2004.02.22
Re: WTC question
Is any architectural project ever "all said and done?"
For example, look at the 'development' of Independence Mall in Philadelphia. The mid-1940's to the mid-1960's is when this area was erased of what was there, and newly designed as a 'national park.' In the 1990s, the design of this park was deemed unsuccessful, if not outright bad. Since 1998, this area is under reconstruction. From my perspective, this ongoing metabolic (i.e., creative/destructive) pattern is a completely apt representation of what the USA is (design wise, at least) all about.
2003.02.22
apostasy is only half the story
Interesting how the Guggenheim circular rotunda with spiral ramp is a reenactment of the Vatican Museum's entrance rotunda with double helix ramps.
Yes, Wright's design (1943-59) essentially reenacts Momo's design (1929-32). Did Wright covertly sense, or did the Guggenheims overtly express a desire for a Jewish Vatican Museum? If you need proof, just look at the skylights of each place.
By the way, Momo's spiral rotunda reenacts Bramante’s earlier Vatican spiral ramp, the one that allowed the pope to travel on horseback to and from the Belvedere Court high up in the Papal Palace (which is now for the most part the Vatican Museum).
A future chronosomatic note may concern itself with the Jewish psyche and it's relationship with reenactment, e.g., the contemporary state of Israel. With the Holocaust corresponding to the transverse colon, as do all contemporary genocidal purges, and the forthcoming end of assimilation in 2194, is today's Israel the ur-metabolic state?
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