১৭ মার্চ, ২০২৩

"It goes back to a poem by Yeats," said the architect Eric Owen Moss...

"... citing The Second Coming, which includes the line 'the centre cannot hold.' It is one of the many references he casually invokes throughout our conversation, from Moby-Dick to Dionysus and Apollo, the paintings of Gustave Courbet and Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser. I ask him about deconstructivism, the 1980s style of architecture with which he is associated, to which he responds that he prefers the term 'dialectical lyric.'... Moss may like to operate on a higher conceptual plane, but why should we care about the hermetic theories behind his big steel pile? 'That’s a fair question,' he shrugs. 'Does anybody give a shit? Is anybody listening? Maybe three people we know, one in London, one in Shanghai. But I think the effect of it is what interests me. It’s an opportunity to show there are other ways to imagine.' He narrows his eyes, as if summoning a momentous truth. 'What you see isn’t all there is to see. Can you listen for things you haven’t heard?'... Moss is right: there is more to see than we have seen. But it might be better for all of us if it remained unseen...."

৪৩টি মন্তব্য:

n.n বলেছেন...

Penis envy? Gender dysphoria? Architectural displacement?

"rapper tower"? Really?! This has diverse diversitist connotations.

What's lurking in your palette?

n.n বলেছেন...

reawaken the city skyline. But is this monstrous erection

Reawoken? Masculine pride alliance. Gender politics.

Jersey Fled বলেছেন...

Sheesh. Could that thing be any uglier?

chuck বলেছেন...

That's a lot of leather.

Laurel বলেছেন...

I can almost see the Christian ichthys symbol wrapped around the building.

I’ll bet that’d get the heathens in Cali to tear it down.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

A client paid for it. That’s all that matters.

Ryan বলেছেন...

I live close to that building and it has been fun seeing it go up. About half the people in LA think it's ugly and the other half think it's cool. I am in the second camp. The eastern terminus of the Ballona Creek bike is at its base and looking up from the path you see this menacing tower.

tommyesq বলেছেন...

Not exactly "location, location, location" by the looks of the photograph.

Old and slow বলেছেন...

More of a mid-rise, and not all that striking.

Old and slow বলেছেন...

I take back my comment. After reading the whole article, I am much more impressed by the building.

wildswan বলেছেন...

It looks like a homeless person's cart, a homeless building with its various layers held together with strings and knots and tape. You expect it to ask for money for a bus ride home.

cassandra lite বলেছেন...

Garbage by any other name would smell as putrid. "Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."

Stan Smith বলেছেন...

I love it!

Jupiter বলেছেন...

Wow. An architect who reads poetry!

Patrick Henry বলেছেন...

I'm an architect and this building is just bad. All the descriptions are post hoc attempts at rationalizing the stupidity. Take the "wrapper" off and it's a mediocre office block.

Michael K বলেছেন...

The Guardian. Enough said.

Václav Patrik Šulik বলেছেন...

The Samitaur Tower in LA looks like someone dragged one of the rusting funnels of the Titanic out of the ocean and left it on a street corner. When I was a kid, LA was gorgeous.

Assistant Village Idiot বলেছেন...

I was a Theatre (yes, we spelled it that way at W&M) major in the 1970s, and we fully believed that indulging artistic expression justified anything. I no longer believe that. Do you want us to listen for something we haven't heard before? There are other choices beyond you.

TrespassersW বলেছেন...

Dress it up in hoity-toity allusions to literature and philosophy all you want, it's still butt ugly.

Kate বলেছেন...

Anyone who quotes The Second Coming is unserious. It's the Harry Potter of poetry and has been for years.

Mikey NTH বলেছেন...

Most of the post WWII architecture I have seen is either monument to the architect's ego or a statement to his hatred of humanity.

Friendo বলেছেন...

Pretentious twat.

madAsHell বলেছেন...

Already scheduled as an urban renewal project.

Owen বলেছেন...

Hard to believe that they had to explain the Yeats quote: the poem is (or should be) part of any literate person’s basic toolkit.

Narr বলেছেন...

That's one ugly-ass building.

No doubt it will win prizes.

catter বলেছেন...

It's the only poem by Yeats that anyone ever "goes back to," and they always choose one of the same handful of lines to cite.

Louis MacNeice, anyone?

Anne in Rockwall, TX বলেছেন...

Reminds me of Rosie O'Donnell in that movie she wore the lovely bondage outfit!

Yancey Ward বলেছেন...

Not to my taste- it looks like it is held together with duct tape.

Lurker21 বলেছেন...

I'd say it looks like a poorly wrapped package held together by surgical tape or pallet straps.

Architects influenced by Yeats, Wagner, Melville, and Courbet might not be a bad thing.

Architects who talk about it are.

Lem Vibe Bandit বলেছেন...

What do you get people who have everything?

Something they may hate. At the very least, it's something they won't ignore.

hawkeyedjb বলেছেন...

Yowza! The Planning & Zoning Commission was smoking some bad doobie on the day this one came up for approval. Like some agitated kid went berserk with ductape on his brother's Lego building.

farmgirl বলেছেন...

It was my pleasure to listen to a disc jockey on the only station that comes in in the barn talk about the ugly new buildings going up in Burlington. Who is designing all of these Soviet-style, block-shaped, shit buildings? Lol I paraphrase, a tad.

I think it’s a friend’s nephew, tbh. Not afraid to invest, to go big. Yet, gitter dun, eh?

Romance is dead. They talk green smack, yet these beehive, wrapped, twisted buildings are whst their imagination comes up w/?

Waste.

Andrew বলেছেন...

The article is poorly written,too. Almost as pretentious as the building.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

It mirrors our decline... plus it's strange and ugly.

JAORE বলেছেন...

"Can you listen for things you haven’t heard?'..."

An ounce of pretension equals a pound of manure.

PM বলেছেন...

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Leora বলেছেন...

It looks like the center cannot hold and someone has wrapped it with scaffolding to keep it together.

Joe Smith বলেছেন...

First, it's not very high for a high-rise.

Second, I'd be pretty pissed off if the window of my $10M apartment was blocked by a metal belt.

YMMV...

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

recall the scene in the movie "Idiocracy" where the buildings are cracking in half and held together with giant ropes?

Ralph L বলেছেন...

It's hideous, but I think I like it, and glad it's 3000 miles away.

Heard the overture to Tannhauser on WCPE today.

Lucien বলেছেন...

The architect (Moss) was my parents’ next-door neighbor. He lived in his “708 House “ at 708 El Medio Ave.
So at least the guy is willing to eat his own dog food.

Rusty বলেছেন...

Yeah. No. It doesn't look structural. It looks like an afterthought. Big thumbs down.

n.n বলেছেন...

Misandry or envy?