Architectural Digest meets Mad Men

Watching “Mad Men” discuss the architecture of Penn Station; discuss the ruin of Italian beauty to build latrines, of the power of the printed word to change the misguided ambitions of ill-thought forces.

I do not imply that the journalists are right - for if they are really journalists then they report the facts without bias - only that they write the facts; not that they don’t at times overlook some bits of information to focus on the ones that they believe matter.

Evolution means that one species fails while a stronger species survives. Do we abandon survival? Does the evolution of new forms of buildings and structures require the demolition of the foundation upon which they are constructed?

I honestly don’t know. Clearly, some things/species/structures expire. Yet, I am one who loves the rough wood, the glass doorknobs, the wide wood planks of the floor in a house of plaster walls where the insulation is insufficient and the windows panes are watery with age.

I have stood in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the deck of my modern day townhouse. I know which one has substance and staying power. Whatever foundation formed the structure where I now live, I do not think it was sacred, informed, strong, or noteworthy. But I am grateful to stand on the deck, watch the birds, the fox that likes to race through in winter, the budding of the forsythia and the wild dogwoods that thrive just beyond my structure.

If I could build a structure or discover one where I would thrive, the sound of water would be nearby, trees would dress and undress outside my windows, birds would wake me, locking the door would not be a necessity, old buttery wood would rest under my feet, doors would be solid and well-hung, a fireplace or woodstove for winter, and breezes fragrant with pine and jasmine the rest of the seasons. It is most likely impossible to find it all at any given time.

I’ve no care for the size of the closets or cable access or public sewer. I’ve no care for a Starbucks nearby or a shopping mall. When the electricity fails, I am more at home than not.