Before modernism, art and design were always dictated by one or more styles at a given point. Our post-modern state requires that this sort of subversion of architectural honesty--characterized here by Bloomsbury Estates--is not a crime punishable by law. Eclectic pluarlism may be preferred but invariably raises the question: how does this project contribute to the character and identity of Raleigh, and of this neighborhood?
History. The construction site of Bloomsbury Estates is located on what was once part of Joel Lane’s Estate. According to Raleigh vet Peter Eichenberger, this site was once the venue of capital punishment outside Wake County’s first courthouse. Ironically enough, this development with its “greatest view of the Raleigh skyline” will also provide unobstructed views of Central Prison.
“Over the years Gales and other publishers editorialized repeatedly about another trait of human nature, the morbid curiosity that unfailingly attracted crowds to the courthouse grounds to witness executions of criminals by hanging. One such occasion was the 1830 execution of two men, one black, the other white, for two separate crimes. Estimates placed the number of the curious at between three and six thousand human beings of both sexes and of all colors and ages. Their demoralizing tendency was fully demonstrated by the scenes of drunkenness afterward, as well as by greatly increased activity of thieves, counterfeiters, and gamblers among the crowds.” - Elizabeth Reid Murray Wake Capital County of NC Vol. 1
History is recorded in relation to its context. Our ideas of prehistorical times are fairly accurate, based on fossil records and scientific dating methods. Suppose space aliens had left artifacts on Earth during the Mesozoic Era mimicking the institutions of human life. If discovered, a bungle of this magnitude could potentially turn our entire knowledge base upside-down. Alan Colquhoun writes that an “imposition on history of an a priori purpose will inevitably distort reality.” Apply this principle to the experience of a present-day city dweller crossing the Boylan Bridge. The artificial antiquity achieved by the Bloomsbury Estates creates cultural confusion and subscribes to historical fraud: its attempt at ‘authenticity’ interrupts the fabric of the natural progression of development in Raleigh.
Materiality-Honesty. The physical appearance of an object is directly related to the technology of the time when it was created. For example, architectural brackets, such as those signature of the highly ornamented Italianate style, came out of functional necessity to accommodate generous roof overhangs. The Mansard roof is still found in new construction today, though it was invented originally to skirt ordinances in Europe limiting the number of stories of a building. Today, technological and material advances in every aspect of construction technology afford us the opportunity to prioritize built objects in an infinite number of ways. Digital fabrication technologies combined with engineering knowledge allow that literally most any form is possible to achieve.
Akin to complex hip roof structures and non-functional plastic shutters, typical of so-called McMansion-type houses, the historical forms and ornaments utilized in the Bloomsbury Estates resort to mimicry; they are simply watered-down traces of meaningful things from the past. This pastiche approach is the opposite of cultural understanding and reasoning--it showcases the tendency of real estate motives to exploit history. This strange brand of contemporary postmodern historicism is precisely the sort of perversion which has reduced homes in this country to commodities, not places where we dwell.
Embellishment. Second Empire style architecture comes from the Second French Empire (1852-1870) and is credited to the rule of Napoleon III, who seized the National Assembly of the Second Republic of France in 1851 to gain dictatorial power and launch the Second Empire. The style characterizes the dictatorial bourgeois attitude of this then “world power.” Its gaudy details represent a time when ornament was judged on the intricacies of craft, despite artistic ideals that were born out of the industrial revolution around the same time.
In taking the conversation out of the realm of contemporary critique, we remember that historicist notions arise in architectural history, typically in the midst of some social reform or attempt at zeitgeist. Ultimately, this was in order to convey meaning. Does this project aim to imply any sort of poetic ideas or convey any moral values? Let’s dig a little deeper. Colquhoun writes:
“Architecture is a form of knowledge by experience… When we try to recover the past in architecture, we cross a chasm--the chasm of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during which the power of architectural style to convey definite meanings disappeared entirely… When we receive the past now, we tend to express its most general and trivial connotations; it is merely the ‘pastness’ of the the past that is evoked.”
Such a monocratic architectural imposition as the Bloomsbury Estates has one problem: these are condominiums that must sell to individuals. Given the economic uncertainty of the near future, the intersection of this vacillating developer-wet dream and a sufficient creative class consumer demand is unlikely. Perhaps this is why developers around the city are changing planned condo buildings to apartment buildings, being forced to put condo projects on hold, or shifting gears towards office and retail. Perhaps this is why the construction on the Bloomsbury Estates has been going on almost a year and a half and the building has yet to be dried in.
image credits: bloomsburyestates.com, Raleigh City Museum, raleighmsa.com
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