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Ralph Borland's "Suited for Subversion" prototype (2001), meant to protect protesters from cops' batons, at MoMA.
(Photo: Ralph Borland/Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) |
Ground zero is the culmination of an ongoing series of disappointments. Great buildings still rise here, but rarely when or where it really counts. Through architecture a city dreams. What’s New York dreaming about? The safely conventional. What a missed chance Columbus Circle represents: We deserved better than just another slickly competent corporate face. Or, what about the great swath of open ground along the Hudson in the Fifties and Sixties—one of the great architectural opportunities in the world. We got more Trump. (Is there no end to Trump mediocrity?) In New York, unless things begin to change soon, our period will be remembered as mainly one of preservation, not creation, a worthy achievement unworthy of this city. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s desire to move Penn Station into the Farley Post Office was a brilliant act of contrition, a cultural apology for the destruction of the old railroad station. But it’s also historically safe, revivalist in nature, the architectural equivalent of reviving a Broadway chestnut. The idea lacks fire, including creatively destructive fire. No one is arguing for a smashing new station—one as radiant, in a new way, as the earlier building.
Through architecture a city dreams. What’s New York dreaming about? The safely conventional.
Today, people like to acknowledge—as if nothing could possibly be done about it—that New York is architecturally second-rate. You know, the developers, the regulations, the costs, the community groups . . . blah, blah, blah. The interesting question is, Why does the political culture tolerate this state of affairs? New York is an overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic city. The liberal tradition historically was not concerned only with safety; it also broke apart old structures of thought and advanced new ideas. The Democrats, including the Democrat-Republican mayor, could end this cultural paralysis. But they don’t. They never will. It’s too scary.
Of course, things could be worse. (After seeing “SAFE,” you should visit the Arms and Armor Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to gain some perspective on the topic of getting safely wrapped up.) And a charismatic mayor could, I suppose, bring a larger drama to the city. Just as a person of great wealth could commission an astonishing building that is not by Frank Gehry, yoga could become unfashionable, and Donald Trump could move to Beijing. At least New York has not succumbed to the Hummer, the most celebrated piece of pop armor. The Hummer is a castle on wheels, every little boy’s illusion of invincibility. But it is missing from “SAFE,” and even New York’s pimps
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