"And exciting buildings are fine periodically"
About this Quote
A small sentence with a quiet scold inside it: “And exciting buildings are fine periodically” is Yamasaki putting “wow” back in its place. Coming from the designer of the original World Trade Center - a project routinely criticized as monumental, repetitive, even bureaucratic - the line reads like a defense of restraint from someone who knew exactly how much spectacle modern architecture was being asked to perform.
The key word is “periodically.” Yamasaki isn’t anti-excitement; he’s anti-addiction. He’s warning against a culture (clients, cities, magazines) that treats every commission like it has to be a breakthrough, every skyline like a competition for attention. In the postwar decades, architecture was becoming mass media: glossy photos, signature forms, heroic narratives. Yamasaki counters with a professional ethic closer to civic infrastructure than personal branding. Most of the built environment, he implies, should be legible, calm, repeatable - buildings that do their job without insisting on a reaction.
There’s also a humanist subtext. Yamasaki often talked about serenity, proportion, and creating comfort at scale. “Exciting” can be a euphemism for aggressive: spaces that intimidate, overwhelm, or age quickly once the novelty fades. The sentence sidesteps ideology and lands on psychology: people have to live and work in these places long after the architectural stunt has been applauded. Periodic excitement is a spice, not the meal.
The key word is “periodically.” Yamasaki isn’t anti-excitement; he’s anti-addiction. He’s warning against a culture (clients, cities, magazines) that treats every commission like it has to be a breakthrough, every skyline like a competition for attention. In the postwar decades, architecture was becoming mass media: glossy photos, signature forms, heroic narratives. Yamasaki counters with a professional ethic closer to civic infrastructure than personal branding. Most of the built environment, he implies, should be legible, calm, repeatable - buildings that do their job without insisting on a reaction.
There’s also a humanist subtext. Yamasaki often talked about serenity, proportion, and creating comfort at scale. “Exciting” can be a euphemism for aggressive: spaces that intimidate, overwhelm, or age quickly once the novelty fades. The sentence sidesteps ideology and lands on psychology: people have to live and work in these places long after the architectural stunt has been applauded. Periodic excitement is a spice, not the meal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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