Architecture and Freedom

The only art which matters today is architecture -- specifically, public architecture. Painting, drawing, scuplture -- all have long since moved past people. But great architecture is still at a level which can be appreciated by the most well informed and the least well informed. It's an expensive form, though, which is why the most interesting work comes from where the deep pockets are.

Watching what has been happening with the Freedom Tower -- the replacement structure for the World Trade Center -- exceeds in interest any spectator sport. Which is why the NYTimes archetecture critic's appraisal of the most recent incarnation is perhaps the most important one yet written about any modern building.: "What the tower evokes, by comparison, are ancient obelisks, blown up to a preposterous scale and clad in heavy sheaths of reinforced glass - an ideal symbol for an empire enthralled with its own power."

Read the article and look at the drawings. How anyone could see this building as anything other than a threatening missile of power, I do not know.