Subject: architecture
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 22:34:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Sally Greene <sally@sunsite.unc.edu>
To: Sarah L Greene <gilmer@cleaf.com>

Momma,

For some reason, no doubt an academic one, I did a search on our
architect's name in the library card catalog.  Sure enough he wrote a
book; published by UNC Press in 1960.  The card catalog information says
his life span was 1913-1966, which means he was going on 40 when he did
this house and he died at 53.  He was a professor of architecture at N.C.
State from 1948 till 1951 when he went into practice.  Then in 1958 he
went back to teaching.

The book, co-authored by his wife, is fascinating.  It's not about his
work;  it's a sociological and progressive history of architecture in the
Southeast.  He writes in the third person so it will seem objective, but
it's obvious where his sympathies lie.  Somewhere between Frank Lloyd
Wright and Breuer.  He wanted to be more modern than Wright but he thought
that the German aesthetic was too harsh.  He favors something he calls
"humanistic"  contemporary architecture, which he says the other two
schools would probably call, not flatteringly, "romantic."  He means he
wants more warmth and liveability.  Like exposed brick and wood paneling.
He would never paint a brick I am sure.

He was very interested in issues of urban planning.  Says the ideal size
for a city is probably 60,000, divided into six neighborhoods, with their
own school districts.  Says that after one city gets that large, the
state should say, OK, let's pick another smaller town to make into the
next small city.  He wants public school libraries to be open to the
public after school hours.  He thinks that architects had already missed
an opportunity to be leaders in these issues and had ceded it all to the
engineers.  He deplores the aesthetic decline of America.  Probably
anybody much younger than Paul or me could not get their mind to believe
how exciting and sincere and innovative all of this was.  He has a
picture of a glass-plated Piggly-Wiggly in there!  But I can believe it.

It's no wonder their only child ended up marrying an architect.  That's
the couple that almost bought this house.  But maybe they'll have another
chance at one of his houses someday.

***********************************************************************

Sally Greene
Visiting Scholar
UNC-Chapel Hill

"Brevity is the soul of lingerie." --Dorothy Parker