Go To Bellevue To Meet Louis Kahn Designer Of Fort Worth's Former World's Most Beautiful Modern Building

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the Seattle Times online.

Louis Kahn is the architect who designed the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

I have blogged about the Kimbell Art Museum a few times, including...

Someone Thinks Fort Worth Is The Location Of The Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture In The World

and

Shocked To Learn The Kimbell Art Museum Is No Longer The World's Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture

In the first blogging I referenced the Wikipedia article about the Kimbell Art Museum, in which the article informed us....

"Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in the world, and housed in what is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world."

Well, clearly the above is ridiculous hyperbole, and I so indicated. Soon the Wikipedia article was edited to  be more grounded in reality, which I blogged about in the second blogging, with the edited hyperbole now saying....

The Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in Texas, is housed in what is widely regarded as one of Texas' foremost works of modern architecture designed by Louis Kahn and Renzo Piano.

So, I was curious if the Seattle Times Meet Louis Kahn, the modern designer you know the least about at the Bellevue Arts Museum  article mentioned the former most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

Well, mention was made in the following paragraph...

Kahn’s most famous buildings — The Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh — show a fascination with pleasingly layered geometric shapes, touchable materials and human scale. They reveal a creator less concerned with making sculptures to be admired from afar than making spaces in which people can experience light and motion as it unfolds over time.

The Seattle Times article failed to mention that the Kimbell Art Museum used to be widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world....

Shocked To Learn The Kimbell Art Museum Is No Longer The World's Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture

You are looking at a screen cap here from the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth, with some representative images of Fort Worth, including the Modern Museum of Art, but not the Kimbell Art Museum.

Way back in 2012 I blogged a blogging titled Someone Thinks Fort Worth Is The Location Of The Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture In The World, after I read the following in the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth....

"Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in the world, and housed in what is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world."

By the time I read the above I had long grown used to the tendency to hyperbole employed way too often in Fort Worth by some entities when describing some perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth.

But, to claim the Kimbell Art Museum is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world was so over the top ridiculous I found it an embarrassingly stupid assertion to make.

A person named Anonymous, with a reading comprehension problem, commented....

Anonymous said...
I know you like to dog on all things Fort Worth, but please leave your personal distaste for the city aside on this one. The Kimbell *is* widely regarded as an architectural masterpiece. Just googling Louis Kahn and the Kimbell should tell you this. See also this article from the New York Times.

I never bothered to read the article Anonymous was directing me to, as there was no need. Instead I responded with....

Durango said...
Anonymous, I am aware the Kimbell building is well regarded architecturally. I did not indicate otherwise. What I was dogging was the ridiculous claim that this building is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

So, now to the point of this particular blogging. Yesterday I once again happened upon the Wikipedia Fort Worth entry to see that the Kimbell Art Museum is no longer widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

This is what the article now says about the Kimbell Art Museum...

The Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in Texas, is housed in what is widely regarded as one of Texas' foremost works of modern architecture designed by Louis Kahn and Renzo Piano.

Now, isn't that a lot better? No ridiculous hyperbole, no embarrassing exaggeration. Just an honest statement that no one should find objectionable. Or stupid.

On a related note, yesterday an incoming blog comment was along this same theme, as in objecting to Cowtown hyperbole....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Texas Is A Large State With Deserts Pine Forests Houston And The Rio Grande":

The Fort Worth Business Press pulp fiction writers and Dud Kennedy should edit the Texas Google page to portray Cowtown in a better light. Fort Worth will outwit, outplay and outlast you! Fort Worth's bold moves and relentless success takes it to the next level! TCU slapping their name on the Osteopathic Medical school is a game changing bold move according to the lap dogs at the FW Biz Press. The Cowtown Way's bluster and blather makes me ill.

Yeah, the bluster and blather really are a bit much at times.

Regarding the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth, I find it interesting that there is absolutely no mention made of the Trinity River Uptown Central City Gator Island Vision Project, known worldwide as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, has indicated she thinks this project is currently the biggest urban water project underway in North America. Yet no mention made in the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth.

Ms. Granger's blustery blathery claim is sort of an insult to urban zones of North America which have actual urban water projects underway with a bit more complexity than building three little simple bridges in four years to connect the mainland to an imaginary island, while hosting dozens of inner tube floating parties in the polluted Trinity River, while waiting for a ditch to be dug under the three simple little bridges, sometime in the future, with that future being more than four years from now.

How can a Wikipedia article about Fort Worth not mention that town is currently hosting America's Biggest Boondoggle? Makes one question the accuracy of that which one reads in Wikipedia. Then again, Wikipedia did fix that embarrassing most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world nonsense.

So, maybe soon an entry will be made in the Wikipedia article to include America's Biggest Boondoggle, run by Kay Granger's son, J.D., a highly trained civil engineer specializing in urban water projects....

Someone Thinks Fort Worth Is The Location Of The Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture In The World

The Kimbell Art Museum

In the picture you are looking at the outside of the Kimbell Art Museum, located in the area of Fort Worth zoned for museums called The Cultural District.

Stay with me, eventually I'll get back to the Kimbell Art Museum, but first we have to go to Rome.

Last night I went to Rome via Wikipedia. There I saw some incredible sights, like closeup views of structures like the Coliseum.

While visiting Rome I saw mention made of Rome being what is known as a World City. So, I went to Wikipedia's World City entry.

There are several organizations that rank the world's cities by various criteria. Every one of them had New York City as the #1 World City. And London #2. Some Texas towns showed up on the various lists. Like Houston, Austin and Dallas. Maybe San Antonio, I don't remember for sure.

But, I do remember, for sure, that the city that makes the world Green with Envy, Fort Worth, was no where to be seen.

Seattle was on several of the lists. As was Vancouver. And Portland.

Seattle, Vancouver and Portland are the world's biggest cities with which I am most familiar, along with Fort Worth and Dallas.

I clicked on the Seattle Wikipedia entry. It was a good article, with great photos giving a good idea of what Seattle looks like, including the skyline from various angles.

Then I clicked on the Fort Worth Wikipedia entry. Yikes. "Holy Embarrassment!" as Batman might say. Or "Ay Carrumba!" as Bart Simpson might say.

Below is the Wikipedia picture of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. As viewed from the aforementioned Cultural District. The caption for this photo in Wikipedia says, "Fort Worth skyline from the Amon Carter Museum."

Fort Worth Skyline from the Amon Carter Museum

From the view from the Amon Carter Museum let's go back to the Kimbell Art Museum. I told you at the start we'd eventually get back there.

The third paragraph in the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth starts with the following doozy of an example of classic delusional thinking, of the sort one might read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in the world, and housed in what is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world."

The most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world? I don't even think it is as beautiful as the Museum of Modern Art next door.

The Wikipedia entry about the Kimbell Art Museum does not repeat the nonsense found in the Fort Worth entry.

The Seattle Central Library

Now, if you want an actual example of a beautiful work of modern architecture, visit the Seattle Central Library.

A few years ago the American Institute of Architects compiled a list of Americans' 150 favorite structures located in the U.S.

The Seattle Central Library was voted #108. This surprised me, wondering how did many Americans even know about this relatively new building.

The Star-Telegram printed this list of favorite structures and opined outrage over the borderline criminal omission of the Kimbell Art Museum from the list.

That is sort of shocking, what with the Kimbell Art Museum apparently being widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

I don't remember if any buildings in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex were on this list. I would guess a new list of this sort would include the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. And would still omit the Kimbell Art Museum, mostly due to the fact that hardly anyone in America has heard of this building that is the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.