McModern?
While perusing my 2nd favorite modern website, www.modernphoenix.net, I came across an article written by a local architect, Linnea O’Dowd. She warns us of the danger ahead as phoenix approaches the dawn of the neo-modern era and the end of the Tuscan. She claims that:
“our Phoenix design aesthetic has become modern without meaning, not McMansion but McModern.”
What? McModern? that got my attention…
She is not far off the mark here. I see many newly constructed modern buildings built solely with profit in mind and which lack the architectural expression that O’Dowd is longing for…but so what?
Every building project cannot be a work of art…we need something to tear down 20 years from now 
Seriously though, I do see her point regarding the “exposed emotionless grey block (and) identical weathered steel and river rock accents.” it is ubiquitous! Are we creating a sea of glass and steel that will soon have the same meaning as the sea of stucco we all detest today?
Theses elements are to Phoenix Modern as stone veneer and Navajo White is to Phoenix Tuscan. While the attempts may be noble…we are seeing a cookie cutter approach to modernism!
I see cute little ranches all over the valley undergo modern makeovers, and while these homeowners are trying to respect the history of their homes, they are missing the mark.
Covering up a California Ranch with corrugated steel and lime green paint is not preserving it’s history, its masking it.
Sorry to say, but you might as well just stucco over the front and add a kokopelli…
see the article here: http://www.modernphoenix.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4054