Your daily Letter(s) to the Editor — Nov. 8, 2012
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Will the Taubman column controversy ever end?
Note from Dan: 1) The original column; 2) The response; 3) Wednesday’s letter calling the column “abhorrent.”
Three wise men of Roanoke with gifts of “time, talent and resources” bid us to ingratiate ourselves to their demigods with “applause, admiration” and “gratitude.”
And while these wise men dress their sovereigns in sparkling clothes for all to see, they chide a herald for seeing their beloved emperors undressed.
In their commentary “Parody can be useful; disrespect never is” (Nov. 1), Warner Dalhouse, Bittle W. Porterfield III and James M. Turner Jr., while wallowing in “self-indulgence,” arrogantly dismiss Dan Casey’s exercise in free speech with “disrespectful” and “obtuse” rhetoric (“Dream a little dream of the Taubman,” Oct. 28 column).
Well done, gentlemen, well done.
It is all a matter of perspective. From the perspective of this lower class, uncultured, Roanoke County hick, it’s all about free speech, that pesky old right that’s in the Constitution.
“It is there; it isn’t going away … get over it.”
Constance A. Wright
ROANOKE
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Taubman, Fralin deserve much better
While I normally enjoy reading Dan Casey’s columns, his dream about Nick Taubman and Heywood Fralin was a tasteless attempt at humor and was denigrating to two of Roanoke’s most outstanding and generous citizens (“Dream a little dream of the Taubman,” Oct. 28).
Their business success has provided employment opportunities for thousands of people.
They have generously supported schools, colleges and charities too numerous to mention. People this very day are being provided food and shelter thanks to their gifts.
The Taubman Museum can be a great asset to Roanoke; our challenge is to be supportive of the efforts of the talented leaders who are working to accomplish that goal.
Casey would have been more accurate if he had labeled his negative column a nightmare instead a dream.
James B. Gurley
ROANOKE
November 8, 2012 - 1:30 PM
Stomped on a lot of Old Roanoke third rails with that one.
Wow. Some of these people sure do love their eyesore. Dan, you sure know how to stir up a hive.
Frankly, I think the Taubman is just god-awful. I’m not one of the “purists” who needs it to match or blend with the existing architecture of the area, but you shouldn’t be driving down 581 and say, “What on Earth is that monstrosity?” I don’t look at it and think that I’d like to go in there, which is what the design of a modern museum is supposed to do. Instead, it looks like some architect finally got his life’s vanity project and got P-A-I-D to do it. The ribbon-cutting ceremony should have been named “The Hand That Strokes The Ego”.
I’ve heard comparisons to the Guggenheim… yeah, well… no.
The Gug is a testament to form for function in architecture – its very design is a part of its function as a museum. The Taub is tens of thousands of dollars in wasted glass and energy inefficiency that in no way streamline or enhance the museum experience. It’ll be less than ten years before there are some major maintenance issues with the roof alone.
The Guggenheim is simple, elegant and mimics nature = form for the sake of function.
The Taubman looks too chaotic and like someone tried to cram as many angles as possible into one building = form for the sake of form.
No amount of self-flattering, wishful comparison is going make that building any less hideous.
The Taubman Museum is like a Transformer and an Airstream trailer mated, and out popped that building.
the building is an eyesore that whenever i visit roanoke to enjoy some of its finery it kind of makes me nauseous
hey J.M.,
I’m willing to estimate the figure of a cool $6 mil as being randall stout’s fee to design that monstrocity.
also, I left you a present…
J.M. White, I could not agree with you more about the Guggenheim….I lived in NYC….The building is as much art as what the building was built to house. An excellent observation to the, as I like to call it…Tub-men.
The Guggenheim in NYC did not open to universal acclaim for its architecture either. And it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Taubman museum, sitting in the midst of a new area in a city where there was other architecture of a similar nature would probably be a beautiful asset. If it had been built in the midst of a park created out of the Countryside property, it would be an asset. If it had been built at the top of Mill Montain overlooking the valley, it would be an asset.
But the incongruity of it amongst the traditionasl architecture of downtown and its skyline make it appear tawdry. I think the problem with it is where its located.
I have tried hard to like the Taubman design. It is so obviously a vanity piece with no thought to the surroundings that it is nearly impossible to get past the “boil on the butt” reality.
If Advance Auto is sold and those jobs leave Roanoke, no amount of money will untarnish the Taubman name.
When I see an unusual building that has a functionally different shape, I want to go in and see why. The Taubman is just wierd for the sake of wierd and I have never had any interest in going inside.