Oddities #1

Towers and Turrets fall into the same category as Inglenooks.

Remember this was the romantic age before TV and before radio and when people read for entertainment. It was also an age when families were large, neighborhoods were dense and men and women didnt date but courted...sex was not casual and it was not done until after marriage (this was before condoms and before birth control).

So Towers and Turrets, Nooks and Inglenooks, were acceptable public places where people could have private moments whether alone to gather their thoughts, read, watch or as a couple holding hands...courting, talking, etc.

There was an asthetic purpose to them...but there was also a social purpose to them.

That may be true in your experience...BlackRockLifer but that was not the norm....

biniszkiewicz, you interpreted my meaning perfectly. Architecture reflected the norms of society within that period. Today people look for great rooms and master bedrooms with private master baths...if you take a look at the upper middle class and the homes of the wealthy these architectural details had purpose.
The Spanish Revivial designs of the 1901 Pan Am had purpose
The flowing lines of Art Nuveau had purpose
These came about in reference to what is referred to as the ROMANTIC PERIOD

The Frank Lloyd Wright designs were a stripped down version of EB Green...and the Arts and Crafts Movement and influences from Japanese craftsmanship all of which embraced the organic nature of craftsmanship. The geometric lines of Art Deco had purpose. THESE WERE THE ROOTS OF MODERNISM.

The Italianate Revival, Greek Revival, Federal, Georgian, Palladian, Beaux Arts...those designs had purpose. There was a big victorian influence...the US saw itself as the new ROME and it these periods reflected all the references to social structures, knowledge, government, etc.

Anyone who remembers the 1960s...and their "A" dresses...think pheobie in Friends, or That Girl etc. They were as plain and stripped down as possible...co-incidently so was the modernist and minimalist movements in architecture.

1970s hippie grunge came around just about the time of what I call planet of the apes brutalism in architecture.

I do not pay attention to PaulBuffalo and I would advise you not to either. The man doth protest to much and know not of what he speaks.

ITS WHY THE CITIES THAT ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST IN THE WORLD ARE PLACES WHERE ONE IS CONNECTED TO THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE...AND SOMEHOW...IT ALL FITS TOGETHER.

BUFFALO HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE SUCH A PLACE...WE ARE RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF OUR GOLDEN AGE...WE ARE BOTH RESTORING AND RECONSTRUCTING...AND THERE IS MUCH TO RECONSTRUCT. HOWEVER WITH BUFFALO 60% EMPTY WE HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM TO PROJECT OUR CITY INTO THE FUTURE WITHOUT HAVING TO SACRIFICE THE PAST AS OTHER CITIES MUST.