Conservancy Co-sponsors Paul Goldberger Book Talk on Architecture; Peg Breen Gives Introduction
Paul Goldberger, America’s foremost interpreter of public architecture, presents his two new books, Why Architecture Matters and Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture.
Peg Breen, Conservancy President, introduces Paul Goldberger.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum Book Shop was packed with people eager to hear Paul Goldberger, America’s foremost interpreter of public architecture, present his two new books, Why Architecture Matters and Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture.
The Conservancy co-sponsored the event and Peg Breen, Conservancy President, gave the introduction.
The prolific author offered his own way of seeing and experiencing the built world and how it impacts our lives.
“Architecture is the making of place. Architecture is the making of memory,” he said.
Goldberger explained Why Architecture Matters helps us “come to grips with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually,” while Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture is a series of critiques of structures around the world, from shopping malls to museums to skyscrapers.
“When we talk about how architecture matters, it is important to understand that the way in which it matters —beyond, of course, the obvious fact of shelter — is the way in which any kind of art matters: it makes life better,” Goldberger said as he read an excerpt from Why Architecture Matters.
The writer spoke about how his experience growing up in New Jersey on the “wrong side” of the river played a critical role in his personal experience with architecture and how each of us has a shared cultural and a personal memory of architecture.
“Architecture connects us to occasions of human contact, which makes them a living part of the world,” he said.
After the presentation, the audience asked Goldberger a range of questions from whether there is an “absolute” in architectural criticism to what the writer thought about the new academic building at Cooper Union.
“Cooper Union is a very strong, very impressive building.” Goldberger said. “Cooper Union’s conversation to its location is successful.”
As the audience turned their questions to Penn Station, Peg Breen highlighted the Conservancy’s ongoing push to turn the landmark Farley Post Office into a great Moynihan Station.
“The fact that that hasn’t happened is one of the great tragedies of New York.” Goldberger said.
Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in Manhattan. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism.
Praise for Goldberger’s new books:
“Here is a succinct, lyrical and heartfelt book that celebrates the best works of architecture and points the way to being able to build more of it in the world today.” — Alain de Botton, author of The Architecture of Happiness
Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture
“Paul’s greatest contribution is his writing about cities. How architecture hits the pavement, how projects relate to their surroundings, how physical change affects how we feel about places is his genius.” — Kent Barwick, President of the Municipal Art Society of New York
