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10.13.2003 posted by William 21:46 link |
No one would deny that the architecture of Columbus Circle leaves one wondering how such a prominent location was left so bereft of coherency and a sense of scale. Whenever I walk around there, I feel that the huge street circle and the unrelenting traffic dominate the block, and that the large, monolithic buildings like the Trump International Hotel and the new Time Warner Center utterly fail to connect with pedestrians. This building especially always had me shaking my head -- like a giant slice of chalk cliff, it hangs over the circle, so white and devoid of features that my gaze slides off to the side before I even realize it.
Tom Wolfe has a lengthy, two part editorial (part 1, part 2) on the history of this unusual edifice. Turns out that it drove the dominant architects of the period (1950s, 60s) crazy because it broke without hesitation from the prevailing modernist aesthetic of the day, and in some ways, foreshadowed postmodernism. It's still ugly, but, as it is about to be demolished, I hope that I will have a chance to see it again and try to view it with some sense of historical context. Time to study me some C# and .NET -- got an interview tomorrow! |
