Big Surprise - The Times Doesn't Like Freedom Tower
Here is an article by the New York Times' architecture critic about the new design for Freedom Tower, the 1776-ft. building that will be erected on Ground Zero to replace the World Trade Center's twin towers. Big surprise... he doesn't like it. But dig the not-so-subtle logic:
1. America post-9/11 (read "President Bush's America") has become an oppressive, closed society, and the design for Freedom Tower reflects that oppression.
"Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project is a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world."
"For better or worse, it will be seen by the world as a chilling expression of how the United States is reshaping its identity in a post-Sept. 11 context."
2. President Bush's America is like Hitler's Germany.
"But if this is a potentially fascinating work of architecture, it is, sadly, fascinating in the way that Albert Speer's architectural nightmares were fascinating - as expressions of the values of a particular time and era. The Freedom Tower embodies, in its way, a world shaped by fear."
3. America, like Hitler's Germany, is an aggressive militaristic country seeking empire, and, like the Third Reich, is doomed.
"What the tower evokes, by comparison, are ancient obelisks, blown up to a preposterous scale and clad in heavy sheaths of reinforced glass - an ideal symbol for an empire enthralled with its own power, and unaware that it is fading."
4. It's the fault of Republicans.
"All of this could be more easily forgiven if it were simply a result of bad design. But ground zero is not really being shaped by architects. It is being shaped by politicians.... the quality of the master plan has been sacrificed to the governor's [New York's RINO Governor George Pataki] insistence on preserving hollow symbolic gestures."
Cute, huh? Don't these guys know any other tunes? Sheeesh!
1. America post-9/11 (read "President Bush's America") has become an oppressive, closed society, and the design for Freedom Tower reflects that oppression.
"Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project is a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world."
"For better or worse, it will be seen by the world as a chilling expression of how the United States is reshaping its identity in a post-Sept. 11 context."
2. President Bush's America is like Hitler's Germany.
"But if this is a potentially fascinating work of architecture, it is, sadly, fascinating in the way that Albert Speer's architectural nightmares were fascinating - as expressions of the values of a particular time and era. The Freedom Tower embodies, in its way, a world shaped by fear."
3. America, like Hitler's Germany, is an aggressive militaristic country seeking empire, and, like the Third Reich, is doomed.
"What the tower evokes, by comparison, are ancient obelisks, blown up to a preposterous scale and clad in heavy sheaths of reinforced glass - an ideal symbol for an empire enthralled with its own power, and unaware that it is fading."
4. It's the fault of Republicans.
"All of this could be more easily forgiven if it were simply a result of bad design. But ground zero is not really being shaped by architects. It is being shaped by politicians.... the quality of the master plan has been sacrificed to the governor's [New York's RINO Governor George Pataki] insistence on preserving hollow symbolic gestures."
Cute, huh? Don't these guys know any other tunes? Sheeesh!
posted by PDB at 6:17 AM
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