Curitiba

Well-attended lecture tonight at the Museu Oscar Niemeyer (built by Niemeyer himself– and by the way, the man is still alive at age 104!).

Then we had a reception at a wonderful 17th floor apartment with an outdoor balcony in central Curitiba. I feel relaxed in this city.

Curitiba has a reputation as an eco-friendly city, but my acquaintances here (mostly young architects) say that the reputation has far outrun the reality. Their take on it is that in the 1970’s and 1980’s Curitiba did indeed have progressive ecological and public transit policies, but that the bureaucrats then took over and the whole thing has become stale and lacking in vision.

Maybe so, but to an outsider, the first impression of the city is one of immense livability compared with most other 1 million+ population cities in the world.