Wow Brian, maybe I should purchase another book package from Xlibris and have you design the cover--working title: SPIELZEITGEIST WITH EZERI MESTER.
Read this this morning:
Concrete, yet not
A gray grid forms an intangible Holocaust memorial in Berlin.
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-berlin25jun25,0,3052901.story?coll=cl-calendar
As much as the real place of Ground Zero "matters," early on (although I never mentioned it publicly, I wondered whether WTC post-911 could somehow also become a virtual place, a place I guess in cyberspace, where all the feelings and all the despair and also all the hope and all the desire to rebuild and yes all the trade again could co-exist and indeed always grow together.
I guess in some respects Ground Zero is (still) more virtual than real, but it also seems that the more real Ground Zero becomes, what's virtually there then also in equal measure disappears.
I can't go anywhere away from home for more than a day, let alone for a month (thus signed copies of QBVS1 will be very rare;-). I travel well virtually though.
Back in 1976, Thomas Hine wrote an article about the then new Liberty Bell Pavilion. He basically said it was "almost all right" in that, although it could easily evoke a fast food restaurant, it nonetheless probably will serve its function well (which it actually did for almost thirty years). I remember Hine then telling the story of how the architects were very upset with him for comparing their design with a fast food joint. Unfortunately, the Liberty Bell Pavilion remained unliked by most (although I love the building, and yes it is slated to be saved and moved to a business campus in Bryn Mawr where more Mitchell/Giurgola architecture is--a little virtual museum of M/G architecture).
Will Ground Zero over time become just like Independence National Historic Park, where the site was largely erased in the 1950s, designed and rebuilt largely in the 1960s, and then largely erased again in the late 1990s, and now almost all redesigned and rebuilt again?
Ironically, the "Independence National Historic Park" that I would most like to visit now is as it was the half century before 1950. Independence Hall was apparently very much falling apart (owned then, like now, by Philadelphia, but perhaps also a reflection of Philadelphia's infamous political corruption). The block north and east of Independence Hall well full of cast-iron commerce and bustling, and a picture of the place could probably aptly fit in the dictionary beside the definition of filthy (or, more precisely, Philthydelphia). Yes, the adolescent days of Independence National Historic Park are gone and almost entirely forgotten. It's all conformist suit and tie now, and even the splash of 70s fashion is about the disappear.
In search of things past...
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=20896_0_42_0_C
Read this this morning:
Concrete, yet not
A gray grid forms an intangible Holocaust memorial in Berlin.
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-berlin25jun25,0,3052901.story?coll=cl-calendar
As much as the real place of Ground Zero "matters," early on (although I never mentioned it publicly, I wondered whether WTC post-911 could somehow also become a virtual place, a place I guess in cyberspace, where all the feelings and all the despair and also all the hope and all the desire to rebuild and yes all the trade again could co-exist and indeed always grow together.
I guess in some respects Ground Zero is (still) more virtual than real, but it also seems that the more real Ground Zero becomes, what's virtually there then also in equal measure disappears.
I can't go anywhere away from home for more than a day, let alone for a month (thus signed copies of QBVS1 will be very rare;-). I travel well virtually though.
Back in 1976, Thomas Hine wrote an article about the then new Liberty Bell Pavilion. He basically said it was "almost all right" in that, although it could easily evoke a fast food restaurant, it nonetheless probably will serve its function well (which it actually did for almost thirty years). I remember Hine then telling the story of how the architects were very upset with him for comparing their design with a fast food joint. Unfortunately, the Liberty Bell Pavilion remained unliked by most (although I love the building, and yes it is slated to be saved and moved to a business campus in Bryn Mawr where more Mitchell/Giurgola architecture is--a little virtual museum of M/G architecture).
Will Ground Zero over time become just like Independence National Historic Park, where the site was largely erased in the 1950s, designed and rebuilt largely in the 1960s, and then largely erased again in the late 1990s, and now almost all redesigned and rebuilt again?
Ironically, the "Independence National Historic Park" that I would most like to visit now is as it was the half century before 1950. Independence Hall was apparently very much falling apart (owned then, like now, by Philadelphia, but perhaps also a reflection of Philadelphia's infamous political corruption). The block north and east of Independence Hall well full of cast-iron commerce and bustling, and a picture of the place could probably aptly fit in the dictionary beside the definition of filthy (or, more precisely, Philthydelphia). Yes, the adolescent days of Independence National Historic Park are gone and almost entirely forgotten. It's all conformist suit and tie now, and even the splash of 70s fashion is about the disappear.
In search of things past...
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=20896_0_42_0_C