Classen Curve

[skyrick]

I am so tired of doing that faux-Tuscan crap all over Austin/San Antonio, it seems to be the only style most developers like for anything other than downtown buildings. There is a whole other world of possibilities out there and some don't get it, at least they did with CC.

Yeah, Arlington Highlands, just east of Parks Mall, has some great shops and restaurants, but it looks like a cheesy Tuscan-town set in the middle of a 50 acre parking lot. Still don't like Classen Curve either, it's too cold and sterile. Frank Lloyd Wright's designs from the 1910s look more modern and warm than anything today. Where are the architects with imagination and vision?

[Rover]

The crowd that likes that faux Tuscan style will love the new lifestyle center being developed just north of Quail Springs mall. But it is a tired style in many parts of the country. They've been there, done that. At least Rand Elliott is trying to do something distinctive and more what you would see developed in San Francisco or Vancouver instead of Austin or Amarillo.

[bluedogok]

Frank Lloyd Wright's designs from the 1910s look more modern and warm than anything today.

Wright had many clients much like Rand does, ones who like and trust his "vision", it takes that kind of client who is willing to take a risk on something different and is able to finance it themselves. The majority of the financiers like to build what everyone else is, in their mind it reduces the risk when it should be the opposite.

Where are the architects with imagination and vision?

They are out there, "imagination and vision" projects are very far and few between. Most of the time we aren't allowed to have any "imagination and vision", we have to crank out what the paying customer (the developer and/or the group financing it) wants....and for the most part it is more faux-Tuscan crap....

They will be long gone by then. They are not built to last.

That may be the only saving grace...as you well know no one wants to pay for anything "lasting" and when repair/maintenance costs get too much they will just tear it down.