Ryan Andress, Chemical Engineering '07
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Modern Architecture Dilemma
Part Three: The Solution
The Modern Architecture Dilemma on Rensselaer’s campus poses a threat to the technological world and culture of the future. Students are used to new structures that go up that are unattractive, lack function, Figure 1, or are structurally unsound, Figure 2. The students on campus lack culture, as noted by Guy Debord, and do not know what good art or architecture is. They have never heard of artists such as Albert Bierstadt or even more recent artists like Thomas Hart Benton and Reginald Marsh. They do not know what quality is, and how should they when they are exposed to today’s world, Figure 3, of mediocre art, functionless and unattractive architecture, and pure ignorance.
The Modern Architecture Dilemma on Rensselaer’s campus poses a threat to the technological world and culture of the future. Students are used to new structures that go up that are unattractive, lack function, Figure 1, or are structurally unsound, Figure 2. The students on campus lack culture, as noted by Guy Debord, and do not know what good art or architecture is. They have never heard of artists such as Albert Bierstadt or even more recent artists like Thomas Hart Benton and Reginald Marsh. They do not know what quality is, and how should they when they are exposed to today’s world, Figure 3, of mediocre art, functionless and unattractive architecture, and pure ignorance.
Simple solutions are needed, such as free trips to art museums, like the Metropolitan or the Hyde Collection, not MASS MoCA which puts uninspired debauchery on a pedestal called modern art. An effort needs to be taken to bring art, developed by true masters, to the campus. RPI should invest in a Calder mobile, the only acceptable form of modern public art, or buy other quality art pieces to adorn the campus. New buildings at RPI should also be constructed to match the original campus, of the Ricketts and Troy building, as good architecture is never out of place. The Dilemma can be solved, but it will take time and money. Real art must be utilized and the public must stop endorsing this crap they call modern art. As I said, art ended in 1976.
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