Maria Lowndes Sevely

Mar-a-Lago (meaning Ocean-to-Lake) was built 1923-27 for Marjorie Merriweather Post and her then-husband E. F. Hutton.

I was already a trained architect studying Classicism firsthand — working with Palladio’s original drawings under James Ackerman and Howard Burns — before Notre Dame revived its classical curriculum. People with that earlier formation helped make the revival possible. I also have direct, lifelong first-person exposure to leading Modernists through family, mentorship, and decades of professional practice. A strong advocacy for the legitimacy of Classicism cannot depend on attacking all other ideas, approaches, or work. Classicism bound by rigidity already killed it once. As John Summerson made clear in The Classical Language of Architecture: Classicism is a language, not a dogma. Architecture must remain alive — rooted in Vitruvius’ firmitas, utilitas, and venustas — embracing both Classical harmony/order/beauty and Eclectic vitality/tension/surprise. That dual soul is what keeps architecture humane and enduring, rather than swinging into another cycle of soulless utilitarian minimalism.

Eradicate music education. Why does all our music suck now? Eradicate culinary education. Why does all our food taste bad now? Eradicate military training. Why do we keep losing battles?

@thomasknox Good humanistic architecture comes in many forms. There's no single rote formula. Poundbury and Society Hill are both cherished by the people who live there. What matters is responsible, thoughtful, and sincere design that creates places people genuinely enjoy living in.

This is where I am right now. Walking home via the Nash Terraces. Until modern architects prove they can at least equal this, from 200 years ago, they should be forced to clean streets rather than design them. Give the job to AI

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just SURPRISED CALLED IN to JD Vance's speech in Hungary — and the crowd went BERSERK as soon as they heard 47's voice "Mr. President, how are ya?" TRUMP: "Hi!" *Crowd erupts* VANCE: "Mr. President, you're on with about 5,000 Hungarian patriots! I think they love you more than they love Viktor Orban!" 🤣 TRUMP: "Viktor didn't allow people to STORM YOUR COUNTRY and invade your country like other people have!" 🇺🇸🇭🇺

@createstreets Trees, please!

Nursing is a noble profession. This new nursing school in Washington DC treats nursing students & their vocation with the love, civility & respect which they merit.

Official DoD biographies explicitly state Sec. Hegseth 'participated in a number of active-duty deployments' to Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Bronze Stars were for sustained meritorious service in combat zones. National Guard doesn't mean 'not real deployment' as those who cite it seem to imply. These were full federal mobilizations in support of the Global War on Terror.

@de_redhot @Cubbymom3 @mlsline @SJohnston60 I mean he has two bronze stars for meritorious services. He lied and said one was for valor and had to back track later but he does have two bronze stars. For his service in the National Guard.

My liberal friends all dismiss Pete Hegseth as a “Fox News clown” And yet, in barely more than a year, recruiting is soaring and he has overseen four flawless and very complex operations. Midnight Hammer Venezuela Iran Pilot rescue Hats off to this guy.

I was already a trained architect studying Classicism firsthand — working with Palladio’s original drawings under James Ackerman and Howard Burns — before Notre Dame revived its classical curriculum. People with that earlier formation helped make the revival possible. I also have direct, lifelong first-person exposure to leading Modernists through family, mentorship, and decades of professional practice. A strong advocacy for the legitimacy of Classicism cannot depend on attacking all other ideas, approaches, or work. Classicism bound by rigidity already killed it once. As John Summerson made clear in The Classical Language of Architecture: Classicism is a language, not a dogma. Architecture must remain alive — rooted in Vitruvius’ firmitas, utilitas, and venustas — embracing both Classical harmony/order/beauty and Eclectic vitality/tension/surprise. That dual soul is what keeps architecture humane and enduring, rather than swinging into another cycle of soulless utilitarian minimalism.

@SJohnston60 If Hegseth were a Democrat with his military service and Ivy League education from Princeton and Harvard, those so-called liberal friends would be singing his praises.

@CharlestonArchi I actually studied proportion in depth. George M.A. Hanfmann was kind enough to honor my work by delivering it as a lecture at Harvard in 1981.

Musicians learn harmony from the get-go. Meanwhile modernist architects don't believe in proportional harmony, or if they do, view it as completely "subjective" and therefore not worth the time to learn.

Please stop blaming 'Modernism.' It was hijacked in the 1970s–2000s and replaced with cheap utilitarian minimalism, rebranded as the real thing. Architecture needs to reclaim its soul: the eternal dualism of Classical (harmony, order, beauty) and Eclectic (tension, vitality, surprise). Both are needed to make places worth living in.

