It was a low and high moment this week with the passing of Mr. Shankar – low because he died, high because he lived, and then some.

But another low/high moment passed last week with no notice here, and I think Oscar Niemeyer’s death at 104 is more than worthy of mention.

His Brasilia, the cathedral of which is featured above, is now more than 50 years old and the consensus on its lifelessness as a city is questionable, though not without its instruction. A good, brief discussion of grand architectural theory at LGM brings up a few of the people-related problems we should think about when considering what green design means. It’s too bad we have such a problem with communism in American society, not for the sake of communism itself per se, but because the ideas of thinkers like Niemeyer are always colored by the notion that he was one. It’s an adolescent tendency and we should get over it.