Less is a Bore!!

        I am a huge fan of the philosophy of Robert Venturi.  In his book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, he counters the statement that less is more with his own views that less is a bore.  I have to agree completely with him.  While simple architecture does have its place, I am a huge fan of the extravagant architecture that was displayed in the information age.  For example, the Piazza d’Italia done by Charles Moore is a really cool piece of work that is the opposite of a bore and has a lot going on.  This public plaza in New Orleans is the result of a combination of motifs borrowed from Pompeii, Paladio, and Italian Baroque architecture.  It may look gaudy at first glance; it is really a fantastic architectural collage.  I’ve never seen anything like this, where the architect took so many influences and threw them together for a crazy result such as this.

            When you hear the list of materials he used, it doesn’t sound like he could incorporate them and make something decent out of them.  The plaza is made up of fountains, neon lights, and polished aluminum railings.  But, put together, they bring out a look that just works.

            Unfortunately, the plaza was not kept up and was not even known by many New Orleans residents in the early 2000’s.  But, it was restored, which brought it back into the spotlight.  The restoration was completed in 2004 and brought the fountains back into functionality and cleaned the whole thing up.  Unfortunately, there were components of the plaza that were too far gone to fix and were removed, but it did end up looking almost as good as when it was new.