Will Sixties Architecture Go Down Without a Fight?

In a plaintive call for more defenders of the handiwork of "minor masters" such as John Johansen and Ralph Rapson, Lamster considers the irony of the mounting destruction of those buildings constructed in the 1960s, the era in which "so much of our architectural heritage was destroyed."

"It is easy to criticize this school of architecture, to label it with the "B" word. It is admittedly not always friendly to the touch, and for those accustomed to more supposedly genteel models, to colonials with green lawns and white picket fences, it can be an acquired taste. But taste is a matter of conditioning and education. There are glories to be found in the concrete architecture of the sixties, in its heroic scale and its dynamic forms and spaces. But I suspect I am largely preaching to the converted here."

"Unless the culture changes dramatically, we will soon be looking back on this era with profound remorse."