Salon has a slideshow of New Deal public works titled (hrm) “Greatest Achievements of American Socialism”. Is it too late to get an amendment in the stimulus bill stipulating that projects have to be cool-lookin’?
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The Edge of the American West 
21 comments
February 6, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Vance
Not in the history of mankind has government ever done anything cool-looking.
Slightly more seriously, I doubt the coolness was specified in the text of the New Deal legislation….
February 6, 2009 at 4:16 pm
ari
No, I think you’re right, Vance. It’s just that things were cooler back then.
February 6, 2009 at 4:25 pm
teofilo
Check out #17.
February 6, 2009 at 4:26 pm
teofilo
… speaking of cool-looking.
February 6, 2009 at 4:41 pm
eric
Dear Vance and Ari,
I know they didn’t require the coolness back then because they didn’t have to. The reason I mention it now is because I’ve seen contemporary architecture and I think we have to.
I will be posting this to Standpipe’s blog, too.
Eric
February 6, 2009 at 4:42 pm
eric
Check out #17.
The New Deal was so cool, it sent the CCC back in time to do public works for the Anasazi.
February 6, 2009 at 4:51 pm
ari
I think you missed the tone of my comment, Prof. Rauchway. But yes, this is a discussion best taken up over at SB’s blog.
February 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm
teofilo
The New Deal was so cool, it sent the CCC back in time to do public works for the Anasazi.
Indeed. Just ask David Stuart.
More seriously, the CCC really did set in motion the ruins stabilization work that continues to this day at Chaco and elsewhere, so I was both surprised and glad to see that recognized by Salon.
February 6, 2009 at 5:26 pm
jazzbumpa
What were these people thinking? Salmon, Idaho, but not Toledo?!?
http://www.wpamurals.com/toledo.html
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2F5H
No respect. I am truly bummed.
February 6, 2009 at 5:29 pm
andrew
public works for the Anasazi.
As late as 1938, though, the Anasazi still had not returned.
February 6, 2009 at 5:37 pm
essear
As late as 1938, though, the Anasazi still had not returned.
If people mostly referred to you as “enemy ancestor”, you would stay away too.
February 6, 2009 at 5:52 pm
teofilo
Current usage is actually shifting away from the term “Anasazi” and has progressed pretty far in that direction.
February 6, 2009 at 6:12 pm
eric
Please pretend I’d said what I should have said.
February 6, 2009 at 6:20 pm
teofilo
Meh, I don’t care. Take it up with the Hopis.
February 6, 2009 at 6:49 pm
ben
By their works.
February 6, 2009 at 7:16 pm
andrew
Someone should start a new deal denialist blog called “as late as ’38.”
February 6, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Megan
I am on the record in many threads on many blogs asserting that the number one priority for any return of the WPA is that the fonts are maintained.
February 6, 2009 at 11:09 pm
JPool
When we got our replacement bridge for the one that went all collapsey on us, … well it looked pretty much like a normal, slightly ugly highway bridge. But, BUT, at night they light up these giant concrete wavy things blue, AND if you’re not on the bridge, but looking at it from somewhere else along the riverfront, then the underside of the bridge is lit up too. It looks pretty cool.
So, we may not be able to attach flying buttresses or art deco style rectilinear fiddly bit to our new stimulating public works, but they will light up in more colors than you can imagine.
February 7, 2009 at 6:31 am
Vance
I take your point, Eric. But I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff to unpack here. For one thing, were people aware at the time of a particular New Deal architectural style? And if so, did they think it was good? There are obvious similarities with Fascist architecture in Italy (as between the WPA muralist style and Socialist Realism) which would probably not have been considered auspicious if they had been particularly noticed. All this makes me suspect that the style was simply “in the air” — meaning that a pleasing consistency of style for new efforts won’t be easy to achieve by trying (and also perhaps that it might be achieved, at least in retrospect, despite not being noticed at the time).
(Would it be gauche to request a link to SB’s blog? Or is that one of the seekrit ones?)
February 7, 2009 at 8:12 am
Vance
Also, contemporary architecture is clearly good at high-end gee-whiz projects (Calatrava etc.), but that’s not quite what’s called for.
February 21, 2009 at 9:17 pm
by others’ works « by the wayside
[…] the FDR memorial not too long ago and came away thinking it would have been much cooler had it been designed in the 1930s – except for the problem of monumentalizing a sitting president; I don’t think that would […]