Architecture; Collective Mediocrity?

December 3, 2008 at 12:06 am · Filed under Architecture General

I came across this note in the NYT by chance in a google search. Thoughts anyone?

To the Editor:

Christopher Hawthorne asserts that individual geniuses like Frank Lloyd Wright are being replaced by ”collectives” — teams that advocate group design and compromise [''Goodbye 'Fountainhead,' Hello Kibbutz,'' April 27]. As Ayn Rand has demonstrated, however, a collective of mediocrities cannot match the achievements of a single genius. Could Fallingwater have been designed by a committee? The surge toward collectivism in architecture may explain why so many buildings today are trite, disintegrated and/or just plain ugly. 

EDWIN A. LOCKE 
Westlake Village, Calif. 

MS

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