Better Architecture Critics Needed

Writing in the New York Times, design and architecture writer Allison Arieff makes the case for populating the media-sphere with more Christopher Hawthorne-types, and getting rid of the nonsensical architectural elites and drive-by snarky critiques from the blahhhgers. Well, excuse us for being in the 21st Century, Miss. "Buildings are discussed — indeed aspects of them obsessed upon — but almost exclusively in the context of economics. This building went over budget, that surplus of houses led to the foreclosure crisis, that condo broke the record for residential real estate, etc. To the layman, then, architecture is conveyed as little more than something that costs a lot and causes a lot of grief, rather than something with the potential to enhance our daily lives." [NY Times]