Big Empty BOX???

[phansford]

This post is not about architecture and should be moved to the Fireside section by the Administrator where politics are to be discussed.

[Donald]

Who made you the police of political prose...this is about an architect who was deceived by his most corrupt client of his career.

Take a look at the web site and judge for yourself before whining you insipcrybaby.

[Richard Haut]

Donald, it's a library.

surely you aren't frightened of a library, are you ? It's full of books that not many people will read. If you want Clinton to be ignored, I can hardly think of anything better.

(See how nice I'm being - I've not even asked how big the Dubya library would be.)

[Donald]

Yes RH, calm down...it is in fact a library of lies and then some...apparently there are exhibits too you see, and one exhibit characterizes Clinton's impeachment this way: "The impeachment battle was not about the Constitution or the rule of law, but was instead a quest for power that the president's opponents could not win at the ballot box." Oh really? That sounds so neat and tidy, doesn't it? The problem is, it's a lie. The impeachment battle was about a sitting president of the United States who was obviously lying under oath.

I wonder how the Polshek Partners programmed this piece of work in setting the GOALS, gathering the FACTS, creating the CONCEPT and identifying the $165,000,000 NEEDS for such an empty box.

Take another look at it from the NPR perspective and see how this big box might be of full of books with empty thoughts:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4175550

[Richard Haut]

So how many people will both visit the Bubba-Library and actually read something other than the signs that say "entrance" or "toilets" ?

Ten million ? Fifty million ? Or about 37 in a good week ?

Donald, you should be delighted.

there is no better way to keep something quiet than to tell people that they can go there and look it up for themselves - they won't.

[Donald]

I like the big "M" truss on the short side of the empty box... I wonder what Monica thinks of it? So clever of those structural engineers...don't you think?

[phansford]

[Richard Haut]

"you should not generalize about Americans"

really ?

since Bush got back in - and since you are a democracy - your nation has confirmed that as a democratic nation you support what Bush has done and apparently intends to continue doing. That is certainly the way that he took it.

suppose he cheated (possibly for a second time) ? Then you - Americans - let him.

as Donald said some time ago on this forum "freedom is not free".

why do you think that so many people around the world were concerned with the election ? Because Kerry was so wonderful ? Because America had the chance to step back from the brink - and failed. That brink is a world war.

[phansford]

I am glad you found my comments on the Presidential library interesting. Yes I too think the idea of complexity and contradiction in the architecture attempting to reflect Clinton's personality was a stroke of artistic genisus.

Richard - you must be a blast at cocktail parties. Bush won the election. I am not happy. I disagree with alot of his policies. But I am proud to be an American. My family escaped the religous and feudal economic tryany of Europe over 250 years ago. But they returned to make sure France was free from foreign powers (my Grandfather- WWI and Father-WWII). Can you honestly say the same or did you and yours drop your rifle and run? My family has lost members to return and protect your freedom that you and yours did not even try to protect. Your attitude is disgusting, but you are free to say because of America. That must really tick you off.

[Richard Haut]

Did my relatives drop the rifle and run ? No, they did not.

You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that I am French - a country where, surprisingly, antiamericanism doesn't actually exist.

I am British.

Don't the Brits like you ? Go there and try opening your mouth .....

[Donald]

Yes the library is a thing of great beauty and will ultimately be a joy forever for those in rose colored glasses that want to cross the "bridge to the 21st century"...such lame metaphor...genius it is not.

Complexity - Where? ......and the only thing this building Contradictions is the notion of constructing a memorial landmark building to house the collection of a respected president?

[phansford]

Then as a Brit, you must be as upset with Tony Blair et al as I am with Bush et al. I mean Colin Powell sold his soul!!.

All this aside, because I agreed with you on many points - see my post under the pivotal thread- , What is a Brit doing in Nice, France? Are you practicing for an international firm, or is it your own firm? Can you explain the competition newsletter? Is it on-line?

[phansford]

Seems we are running this conversation on two different threads. Still let me know about the Newletter. Are there other articles in it? BTW - I normally read or try to read the International Herald Tribune online. What other englsh language newspapers do you recommend. I am looking for stuff from both the right and the left.

[Richard Haut]

I totally agree about Blair - more than there is space here to say.

I was born and brought up in Britain, living there close on half a century. It was turning into something that I did not recognise - except from history books. What I tried to do was not seeming to help change things.

So I left.

My service is - thanks to the US invention of the internet - something which I can operate from here, or indeed anywhere.

It operates only as a subscription service by email at the moment (the one penalty of the leaving th UK was that the weekly magazine version would have been too slow to produce from here - whatever the good points of France, the French postal service keeps the spirit of medievalism alive).

I cover over three thousand projects a year for which architects can apply. Some are what I would call ordinary - schools, health centres, etc., but others are what makes architecture what it is. New airports and railways stations, recently a museum on "the spirit of Lalique", redeveloping one single gallery in the Louvre just to house the Mona Lisa (the BBC produced a radio drama about that, though M.L. did seem to complain a lot about having her home changed), urban design, exhibitions.

Some are quite small - such as a visitors' centre for a site of paleolithic sculptures (Celtic Goddess site), through to the big opera houses or Parliament buildings.

I am working on a site about some of the projects and the results (article coming out in the Architects' Journal on Guarini's Sindone Chapel next month).

Mind you, as I said to an architect friend who was down here recently, the one thing that I don't want to be is an architectural critic - and with far more emotion and sincerity than I felt was called for he said "thank you, Richard, thank you." I can't imagine what he meant, can you ?

[phansford]

Thank you. I found the webpage for subscriptions. I look forward to the full website. I think you could have a secure area for subscribers and a public area that would be an on-line gallery of projects.

Keep us informed.