Some design is never out of date…..

Some design is never out of date…..new students at NYSID are just starting to learn the basics of the Greek and Roman classical orders. They really get caught up in the idea of recognizing Ionic and Corinthian columns, caryatids and gargoyles, on the buildings they walk by and never looked at closely before.

How many of us are too busy to stop and look carefully at what’s around us? In New York or anywhere else, notwithstanding the bad design we gripe about, there’s plenty to admire if we take the time for a closer look.

The Metropolitan Museum isn’t looking its best these days, with all the restoration going on. Same for the Public Library. But landmarks like these, Grand Central Station and others remind us just how beautiful historicist design and architecture are, even in this 21^st-century-modern world.

Judith Gura