LETTERS

Your review of the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech calls it a “long, low, fractured mass” [“It’s Only Skin Deep,” by Christopher Hawthorne, Feb. 17]. Its true name is “After the Earthquake Style.” You can achieve the same picturesque effect by poor engineering.

Current architectural commentators seem determined to treat architecture as a form of street art, as evanescent as the weird works offered in some museums. Have these people forgotten that architecture is the “Art of the Human Habitat”? That being the case, when do we get to hear from the people who occupy these buildings and put up with their inadequacies on a daily basis?

Cornelius Deasy

San Luis Obispo