symbolism in architecture is something I want to discuss further, even under a new thread. Ground Zero is a good context for this too, but so is the whole issue of GloMo.
yeah, of note is that the only two 'critical' reviews/critiques of the GZ maldevelopment was first by Gov. Rudy Guiliani, and lastly by Donald Trump, both optioning a 'memorial park' as a best way forward. their observations were/are the most real, most biting, and most accurate as they were able to use their power and influence to weigh-in with a public critique. those of us who really could devastate the existing bullshit are shut-out of the conversation as the architects cannot compete fairly. they are buffered by the entire establishment, and the GZ is nothing more than an academic exercise in architectural design which most any design school critic would have torn up and thrown off the roof of the school by now. it is just laughable. (except that, these are the teachers who are making doing the work so critiques do not matter, and how can one critique another if all are basically playing off the same gambit, leveraging architectural truth for cultural power, however spectacularly delusional- ahh- thus is greatness!). libeskind is the architecture, childs is the skyscraper, gehry is the performance, snohnetta (sp) is the culture, calatrava is the transportation, ad absurdum, ad finity, arad the memorial, ergo sum, walker the landscape. traitorous to the field, study, inquiry, truth of architecture, its substance, and legitimacy. instead, in the guise of art, ideological development seeks to triumph under the guise of stupendous ignorance and profane agendas that are so much less than what is necessary for the architecture to breath its life, genius loci, anew.
they're bastards. no other way to put it. opportunistic bastards, corporate university hacks who make 'buildings.' damn them one and all. architecture must conquer this idiocy, and transcend the existing monument to death. and architects who know how to get it done should be given an opportunity to show other ways, besides those that are sanctioned by the autocrats who hold all the chips. there is a better way, but it is being censored, ignored, mocked. and in its place stands the falseness of celebrity, the shallowness of utopic ideology, and the heartlessnss of greed and deceptive self-interest with money, power, and influence substituting for a beloved memorial park.