Unreal America Architecture and Illusion

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Summary: Must Reading for Serious Architectecture Buffs
Review: The main thrust of The Unreal America is that commercial interests are choking out our experience of genuine regional and cultural diversity--in architecture, travel and even our knowledge of history. The first three quarters of the book is devoted to the theme parks, shopping centers and architectural restorations that Huxtable abhors, including Disney World, Celebration, Florida, Las Vegas and colonial Williamsburg. The last quarter of the book is disjointed from the beginning because she abruptly switches gears and lauds buildings that she finds exhilarating and which properly integrate materials, use and environmental context.

The book is must reading for anyone who has a passion for architecture and is concerned about how commericalism and real estate development affects our society. Although the tone of Huxtable's writing is haughty, angry and sometimes repetitive, her message is an important one. Huxtable rails against The Disney Company and its penchant for creating fake, idealized versions of real places. Walt Disney's dream was to create clean, controlled environments where happiness abounds, but in the years since his death in 1966, the dreams and fantasies of children of all ages have become mass-merchanidised and channeled into a narrow focus of personalities and products. Huxtable maintains that Disney has become a mass dispenser of schlock-from amusements to art to architecture.

Huxtable also decries the way that shopping center malls and superstores such as Home Depot and Walmart have choked out diversity in retailing. "In the reality of suburban America," she writes, " there is no place else to go", because malls and movie megaplexes have replaced downtowns and streets. Huxtable acknowledges that architecture is largely influenced by investment economics. She is a realist that does not expect that strip malls and shopping centers should go away, but she denounces the banality of their designs and how our collective experience of that stifling sameness makes society more homogenized.

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Summary: This book is awesome baby!!!
Review: This book was awesome from the beginning to the end. The way she wrote was breath taking. I like cheese and pasta. Cheese is good on asparagus. I like the cheese on this book.

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Summary: A Little Too Smarmy
Review: Though her thoughts on what she thinks are "good" modern architects are very illuminating and insightful, her rants against Disneyfied structures and environments are tiresome, pithy and repetitious. She seems like she's trying to sound like a hip, streetwise rock critic or something. Forget the first 50% of the book (or skim), and save your time and energy for the last 50%.