings of Paris" and "One Thousand New York Buildings" are incredible. They are beautifully done, organized by arrondissement/burough with black and white snapshots of the façades of these buildings with a brief but incredibly interesting history/background/related story of the building accompanied by the address/location, architect(s) name(s) and the year(s) of construction/completion. The descriptions are often witty, always enlightening. I definitely recommend them both.