New York City just unveiled the plan for the new Fascism Tower--oh, sorry, Freedom Tower--that will once again disrupt the balance of the lower Manhattan skyline and give terrorists everywhere a goal to destroy. Yay! Just what we needed. Our Republican mayor and governor think the design for the "1776" foot tall building--the World's Tallest, until it's destroyed--is super-grand. The architect, Daniel Libeskind, and the developer, Larry Silverstein, agreed on the height of the building, just not the design and usage of the top 30 (largely ornamental) floors. Somehow we have got to adjust our notion that pride and patriotism always means a monster phallus. According to press accounts Libeskind "compromised" with Silverstein's architect on the final design (the latter wants bird-slaughtering, supposedly power-generating windmills on the top floors): now, our only hope is that Libeskind plans to pull a Howard Roark and will blow up the building in the dead of night once it's completed (Roark, a character in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, did that after a developer incorrectly completed his design.*) Also, this is all contingent on shyster Larry getting the double payment he is seeking from insurance companies for his claim that two buildings were destroyed on 9/11. He needs 7 billion, not 3.5, to complete the project. C'mon, courts!
 UPDATE: NY Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp gets paid the big bucks to write meaningless phrases. Here's the essence of his lead today about the newly unveiled World Trade Center design: "Sir, what you have produced is, if I may say so, a...piece of architecture."
Here's what they'd get if they hired me:
"Pointing its taloned middle finger at the sky, the new design says, 'Fuck you, we need a big building complex downtown and this is what you're going to get.' The most intriguing aspect of the project is that it is both fascist--with menacing sharp angles and a haughty disdain for the scale of the surrounding buildings--and treehugging, with the top floors devoted to power generation by wind. The latter is really just a sop to environmental sentiment, however--besides killing untold numbers of birds, the giant fans will only supply a portion of the building's greedy power suckage." Times editors: "Tom, what you've written here is a...piece of criticism. Now, get out." *UPDATE 2/DISCLAIMER: In the movie version of The Fountainhead, no one dies when Roark blows up his own building. He is put on trial for a property crime, makes a stirring speech to the jury about the glories of American individualism, and is acquitted.
im thinking a 1776' solid acrylic tower would be fine. lit from below. no tenants. perhaps some embedded relics like ants in amber.
I've heard people complain about windpower before because of birds, but never bothered to check it out till now. It turns out to be a hot button topic. (http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/4351).
Are they going to put an observation deckup there too?
Will the windmills blow out the eternal hanging candle memorial thingies?
There's a lot of bird meat falling to the ground under the windmill farms in the California coastal range. Bad for birds, but probably a windfall (har har) for the foxes and coyotes. I don't think that bits of bird flesh raining from the sky will be looked upon as favorably by NYkers.
The name "Freedom Tower", as in "the terr-ists hate freedom", makes my flesh crawl. The models of the building are less repellent than the name, but that's not exactly an endorsement.
Agreed on Freedom Tower, freedom fries, and the rest. Uggh.
Thanks for that Payne link, Joe. For the record, I do support wind power, just not on 1776 story buildings. The old WTC was a great migratory bird killer without giant sucking turbines way up in the sky. Just as our feathered friends are catching a break, Larry "2 Payments" Silverstein reaches up to fricassee them en masse. As Bill has been discussing over on his page, the power benefits vs public relations benefits of the turbines are also debatable.
On this same topic, Bill used to work in the old WTC, and a while back posted this announcement from building management about turning off lights to avoid attracting migrating birds. Alex said something on this topic, too, but I can't find it.
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New York City just unveiled the plan for the new Fascism Tower--oh, sorry, Freedom Tower--that will once again disrupt the balance of the lower Manhattan skyline and give terrorists everywhere a goal to destroy. Yay! Just what we needed. Our Republican mayor and governor think the design for the "1776" foot tall building--the World's Tallest, until it's destroyed--is super-grand. The architect, Daniel Libeskind, and the developer, Larry Silverstein, agreed on the height of the building, just not the design and usage of the top 30 (largely ornamental) floors. Somehow we have got to adjust our notion that pride and patriotism always means a monster phallus.
According to press accounts Libeskind "compromised" with Silverstein's architect on the final design (the latter wants bird-slaughtering, supposedly power-generating windmills on the top floors): now, our only hope is that Libeskind plans to pull a Howard Roark and will blow up the building in the dead of night once it's completed (Roark, a character in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, did that after a developer incorrectly completed his design.*) Also, this is all contingent on shyster Larry getting the double payment he is seeking from insurance companies for his claim that two buildings were destroyed on 9/11. He needs 7 billion, not 3.5, to complete the project. C'mon, courts!
UPDATE: NY Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp gets paid the big bucks to write meaningless phrases. Here's the essence of his lead today about the newly unveiled World Trade Center design: "Sir, what you have produced is, if I may say so, a...piece of architecture."
Here's what they'd get if they hired me:
"Pointing its taloned middle finger at the sky, the new design says, 'Fuck you, we need a big building complex downtown and this is what you're going to get.' The most intriguing aspect of the project is that it is both fascist--with menacing sharp angles and a haughty disdain for the scale of the surrounding buildings--and treehugging, with the top floors devoted to power generation by wind. The latter is really just a sop to environmental sentiment, however--besides killing untold numbers of birds, the giant fans will only supply a portion of the building's greedy power suckage."
Times editors: "Tom, what you've written here is a...piece of criticism. Now, get out."
*UPDATE 2/DISCLAIMER: In the movie version of The Fountainhead, no one dies when Roark blows up his own building. He is put on trial for a property crime, makes a stirring speech to the jury about the glories of American individualism, and is acquitted.- tom moody 12-19-2003 11:37 pm
im thinking a 1776' solid acrylic tower would be fine. lit from below. no tenants. perhaps some embedded relics like ants in amber.
- bill 12-20-2003 8:52 pm
I've heard people complain about windpower before because of birds, but never bothered to check it out till now. It turns out to be a hot button topic. (http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/4351).
Are they going to put an observation deckup there too?
Will the windmills blow out the eternal hanging candle memorial thingies?
- joester (guest) 12-22-2003 9:07 am
There's a lot of bird meat falling to the ground under the windmill farms in the California coastal range. Bad for birds, but probably a windfall (har har) for the foxes and coyotes. I don't think that bits of bird flesh raining from the sky will be looked upon as favorably by NYkers.
The name "Freedom Tower", as in "the terr-ists hate freedom", makes my flesh crawl. The models of the building are less repellent than the name, but that's not exactly an endorsement.
- mark 12-22-2003 9:56 am
Agreed on Freedom Tower, freedom fries, and the rest. Uggh.
Thanks for that Payne link, Joe. For the record, I do support wind power, just not on 1776 story buildings. The old WTC was a great migratory bird killer without giant sucking turbines way up in the sky. Just as our feathered friends are catching a break, Larry "2 Payments" Silverstein reaches up to fricassee them en masse. As Bill has been discussing over on his page, the power benefits vs public relations benefits of the turbines are also debatable.
On this same topic, Bill used to work in the old WTC, and a while back posted this announcement from building management about turning off lights to avoid attracting migrating birds. Alex said something on this topic, too, but I can't find it.
- tom moody 12-22-2003 10:04 am