Sociable Building

Can architecture be of good or bad manners? I am on the verge of finishing Good and Bad Manners in Architecture: An Essay on the Social Aspects of Civic Design by Trystan Edwards, so a full review and comment will be forthcoming. However, overlooking its somewhat dated prose, it does provide a glimpse at the universal ideas that underlie civic design. Given the recent discussions on Public Square and Cleveland's newest civic endeavor, Cuyahoga County's administrative complex, I though a few select quotes from Mr. Edwards book would be appropriate additions.

"Continuity, sociability, order, a fundamental respect for the thing which is next to it, these are the expression of the urbane spirit which should animate all the arts."

"Sometimes not only a continuity of form, but a continuity of tradition is necessary."

In good manners,
L.S. Moore