From "The Photograph Not Taken: The Night John Lennon Died" by Robert Morgan (Princeton Alumni Weekly, December 2, 2015).
I'm reading that today because of a new item in the NYT: "The Hidden Perk That New York’s Mega-Rich Now Demand/The porte cochère, a covered entry, all but disappeared decades ago. High-end buildings catering to car owners are bringing it back." That ran in the Christmas Day paper edition with the headline, "A Revived Relic Hides the Wealthy From Prying Eyes." There's no mention of Lennon or even the Dakota.
The modern porte cochère is all about invisibility, or at least providing cover from prying eyes on city streets. Celebrities, V.I.P.s and ultra-high-net-worth types, especially those who are not regulars in the gossip columns, do not want to be seen coming and going. The porte cochère is their shield from photographers, professionals and fans or mere passers-by with cellphones held high.Okay. The feeling of protection, sold to the rich, most of whom have forgotten or never knew "porte-cochère" in the context of the murder of John Lennon. To me, "porte-cochère" connotes a hiding place for a fiend lying in wait.
The NYT article is long, and it's one of the many articles that run counter to the usual leftish politics that otherwise permeate the newspaper. In the NYT, real estate drifts along in a dreamworld of envy and aspiration. What new thing can be ached for? Here it is, kids: a porte-cochère! It's the latest most retrograde amenity for your ugly urban palace. Now, scoot in there and read the NYT, which will tell you about the awful, filthy rich real estate mogul who cheated his way into the presidency.
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To me porte-cochere symbolizes French words that signify a sophistication and knowledge of luxury that I do not possess. I'm still not sure about pret a manger. I think it's the French way of saying Subway, but I'm not sure.
One reason for a porte-cochère is to keep the passengers dry upon arrival and departure.
To my eye, the French suggest pigs: porc-cochon (2 words meaning pig).
Self defense is an individual, inherent, inalienable human right. That means if I can afford a porte-cochere to protect myself while getting in and out of my transportation, from rain, local thugs, paparazzi, or just the intrusive eyes of the curious, I should be allowed to have one. And if I can't, carrying a firearm might help in some situations, too.
Imus's theory was that Chapman was after Yoko Ono and missed.
I'm as happy to Times-bash as anyone, but you should spare some condemnation for the "photographers, professionals and fans or mere passers-by with cellphones held high." Why shouldn't everyone be allowed a modicum of privacy? And just because something is "retro" doesn't make it retrograde.
Porte cochères and wine caves, the politics of envy seem to permeate the left these days. Great wealth is both sinful and enviable.
I have a pied-à-terre close to the kitchen.
Never eat anything you can't pronounce.
A little frog lingo really classes everything up, doesn't it?
Made me think of the opening credits of Rosemary's Baby.
The Dakota is built in a square-shape around a central courtyard, accessible through the arched passage of the main entrance, a porte cochère large enough that horse-drawn carriages could pass...
Director Roman Polanski filmed the exteriors for Rosemary's Baby at the Dakota...
ein überdachter Eingang - Just doesn't have the same cache, does it?
The White House and the Capitol Building have them,
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5601/14921418884_ae6e9cc073_o.jpg
https://3iqhm91wtiv21y4zza4dqwj2-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Idaho-Boise-Idaho-State-Capitol-Building-954x1440.jpg
Chez gspencer has one as well,
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmOiw_AR-39VpFMiTNHcIy4PIm_ZtYkeJJKpwGjSyVFw3RpoMbFQ&s
Whenever I see Porte, i also see potty.
Break out the Mogen David Kosher Port.
Where's mine, huh?
Where's my bloody porc-cochon?
I've always loved a porte cochère. They are not uncommon here in the South on gracious homes. On less gracious homes we call them carports.😉
"Insulation" as described by Tom wolfe. Its easier in SoCal or Beverly Hills. Gated roads, blocked access to public beaches, winding dirt roads up in the Hills, plenty of Police and private security guards.
