h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This town doesn't seem to have made up its mind what kind of architecture it wants.

The result is a mish-mash of different styles and periods.

At first glance I thought it was a scene about a cat widow.

But, of course it makes much more sense being seen from a car window .

I don't know if it's good or bad for buildings of different architectural styles to be next to each other. If you've ever been a tourist in Rome, you will have noticed how ancient Roman ruins and aqueducts seem to pop up at random in between much more modern buildings.

I see the world as on its way somewhere, with no clear idea of where it should should be going. Whatever styles are currently fashionable have their advantages, but so do tons of other styles. Wouldn't it be fun to mix everything up, so the average tourist (or resident) could find something nice to look at form different periods? Just thinking.

Another thought: committing your hard-earned money to whatever residence you own takes a lot out of you, as well as freezing you into whatever style you chose. you aren't one of the 1%, who can read architectural magazines and perhaps have a 16th century French Chateau that you can go to during vacations, when you'd like to escape your other residences.

The rest of us can either pick a quaint place that allows tourists to enter venerable historical homes for a small fee, or, even less expensive, you can ride around in your car, admiring things that you enjoy along the way.

Or, less expensive still, you can sit at your computer, enjoying photos like this.

Thanks!

If you like different styles together, try visiting the Oakland section of Pittsburgh sometime when there's no quarantine.

The 42-storey neogothic Cathedral of Learning is on the same piece of land with Heinz Chapel, a replica of Saint-Chappelle. Behind it is the Greek-columned Mellon Institute and more modern Hillel building. Across Forbes Avenue is the huge Beaux-Arts Carnegie Museum and Music Hall (library behind), and on the other side of Fifth Avenue is neogothic St Paul.

Then there's the very weird Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Hall, and the old Schenley Hotel complex from the gay 90s, which is a student union and dormitory complex - with round towers behind that.

Alas, they tore down Syria Mosque, an auditorium that used to have Arabic writing on.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oakland.jpg

http://www.opdc.org/events/2017/7/17/public-meeting-forbes-avenue-corridor-improvements-project

I don't remember that from when I was in Pittsburgh. Of course, that was in 1968, more than fifty years ago. I was on yet another concert tour, which took me into a high school auditorium for the concert. Then we were off to Columbus, Akron, and Cincinnati, all in Ohio.

St.Vitus cathedral in Prague was in one style when they started building it, then eventually another style was current as they continued building, so they went with that style. I think the place ended up being in three different styles, but I guess the locals are used to it and assume it looks the way it's supposed to.