KICK A BUILDING IN MEMORIAM Former New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable liked Houston. In 1976, she called it “the city of the second half of the twentieth century.†It’s the first half of the twenty-first century now. Houston’s status is no more cemented than it was then, but Huxtable’s is. She passed away yesterday at her home in Manhattan, at the age of 91. [New York Times]
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That compliment was a little tongue-in-cheek… she was referring to Houston as being entirely a car and freeway-based city. But she was ecstatic about Pennzoil Place (said it had the biggest impact on a city skyline since the Empire State Building), and made that comment in a review of it.
Huxtable was the first newspaper architecture critic, and now a bunch of papers have one (Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, etc.). Will the Chronicle ever?
The architecture community lost a great, unprecedented and classy lady with the passing of Ms. Huxtable!
May you rest in peace Ada.
-D-