Oscar Niemeyer 1907- 2012 Oscar Niemeyer, one of the leading
20th century Modernist architects died December 5th. What should
urbanists make of him and his career? His curvaceous buildings
gave his version of modernism a Brazilian style in contrast to
the stark simplicity of le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Like
Corbu, Niemeyer largely failed at planning. Brasilia, which he
designed along with his mentor Lucio Costa was influenced by
Corbu's Ville Contemporaine (1922). Brasilia, I would describe
as a lifeless auto-centric monstrosity more resembling a
suburban office park than a city. However, his individual
buildings built in a pre-existing urban context are attractive,
even beautiful; none more so than the Communist Party
headquarters in Paris where he lived in exile after a Brazilian
fascist military coup. Niemeyer was an idealist and what I would
call a good Communist (if there is such a thing); not a
Stalinist, but more of a humanist. He fought poverty in Brazil,
striving for a more egalitarian societ