Kyoto Station is a building that I really despise. It is a dumb building designed by a dumb architect. I don’t mind his ugly buildings in Osaka. Because, it is just Osaka. More than that though, it is a building that just has no place in Kyoto. It doesn’t understand or respect Kyoto. That is really sad.
During World War II, United States Secretary of War Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from target lists for incendiary air strikes and ultimately the atomic bomb on numerous occasions. The reason being that he had visited Kyoto several times when he was a young diplomat and he appreciated the city’s unique cultural heritage. If it hadn’t been for Secretary Stimson, Kyoto would have been reduced to ash like every other Japanese city.
In Japan, the architectural profession (actually, they are really just engineers here), completely lacks culture. I think they must design most buildings with nothing but a calculator. I recall, when I was applying to graduate schools here I had an interview with a Professor Maeda at Kyoto University. (Kyoto University is considered to be one of the top two schools in Japan.) We didn’t hit it off. I quipped that a building suitable for the Las Vegas strip would also be right at home in Kyoto, in his mind. To my shock, he replied without hesitation that there should be no difference between Las Vegas and Kyoto.
