In a message dated 2/15/00 12:00:50 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>  the consensus politics of
>  present-day New York exhaust and discourage anything not wearing the
>  camoflage of "safe-contextual-bland".

Sharpshooter,

I agree on the motion, but differ in direction. I see the populist taking
back as an exclamation against the tearing down of complex architectural and
heritage values and replacing them with the safe-contextual-bland. Last
year's snip over J & R Music world down near the Mayor's office is an example
of a fine older building that was architecturally in context being removed to
be replaced with a nondescript glass box. If form follows fucktion then the
function of J & R is to move merchandise, obviously not to provide civic
minded grand, or even passably interesting, architecture.

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