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“The architects cite the small budget in explaining their use of a conventional structure. Certain elements, however, seem to subvert the ordinary character of the archtecture. Square double-hung windows for example, recall the formal language of public housing; they are, therefore, ‘ordinary.’ At the same time some of these windows are ‘normal,’ some unusually large, depending on their relation to the street. A massive, polished granite column in the middle of the entry portal contrasts with the white ceramic tile cladding. This element and the out-scaled ‘Guild House’ sign affixed to the first-floor balcony clearly mark the entrance.

“Originally, the middle of the entrance facade was topped by a golden replica of a TV antenna, a friendly, if embarrassingly literal, symbol of elderly people’s leisure activity and an ironic variation on the decoration of classical pediments. The top floor contains the social room, indicated by a large lunette window.

“…[T]his building has become emblamatic of an architectural philosophy that tries both to embrace the conventions of the classical tradition and to be ‘ugly and ordinary.’ ”

— Stanislaus von Moos. Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown: Buildings and Projects. p282

The Creator's Words

“But in the Guild House, the symbolism of the ordinary goes further than this. The pretensions of the ‘giant order’ on the front, the symmetrical, palazzolike composition with its three monumental stories (as well as its six real stories), topped by a piece of sculpture—or almost sculpture—suggest something of the heroic and original. It is true that in this case the heroic and original facade is somewhat ironical, but it is this juxtaposition of contrasting symbols—the appliqué of one order of symbols on another—that constitutes for us the decorated shed. This is what makes Guild House an architect’s decorated shed—not architecture without architects.

“The purest decorated shed would be some form of conventional systems-building shelter that corresponds closely to the space, structure, and program requirements of the architecture, and upon which is laid a contrasting—and if in the nature of the circumstances, contradictory—decoration. In Guild House the ornamental-symbolic elements are more or less appliqué: The planes and stripes of white brick are appliqué; the street facade through its disengagement at the top corners implies its separation from the bulk of the shed at the front. (This quality also implies continuity, and therefore unity, with the street line of facades of the other older, nonfreestanding buildings on each side.) The symbolism of the decoration happens to be ugly and ordinary with a dash of ironic heroic and original, and the shed is straight ugly and ordinary, though in its brick and windows it is symbolic too.…”

— Robert Venturi. from Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas. p70.