I would like to thank NYRA and Douglas Spencer for taking the time to review 5 percent of my book On the Appearance of the World: A Future for Aesthetics in Architecture. Reviewing books is difficult, so one can hardly fault Mr. Spencer for not doing it and instead using casual remarks, mostly from my preface, as a setup for his own random observations that meander from prairie grass to animal feed. Even more unusual was his denialism of the existence of any historic “Critical Project” in architecture. For more on this project that he argues never existed, he could, ironically, read a book that he actually contributed to: Architecture Against the Post-Political: Essays in Reclaiming the Critical Project. (Emphasis on the last two words.) He also, as if on cue, rehearses tired ideas about aesthetics, notably that considering aesthetics in architecture is only something oppressors do. Let us rid the world of all beauty in the name of virtuous equality! Perhaps that is why he moved to Iowa.
Relax. It’s okay. I’m expected to take digs at Iowa—I’m from Nebraska! As such I…