happy birthday Calvino!

I heard on the Writer's Almanac that today that Ocotber 15th is the birthday of both Italo Calvino and Virgil. (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/) It also happens to be a Wednesday, which is not my usual post day, but this seemed a good excuse to buck my weekly schedule.

Calvino's Invisible Cities must be the most beloved work of literature among architects. A series of intoxicating meditations on a city it testifies to the underlying poetry in sustainability. Virgil, whose Aeneid so dominated my high school Latin classes that I can still recite its first lines, also deployed his poetic skills toward the agrarian life in the Georgics. Poetry about agriculture and the rural landscape, prose about cities...what a wonderful pair to share a birthday. What more could an architect, landscape architect or planner hope for than to design a city worthy of prose such as Calvino's, or a landscape worthy of Virgil? Are we making those?



N.B. Now, this off-scehdule posting will not become a habit, but I can see how it happens that bloggers begin to put down every thought that enters their heads. Before long they've all gone avian, twittering and chirping constantly. So far, I will resist, futile though it may be...