What the F*** are they thinking?...
Walking by the Federal Center, while on my way down to the Printers Row Book Fair on Saturday, I noticed a hideous glare out of the corner of my eye. Along the bottom of the Dirkson Federal Building, some idiot has installed galvanized steel conduit.
There are several runs of conduit along the bottom of the second floor. They look glaringly out of place. I find this so very disappointing when they did such a good job of installing the granite security bollards along the sidewalk after 911. Even Mie's would have approved of the granite bollards, but I think he must be turning in his grave at this travesty.
This ugly conduit wraps around all four sides of they building. The project is clearly not yet complete, but even if they paint if black to blend in, it will never be right. I am guessing this is for security (although there are plenty of security cameras in the area). I can only hope this is a temporary installation, like the " jersey barriers" were immediately after 911, and the final solution to whatever they are installing will be more appropriate to Mie's vision of pure and simple design.
There are several runs of conduit along the bottom of the second floor. They look glaringly out of place. I find this so very disappointing when they did such a good job of installing the granite security bollards along the sidewalk after 911. Even Mie's would have approved of the granite bollards, but I think he must be turning in his grave at this travesty.
This ugly conduit wraps around all four sides of they building. The project is clearly not yet complete, but even if they paint if black to blend in, it will never be right. I am guessing this is for security (although there are plenty of security cameras in the area). I can only hope this is a temporary installation, like the " jersey barriers" were immediately after 911, and the final solution to whatever they are installing will be more appropriate to Mie's vision of pure and simple design.
posted by Devyn at 7:54 PM
1 Comments:
Found your site via Chicagoist. I like it a lot.
I haven't been by the Federal Center lately to see the conduit, but I'm not a big fan of those God-awful barriers they have in place. I dislike them so much I wrote a piece on the once wonderful space and how it's changed since 9/11. Check it out in this PDF (page 21). Ok, I still think the space is great, but they could have done a much better job...then and now.
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