Where is the Critic?

Historically, the general public has been connected to architectural design through one primary venue: the general media. This raises the question: where is the architectural critic? More specifically, where is the infamous critic Ellsworth Toohey of Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead, who was able to wield almost complete control over the architectural world by shaping public opinion? Ayn Rand's fictional public seemed desperately invested in architecture. So, why is it that so many metropolitan newspapers do not have an architecture critic? Or at least a regular architectural critique of recently constructed (or designed) buildings? This is perhaps one of those chicken or egg questions: is the general public not interested in reading about architecture - hence, no architecture critic - or has the lack of an architecture critic resulted in a general public that is not interested in architecture? Obviously it is difficult to have one without the other. Though, in our present age of "opinionation" it seems that not only does every pundit have an opinion, but that people listen to them, and therefore they seem to be multiplying. It doesn't seem that it would be very difficult to hire a professor from the closest school of architecture to write a weekly - or bimonthly - column on architecture.

Regardless, we live in a city that seems rather disinterested in architecture - and not due to a lack of new construction. The city, after all, seems highly interested in development, and there is plenty of construction both ending and beginning in spite of the recent recession. But discussion of all this building in the general media is limited to the following essential facts: user, purpose, square footage, funding/cost, architect, contractor. Newspapers all over the country seem to follow this formula, and architectural critique seems to be found only in the largest cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. At the Yale School of Architecture Paul Goldberger commented on writing about architecture, "If it didn’t sound hopelessly pompous, I would say that the purpose of criticism in the general media is to create a better educated, more critically aware, more visually literate constituency for architecture, and thus, presumably, increase society’s demand for good design."

It is interesting that the aforementioned Toohey said, "Don't set out to raze all shrines—you'll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity, and the shrines are razed." Our interest in mediocrity is not to enshrine it, and our intention is obviously not to raze the spectacular. Our interest in mediocrity is to elevate it. We are interested in what has made so much of our architecture mediocre, and how it can be improved. It appears that one solution is somewhere between an architecture critic and an interested general public.
 
1st edition, the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

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