Episode 103: Cathedrals and Candidates

This week, Jessica and Michael discuss all the considerations to take in rebuilding the spire of Notre Dame, which erupted in flames on April 15.

Jessica raises the questions,

What is the history that you are trying to embody? What is the responsibility of the architect to the pursuit of romance and nobility and nostalgia?

Also mentioned this week:

Wikipedia on Viollet le Duc

Architect Magazine, Rebuilding Notre Dame It’s Complicated

The Times, Sharp British Ideas for Notre Dame

Dezeen, Notre Dame Alternative Cathedral Designs,

New York Times, Notre Dame Fire Investigation

Intelligencer, The Many Problems with Biden’s Logo According to the Haters

Fast Company, Joe Biden’s Logo Has a Problem I Can’t Unsee

Fast Company, Pete Buttigieg Debuts Radical New Approach to Campaign Branding, >Lindsay Ballant Twitter thread on Buttigieg

Mina Markham, Medium, Pantsuit UI Pattern Library

Quartz, Candidates 404 Pages ranked by cringe factor

LiveScience, Unidentifiable Objects Viral Photo

Wesley Morris, The New York Times, Rom Coms Were Corny And Retrograde, Why Do I Miss Them So Much?

Subscribe to The Observatory on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Spotify or Soundcloud.

Observed

View all

Jobs

View all

Share on Social

By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.

View more from this author

She the People

Aimee Allison|Audio

Episode 103: Cathedrals and Candidates

The Halls and The Streets ft. Congresswoman Barbara Lee & One Fair Wage’s Saru Jayaraman

In the Work ft. L’Oreal Thompson Payton, Dr. Christina Bejarano, Dr. Wendy Smooth, & dancing

S11E10: Activism in AI with Google’s Ovetta Sampson

But Joy Cometh ft. L’Oreal Thompson Payton, Maya Wiley, & the DNC

The Halls and The Streets ft. Congresswoman Barbara Lee & One Fair Wage’s Saru Jayaraman

In the Work ft. L’Oreal Thompson Payton, Dr. Christina Bejarano, Dr. Wendy Smooth, & dancing

S11E10: Activism in AI with Google’s Ovetta Sampson

But Joy Cometh ft. L’Oreal Thompson Payton, Maya Wiley, & the DNC