Bad Architecture, Bureaucracy (and Taxes)

Move over, Prince Charles. Former Boston University president John Silber covets your title as the world's leading Architecture Crank … To be fair, there are some fascinating moments in Silber's new book…

Thus begins the Globe's Alex Beam in his review of John Silber’s latest book, Architecture of the Absurd.

That captures well the short, playful book based on a lecture Silber delivered after his induction as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Reviews (besides Beam’s) here and here.

One of Silber’s more interesting arguments is that absurd architecture is inversely related to the stake of the people spending money on the project. Consequently, it’s largely nonprofits – museums, arts organizations and universities – that spend gobs of money (usually well over budget) on spectacular messes. Silber would probably cite MIT’s Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry, as an apt example.

Responsibility – financial and moral – is spread among dozens and sometimes hundreds of board members and donors. At the end of the day, the people making the most important decisions have very little, if anything, to lose.

That same kind of "division of responsibility" wreaks havoc in the public sphere, too.