@CharlestonArchi This proposal has merit as a means of community self-determination, but it reflects taste, not necessarily design merit.

This would actually work, so bad is contemporary architectural education.

As my Dad always advised, every design decision needs solid reasons. The classical proposal (left) deliberately connects to Western architectural tradition through proportion, symmetry, and human-scaled details--visual cues that give it meaning and belonging in Christchurch’s heritage context near the Arts Centre. The approved version (right) isn’t true Modernism; it’s just bland minimalism, intentionally stripped of character. Real Modernism solves problems inventively (think Wright’s Guggenheim or Gehry’s Bilbao), rather than defaulting to a featureless box. Which better relates to the streetscape at human scale? The classical design--with its rhythmic windows, layered facade, and welcoming ground-floor arches--creates enclosure and invites pedestrians. The modern one feels monolithic and impersonal. On circulation, light, and air: if the floor plates stayed similar, the classical version’s deeper reveals, varied glazing, and balconies likely offer better natural light and ventilation without relying on mechanical excess. Neither Classicism nor Modernism should be reduced to a superficial skin on the same box. This wasn’t evidence-based planning--it was ideology overriding public preference and common sense, after 18 months and hundreds of thousands in redesign costs. Restoring rigorous classical training would help architects justify choices with intelligence and soul, not bureaucratic defaults regardless of the design dialect utilized.

Restore classical architectural education and the problem will go away.

@TozartWeb3 @sciencegirl You can correct minor slips by rubbing more of the ground into the support.

@sciencegirl No right for a mistake. People in the past had more patience and were more focused as there was less distraction around.

Why did Leonardo da Vinci use silver drawing tools to draw his artworks

@sciencegirl I have drawn with a silver point on prepared paper.

@KatieDidNot29 @MillerStream @SJohnston60 @bikerbd Oh look a credentialist! BTW, I had a classical education not a vocational education and plenty military who served in my family.

@mlsline @MillerStream @SJohnston60 @bikerbd I read your bio, you have no knowledge or expertise to make that statement.

@CharlestonArchi That's sad! The design appears to be a responsible, restrained Classical structure that would enhance most sites in a dignified, lasting manner.

These urban designers calling classical architecture "illegitimate pastiche" - have you asked to see samples of their work?

🚨 WOW! President Trump just MIC DROPPED this reporter Q: "Mr. President, how would it not be a war crime to strike Iran's bridges and power plants?!" TRUMP: "Because they KILLED 45,000 people! It could be as much as 60,000!" "They kill protesters. They're ANIMALS. And we have to stop them and we can't let them have a nuclear weapon!" 🫳🏻🎤

@MillerStream @SJohnston60 @bikerbd Midnight Hammer was meant to roll back the timeline on nuclear capabilities as a warning to stop. Instead, Iran ramped up their aggressive actions. It looks like they’re out of chances now.

@SJohnston60 @bikerbd if midnight hammer was so flawless, why was epic fury necessary? and if iran was so flawless, why was a pilot rescue necessary?

Haussmann's plan cut through the overcrowded medieval blocks to create wide avenues--but it didn't destroy everything in between. Plenty of historic gems survived or got restored (think Sainte-Chapelle and parts of Île de la Cité). Those charming, dense old streets in Marville's 1865 photos? Sure, they look quaint in black and white. But were the frequent devastating fires quaint? Or the epidemics that exploded from the overcrowding, open sewers, and airless alleys? Cholera hit Paris hard in 1832 and 1849, killing tens of thousands because filth and disease spread like wildfire in those tight quarters. Haussmann brought light, air, clean water, and modern sewers. The boulevards we love today came with real human benefits--not just pretty aesthetics. Romanticizing pre-modern slums forgets the very real misery and death that came with them.

Paris before Haussmannization: Captured by Charles Marville, this evocative 1865 plate documents the narrow, rain-slicked medieval Rue Saint-Honoré just before it was demolished under the orders of Napoleon III. Marville’s lens captured the haunting grandeur of a metropolis that no longer exists.

It's always nearly impossible to understand the past in the true context of its time--as L.P. Hartley put it, 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.' Walter Gropius described how each era's reaction can overreach, only to be countered by an opposite swing: 'If the architect has in the reaction swung too far over towards the engineer he will, in the counter-reaction, swing back again towards the artist.' Many so-called Modernist architects admired and worked tirelessly to defend, preserve, protect, and restore works of the past (from McKim's early colonial restorations that fed into Shingle Style/Colonial Revival, to later figures like Philip Johnson advocating for landmarks). The backlash against Modernism's excesses was real, but it wasn't a one-sided villain story.

@mlsline So nuanced...

Caused, I should have said.