We have a porte cochere in our building. It lets you pull your car in off the street out of the weather to unload groceries and people and passengers. Trying that on a city street sucks.
It’s not private, though. We’re fair game for the assassins.
The house where I grew up, and where my late father lived until his death, had a porte-cochere. We never used it as such; he installed concrete steps into the house, and it essentially became a porch. I remember as a child sitting out there and reading, or watching the doodlebugs dig their little pits in the sand. It was very shady, at least until the late afternoon, when the Texas sun warmed it past comfort.
As we settled down to watch the 11 o’clock news, a succession of loud detonations brought us to our feet. We ran to my studio window on 72nd and saw a black limousine in the driveway by the Dakota’s porte-cochère. Its lights were on, and a figure was lying by the open rear door. We identified John at a glance by his cowboy boots and round glasses, which reflected the bright lights of the entrance.
This and especially this NYT diagram of the murder scene, which show Lennon staggering to a room deep inside the porte-cochere would cast doubt on Morgan's ability to see what he says he saw.
"I remember seeing Mark David Chapman, Lennon’s assassin, sitting on the railing outside the porte-cochère that distinguished the Dakota as a gracious reminder of horse-and-carriage days...."
Yeah, right.
Morgan's story is a not-so-gracious reminder of horse shit.
I live in hope of being able to shout John Lennon! and then listen to a bemused silence followed by an anonymous voice saying ...come again?
On less gracious homes we call them carports.
I called the giant carport I added to the rear of my bungalow a porte cochere to help get it past the Hysteric Commission. A neighbor's 1900 Queen Anne has a side porte integrated with a low, deep, half-front porch. Gives it a FLWright feel when you walk up from the driveway.
Interesting that things from the 70s and early 80s are making a comeback in DeBlasio's NYC. Correlation?
You definitely don't see them much any longer other than the outside of hotels.
The porte-cochères in Las Vegas are each more garish then the other.
They're sine qua non with funeral homes.
"Self defense is an individual, inherent, inalienable human right. "
No doubt, and it's even deeper than that. I think most people, even gun grabbers, would find it unobjectionable even to rob an animal of it's right to self defense? Sure, we kill them, but we don't go around robbing them of their ability to defend themselves and leave them to fend for themselves. Although we are predators, and intend to eat them, we generally protect them in the mean time, even if we intend to eat them, becuase we value them. We, wrongly in my opinion, declaw cats, but at least we protect them afterward. The average person robbed of their ability to defend themselves is really protected by nothing. The cops will almost certainly not be there to stop an attack on an unarmed citizen. Overprotective gun control is like declawing cats and putting them outside in coyote country to live and raise their young. You can't then claim you value or care about them. Is there any right more basic, more essential than the right to self defense?
As with "garner", "car port" is a better term. And it's Merican!
Always enjoy seeing the word "porte cochere." I was a kid frontier-history buff when I discovered it in a book about the Alamo. The fort's main gate was in a porte cochere.
I've always thought Lennon's killer should be called a murderer, rather than an assassin. I think there is a difference. Lennon was murdered, not assassinated. He was a musician, not a political leader.
Warren proposes a 3% tax on all residents of dwellings with a porte-cochère. Take that ya uppity bastages.
Robert Morgan has my respect. Unlike many photographers, he has enough human decency to know that just because a photograph can be made, doesn't mean that it should be made.
I had a similar feeling as I began to lift my camera to photograph the Great Buddha image in Nara. Now, I am not a Buddhist, and Buddhists of any sense know that the man who became Buddha had freed himself from the horror of eternal birth and death and thus certainly was not around to get offended. I just felt that it was not appropriate behavior to do so.
Generally speaking I do not photograph people because I feel it is an invasion of privacy (even when they are alive and consenting). I don't like it done to me, and I don't do it to others.
if one reads Professor Althouse's post in order, you might conclude that Lennon should have fled from the white male Chapman since there was a 2 out of 3 chance that no good would come from the interaction. In this case, John hit the odds.
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