University of Virginia Library

Modulus/5 Is Best UVA Magazine

By Charles Ribakoff

For a couple of years now the question
of whether Rapier or UVM is the "most
professional" University publication has
been raging back and forth between
magazine staff members and other somewhat
partial observers. I think that
question may be answered for the first time.
The answer is neither. Modulus/5, the
seldom-read magazine published annually by
students in the school of architecture has
just won that distinction. It completely
outclasses any student-run publication ever
produced here.

This issue of Modulus/5 is devoted to
urban problems and ways of dealing with
them. The contributors make up as impressive-looking
a list as one could ever expect
to see in any publication, featuring Nelson
Rockefeller, Serge Chermayeff, Brent
Brolin, and other respected leaders in their
fields; moreover, the contributors do not
merely fall back on their names. They have
contributed 9 original essays, each of which
has something exceptionally relevant to say.
Only one article, an excellent sociobiological
essay called Biological Revolution:
Man's Eleventh-Hour, has ever appeared in
print before.

While it can be argued that Modulus/5 is
not in fact a student publication since there
are no student contributors, I must confess I
would rather read an article by Nelson
Rockefeller even if he isn't a Wahoo, than
one by say, Charles Ribakoff.

Modulus/5 attacks the problems and
promise of the cities on three basic fronts,
architecturally, legally, and sociologically.
The magazine opens with articles on these
topics, leading into the main article by
Governor Nelson Rockefeller, which ties the
three major topics together. Rockefeller's
article, A Modern Federalism for an Urban
American, combines a series of proposals he
made while running for President into a
comprehensive study of city problems and
what can be done about them.

The article is not, however, merely a
collection of old campaign speeches; it is

fresh, informative, and surprisingly apolitical.
He calls for a massive federally financed
program to set up a national urbanization
policy, with great authority on local levels.
Even if the article wasn't so informative or
well written, it would be impressive enough
just to have his name in the magazine. But
both the Governor and the staff of
Modulus/5 resisted resting on a magic name,
and have in addition produced an outstanding
article.

This article sets both the tone and
calibre for most of the contributions in
Modulus/5.

Another outstanding article is a massive
discussion by several of the contributors
called "A Symposium in What Everybody
Knows It is." This becomes a sort of
seminar on urban development, and ties the
magazine together nicely.

Actually, the whole magazine forms a
sort of papyric seminar on urban development
and problems as we peer into another
decade and wonder what will happen. The
Modulus/5 seminar attempts to provide the
answers.

The only article which does not fit
within this context is the concluding article
by John Burchard, the well-known scholar
who was this year's recipient of the Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in
Architecture. His article, although well
written, seems almost reactionary when
compared to the forward-looking proposals
and observations of the present contributors.
His call to look back to history for
many of the answers, although probably
valid, seems somehow out of place in a
magazine devoted to correcting some of the
problems history has presented us with.

Other than this, the magazine sticks
together with a unity unfound (and
unsought) in previous editions of Modulus.
The magazine is technically flawless. The
graphics by David Bates are the most
original I've seen in any publication by any
school. The layout and other design aspects
are easily of the high calibre we have come
to expect of such efforts from the
Architecture school. If you are an architect
or planning to be one, this whole production
is a must.

The question is, is Modulus/5 relevant
for someone who is not an architect or city
planner? I think that, although parts may
seem too technical for untrained readers, as
a whole the magazine works quite well for
anyone who cares at all about urban
problems. The closest I've come to having
any training in architecture is having a
roommate who flunked out of the A-school
first year, and I had no trouble understanding
most of it. I enjoyed it really. I
found Modulus/5 to be an interesting and
vital educational experience. I do think that
it might be somewhat more relevant for the
untrained reader if there was an article
devoted entirely to urban sociology, but this
is a minor complaint, and not especially
valid for a publication which, after all, is
published by students in the school of
architecture. This issue is the most generally
oriented Modulus yet.

"Professionalism" in University magazines
is a term that has been wantonly
bandied about like a dead tennis ball since
the tyrannical heyday of Robert Rosen
at Rapier. It has been approached before, by
the last issue of UVM, the February issue of
Rapier, and other issues. But none have
reached quite so completely as this issue of
Modulus/5.

If you care at all about social problems
in the cities, and what the future holds for
them, and are going to buy one more
magazine this year, this is the one you
should get.