On Regionalism in Architecture

"We must search for the innate possibilities of a given site or climate and the regional characteristics of vernacular building. Every city has its own unique scale, proportions and materials. Traditional methods of building quite often are still the most economical; one doesn't always have to put up a curtain wall.

Mendelsohn [Erich, 1887-1953] in his hospital [Maimonides Hospital, 1946-1950] in San Francisco used a series of balconies that echo one of the city's common denominators, i.e., the bay window. The shutter in New Orleans tends to have been used in the early French architecture, the Greek revival architecture and now in modern architecture. If one finds in a city that kind of common denominator, one should try to use it to make the new more sympathetic with the old; but such elements must be used in one's own way."

Rudolph, Paul Marvin, 1918-1997. "The Form of the City." Canadian Architect 4 (March 1959): 49-67.