You Have to Pay for the Public Life
a review by Ron Mader

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The late architect Charles Moore thought about, wrote about and actually made places in the 20th century.

Moore was "among the handful of twentieth-century architects whose prolific writing is as significant as his built work," writes Kevin Keim, editor of a new anthology of the noted visionary's essays titled You Have to Pay for the Public Life.

Moore's experiences in Mexico helped fuel his creativity. He traveled south-of-the-border as a child and later in field trips to the Yucatan for Princeton University. One of his favorite places on the planet was the colonial city of Guanajuato where automobile traffic is funneled through tunnels where the rivers had once been diverted.

The essays in this volume span the years from 1952 to 1993 and document a keen understanding of the role played by modern architecture. The book includes gems such as "The Architecture of Water," "Southerness," "Architecture and Fairy Tales" and "Plug it in Rameses, and see if it lights up, because we aren't going to keep it unless it works." Outstanding black and white photographs complement the text.

Excerpts

Our relation to the past is not a simple one. We are not carrying on in our cities an unbroken architectural tradition; but the relics of the past are available to us as they never have been to a civilization before, and we find ourselves anxious to extract meaning from them. (p. 23)

Our reaction to spaces can be explained by an empathetic process, through which we imagine ourselves, when we enter a space, projected up and out into the space, searching out its farthest dimensions. This empathetic process causes us, too, to project ourselves into the structure. (p. 45)

Architecture is in a bad way. It is taught as a craft and its best disciples are craftsmen. They learn to respect the nature of materials, to organize surfaces and solids. Sometimes they master the molding of space, and a few can learn to manipulate the magic flow of light (while others learn to manipulate the magic flow of money). Our magazines a re filled with handsome photographs of buildings. But, with all this, our environment grows messier, more chaotic, more out of touch with the natural world and inimical to human life. (p. 88)

Austin is situated in what is known as the Texas hill country. It is uniquely forested and hilly terrain that is a pleasantly surprising scene for those who arrive expecting legendary Texas landscapes... What makes the green hills green is the Edwards Aquifer -- one of the largest in the world -- which lies beneath the region and feeds Barton Springs and Lake Travis along with many other water features, distinguishing the area as one of the few surviving, authentic oases in the world. (p. 185)

"It seems to me that one of the neglected aspects of the American city is the public realm. There have to be buildings that are identifiable as belong to a lot of people and used by everyone. A hospital, for instance, is not a very good public symbol because it belongs to the sick. But a city hall is still in a position of being a public symbol. It still has to say what it is in ways that are honest and appropriate. (p. 203)

The Zacatecas cathedral front is an extraordinary piece of work straight out of the hearts and hands of a large number of people, unlike anything else in the world, full of Mexican Indian spirit and of a pre-Hispanic sense of organization, as full as the various tableaux on a Mayan plinth, or the patterns of Mitla. (p. 184)

Ron Mader lives in Mexico and hosts the award-winning Planeta.com website -- www.planeta.com. Ron is the author of the Exploring Ecotourism Resource Guide and can be contracted for presentations and workshops.

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