How incredibly petty of UNESCO. Especially as it’s a perfectly fine-looking bridge, not an eyesore at all.
This really highlights the worst side of historical preservation groups–the people who think that perfect, unchanging stasis matters more than the needs of a people who actually live and work and play in a place right now. It’s not at all universal, but it gives preservation a bad name.
So it goes.
I don’t know about Dresden, but in Berlin the way modern architecture has been employed to echo the history of buildings damaged in the war, while still being startlingly different in construction, is nothing short of breath taking.
It’s not exactly pretty, but you have no idea how the earlier design proposals looked. I’m okay with this one (it’s my home town).
It’s ugly for Dresen, but looks attractive compared to many American bridges. I agree that it doesn’t blend with the surrounding architecture.
I love Berlin. Stunning city, and the rebuilt frontages on war damaged buildings are great. Love the way the modern buildings fit in, too.
I was sad to see that Tacheles had been closed down last time I was there, though.
Is this a really sharp-witted joke I’m not on the inside of UNESCO funding-vagaries enough to get?
I don’t find this bridge ugly at all. But my family’s tastes are suspect.
My mom grew up in St Louis, near the Eads Bridge. When I was a kid, we visited her hometown and rode a stern-wheeler steamboat beneath that bridge. It terrified me. Being under a bridge had never given me vertigo before, but somehow that was one creepy bridge.
While I was growing up in San Diego, my mother told me that her favorite bridge was this one here, over the 805 freeway: the Eastgate Mall Bridge. I do like its clean lines, but only now do I notice a faint resemblance to the evil Eads Bridge.
My own favorite bridge growing up was always the Cabrillo Bridge, at the western end of Balboa Park in San Diego. It still mostly looks like this, although the water underneath has been replaced by the 163 freeway. Still, quite pretty.
Anyway, I too think it’s pretty silly to “punish” a city for building a bridge, especially one that doesn’t look all that weird or controversial in design. It’s not quite as eye-searing as London’s Millennium Bridge, is it?
Um. No? I mean that literally.
Apologies I thought you were unfavourably contrasting Dresden’s funding situation with sites that ‘couldn’t help themselves’ or something.
:3
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