Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Observations

In the May 17th issue of The New Yorker, Paul Goldberger writes about One Goldman Sachs Plaza, headquarters for the new Goldman Sachs. At forty three stories and two city blocks, "the building appears to have been designed in the hope of rendering the company invisible." I should add here that the architect was Henry Cobb whose last skyscraper was Boston's John Hancock building.

Having just published my first poetry collection, Haberdasher's Daughter (Antrim House Books), I was particulary amused by Goldberger's use of a sartorial metaphor for the building:

" The new headquarters is architecture as a well-tailored suit. From a distance, the building looks utterly unexceptional, but as you get closer your eye picks up signs of quality --- the drape, as it were, and the stitching. Cobb's facade of clear, colorless glass and bands of shiny steel is completely flat, and this two dimensionality might have been dull were it not for the subtle shift of proportions in the quiet plaid pattern of the steel grid as it ascends. By the time you are close enough to touch this architectural garment, you can tell that a lot of money has been spent."

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