M. Blowhard provides a
nice Witold Rybczynski quote about what it's like these days to walk down 54th St.:
The effect of 196 unrelieved feet of corrugated aluminum is extremely unpleasant. It looks like the sort of temporary hoarding that is used to keep people from falling into an excavation at a building site, but without the posters and fliers.
The worry I have with using that partricular quote from Rybczynski is that some people might think he is suggesting (unless they read the whole piece) that if MOMA had simply offered a nicer-looking wall -- maybe some cool, individually hand-painted tiles -- then it would be OK.
Wrong.
In fact the wall is actually -- no surprise -- a very attractive piece of matter as a wall. To my eye -- and I walked right beside it -- the wall doesn't even remotely look like a construction fence as it is very smooth and clean and a first-class piece of construction. The only problem is that it's a bad location for a solid, impermeable, view-blocking wall. It degrades an interesting street. No matter how well the wall looks and no matter how well-constructed, it's a wall. And I believe that is what Witold believes as well and that particular quote shouldn't lead anyone to think that a bad idea even when well-executed becomes a good idea.
Right on! When are people going to learn: big long walls are menacing.
Posted by: c. | Apr 12, 2005 at 11:46 AM