Throughout all history mankind has had to build roads and bridges. They are a major part of the urban landscape. However, most people are woefully unknowledgeable about these two major components of cities.
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I have always believed that the main function of the city government and the job of the mayor and city council was to keep the roads paved and the parks clean and sewers working. Unfortunately, these are not glamorous or sexy. And our culture today disdains all that is not glamorous or not sexy. That's why I can find no one who is satisfied with these three things in any city I've visited in the past 15 years. Why, the minute a road is being fixed the people I know start bitching that the city is taking up their time by doing the construction. And did these people think that the old road was going to magically grow a new surface. It's akin to the plastic surgery which these complainers are on their way to anyway. This light blue tower has the effect of resembling a stack of boxes, each offset slightly from the ones above and below. And the tower leans slightly to one side, as if it is rushing off to an important meeting. |
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No matter how fast a road is paved people complain. Yet the vast majority of people that I speak to about this have absolutely no clue as to what is involved. They don't even know that concrete must set and cure for 24 - 48 hours. That asphalt is difficult to drive on when it's hot, so you have to wait. There are also mandates by the federal government and the state government that if sewer, water and electric lines are uncovered they must be replaced by the lastest standard features. Plus the phone company wants to get access while it's available to upgrade their system. Not to mention the cable TV providers, who are under pressure for better service. So no one is happy yet things are required to be done. In our immediate gratification society this is intolerable. This curvaceous tower in orange glass and aluminum has darker indents vertically aligned in the facade of the tower. It breaks up the sheer height of the building, yet draws the eyes upwards. . |
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Because old maps are not computerized they were far more subject to mistakes. In some cities roads might not have been redone in decades. Every time someone digs up a road, especially in the older parts of any city, it's amazing the things they find that they had no clue about. And if they find architectural or cultural artifacts? Well, federal and state law require them to bring in trained archeologists to examine the situation. So now we have about a dozen different agencies and companies all working at the same time in the same place. It's a wonder they get done so quickly. A square base that slowly morphs into a complex polygon at the crown, and slightly leaning so that it seems impatient makes a dramatic statement. The checkerboard dark and light blues of the windows and spandrels and trim keep the tower grounded in safe, childhood memories of checkers. . |
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Why do mayors and governors and city councils spend all that extra money on temprorary memorials to themselves at the edge of construction projects. All it seems to do is aggravate the people looking at the signage. And on two counts, one is the waste of money, and the other is the American propensity to not like self-aggrandizing blowhards who seem to think that merely doing their job adequately entitles them to celebrity status. This oblisk of a tower has a granite cap that would seem to float, way too heavily, upon the slender white opaque glass of the tower, which itself rises from a very burgher solid grey and black granite skirted base. . |
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I think sometimes that cities don't pave the roads to act as some sort of speed bump. I can see the raw logic in this because far too many people go speeding through the streets, given the American belief that we have a constitutional right, nay, even a duty, to go as fast as possible at all times. Moderation is not to be accepted. So, yes, I can see the logic in not paving roads. On the other hand, there's nothing to stop the repaving of roads, and then installing modern reasonable speed bumps. That would seem to lessen the cynicism that has galloped into our consideration of city goverance. Three oversized, triangle-shaped glass boxes, almost like presents, adorn this tower. Smaller versions appear at the lobby level and at the crown of the tower. About 1/3 of the way up a larger version splits the tower in two. The lower portion, if used as a parking garage, or in a mixed use building, would be set off by a sort of 'skylobby' from the top of the tower. |
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