Richard Moreau
Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:23:12 -0800
In colonial (U.S.) days church steeples were the tallest, so people could find them over (New England) hill and dale.
Then City Hall, at least in Philadelphia, was the tallest by 'gentlemen's' agreement, speaking to the unifying power of a government of the people, for the people and by the people.
The Empire State Building arguably spoke to the power of television.The Sears (now Willis?) Tower spoke to the power of retail and consumption. (Willis is a law firm? Hmm.)
In Philadelphia, Liberty Place was eventually built, its main tenant being an insurance company, Cigna, speaking to the economic needs of the community to promote business through real estate development in a city that hadn't previously been very competitive in the national marketplace. (And shouldn't an insurance company's money be going to cover people in times of need, not building fancy buildings?)
The World Trade Center and nearly 3000 of its occupants were obliterated by an organization that uses violence and fear to get what it wants. Not to mention the damage done to the headquarters of arguably the most powerful military in the world.
Now we have Comcast (& soon NBC-Universal) with the tallest building in town, speaking to the rise (and consolidation) of the media, the internet, and communication more generally.
We're seeing internet giant Google take on China in a way that few countries have dared, and risk-taking big banks and mortgage companies threaten national and international economies, costing people their homes, jobs, and health care. HUP continues to build highly specialized and expensive facilities on land that had housed a Civic Center and a hospital for the poor. (While the Convention - not Civic - Center expansion, and the now nearly empty Gallery and, before that, the "Chinese Wall" strangles Chinatown. Penn Center office buildings symbolically and literally send rail travel under ground. Penn builds a park (for now) and mixed use buildings on land that was used by an organization that delivers snail mail by hand, door to door - something that may soon seem like the Pony Express does to us now. Home Depot controls the world lumber market. A McDonald's hamburger is said to cost an acre of rain forest (so the cattle can graze.) A developer of what we know not yet, tears down a shelter for survivors of domestic violence and plows under a community garden in our own neighborhood so the land can sit unused behind a cyclone fence until when? Market conditions improve? We get so tired of the empty lot that we'll accept any building / use instead?
Okay, I'm straying from my point about the height of a building speaking to its owner's power; maybe now it's more about the number of buildings? Or maybe my argument should be more about land use and power. But now an even taller building, the tallest in the U.S., I think, is planned for 18th and Arch, though I don't know who its main tenant will be. Anyone want to take a guess as to who the next powerful force in our culture will be? Maybe that's where one of the casinos will end up, since we seem to have lost so much of our faith in hard work bearing fruitful results; now we have to rely on luck and chance. (Or am I just channeling my feelings about Haiti.)
Tying this back to Glenn's post, the Supreme Court is a rather short building. Hmm.
I should add too that I say some of this with judgment, but some without, just as observation. Who knows, maybe HUP will discover a cure for cancer on the former site of Philadelphia General Hospital. Maybe a free art museum will end up at 43rd and Baltimore? People point to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism, something I admire, as being due to the otherwise terrible circumstances of China's invasion and takeover. In other words, it's never easy to predict the outcome of a change or an action. But I find it always interesting, like some find the weather to be. Maybe, however, it's all just distraction and Babel.
- Ricky On Jan 22, 2010, at 9:33 AM, Glenn moyer <glen...@earthlink.net> wrote:
Well it's official now, corporatocracy. Those who study totalitarian shifts point out that once the "point of no return" is crossed, things move rapidly. Being an optimist by nature, I had been holding on to hope.Those who only get information through corporate media probably didn't know that this was coming to the corporate court. This was the big one!http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20100122_Justices_shift_campaign-finance_rules.html http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/americandebate/Nary_a_peep_of_protest.html ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
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