Monthly Archives: September 2019

Mississippi Rising

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Seeing the terrible devastation of parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, has sadly reminded of my work in Mississippi with my New Urbanist colleagues shortly after Katrina. Since our efforts there, much has been learned about recovery and rebuilding after natural disasters. Indeed, the work began at the charrette has gone on to evolve into emergency housing as well as also being at the forefront of the tiny home movement.

(R. John Anderson and John Anderson, AIA (left to right) pose in front of our architecture team’s presentation. Other members of the architecture team included Allison H. Anderson, AIA, Marianne Cusato, Milton Wilfred Grenfell, Susan M. Henderson, Christine G. H. Franck, Michael G. Imber, Gary Williams Justiss, Eric Moser, and Stephen A. Mouzon.)

I am republishing the following essay, which I wrote after returning from the Mississippi Renewal Forum. At the time I struggled to put into words what I had seen and experienced, as I know so many will now again. My heart is with them as is my hope that some of what we learned then can help now.

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On Columns, Classicism, and Creativity

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[This essay was originally published in Traditional Building, September 2019]

How should our buildings look today?

Why do we choose to make our buildings look one way and not another? How should our buildings look? Two different but related questions, the answers to which are many and difficult to tease apart, for architecture operates on many levels.

Today, many who regard themselves as classicists all too often answer “how should our buildings look” with a resounding: classically correct! This is understandable as 21st century classicism is still operating in recovery mode. The lacuna of what we simplistically call modernism nearly broke the chain of tradition preceding it. In this regard, we are not unlike our Renaissance predecessors.

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