The New World Trade Center Is An Even Bigger Failure Now

The plan to build the most architecturally interesting tower is dead. 2 World Trade Center, if it is ever built, will not be the Bjarke Ingels design shown above.

Norman Mailer once said that modern architecture is “collective sightlessness for the species.” He included all of the 20th century greats in his assessment. I wouldn’t go that far. I think a lot of architecture becomes misguided when it attempts to make a statement on our relationships to buildings, landscapes and cites. Maybe if we just designed buildings that were appropriate for their environment and purpose, we’d have generally better architecture. There’s no need to have elaborate themes or statements. Architecture is not filmmaking. Yes, it is art and engineering. But let’s not overthink what it means.

I have architect friends and surly they will disagree with what I wrote above. So let me me make a less controversial and more obvious point: the new World Trade Center (2006-) was a failure the moment it was decided to rebuild the square footage of office space that was lost in 2001. And now, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more of a failure.

New York City will never die. But it is no longer a port town. It is no longer a manufacturing town. It has a thriving real estate industry, tourism, financial services, and still has healthy legal, advertising and marketing sectors. It also attracts film and television productions, but long lost its film production edge to Hollywood and London. Most people in the city are employed by hospitals, restaurants, banks or the city itself, which operates within a social service economy. The city spends what it collects, and when the economy goes south, the city and its people go broke.

The shift to online retail dominance has been ongoing since Amazon launched 25 years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has instantly changed some corporate HR policies to allow permeant remote work agreements. Again, New York City won’t die. But the corporate real estate landscape in the city has changed and may remain in this state for a generation or more.

We should house the homeless with all the unused square footage we have.

The Death Of American News

First, the billionaires killed Gawker. It made a lot of enemies, but Gawker was a real journalist organization. 

And now the New York Daily news is being killed by its parent corporation, following a $15 severance payment to its former chairman, accused of sexual harassment by two women.

Corporations over workers. Jobs cut in lieu of absorbing legal fees and damages. I don't think this is legal is progressive nationals like Iceland. But in the USA, and especially under the Roberts Court, this is the proper order of society.  

American cable TV news is sustainable for now. Enough older views keep that going. But the damage to US journalism is done. There are some amazing people who do investigative journalism for almost no pay. But there's no longer a healthy number of students majoring in journalism. Ten years from now, there there be any investigative journalists to speak truth to power, or even write about the Mets?




 

A Better Form Of Corporate Responsibility: Target Experiments With Wellness Clinics

To this blogger, there seem to be four levels of 'corporate responsibility' actions (also called 'social responsibility' or 'corporate citizenship.')

First, there is external communication, be it posters in a store, a tab on a corporate website, or a print advertisement, announcing what the corporation does to be more responsible. A corporation might be taking actions to consume less energy and produce less waste (Subaru). A company might be investing in wind power to off-set it's consumption of coal-based electricity (Brooklyn Brewery and the new Brooklyn Bowl come to mind).

Second, there is philanthropy, which I consider to be all donations to social, cultural and community organizations that are not designed to act as lobbyists nor expected to promote the company in return. So this would include museums, schools (public or private), hospitals, clinics, and all types of private service organizations that are designed to help people who live nearby (think rehab clinics, domestic violence centers, and career counseling and assistance groups (Dressed for Success comes to mind)). Corporations that have an advanced philanthropy structure (like the late Lehman Brothers) eventually set-up a foundation, and invite employees to contribute to it and have a say on which organizations should receive cash gifts.

Third, there is 'community outreach.' This is usually more difficult to organize than the actives above, but it involves having employees volunteer their time to any number of local activities. In New York City, one of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to have employees join a New York Cares project (cleaning parks and public gardens, running clothing drives, consulting non-profits, tutoring students, etc.).

And fourth, there is the kind of community service that might not have been asked of the company directly, but it was in a position to provide a valuable service from its location(s). That's what we're seeing from Minneapolis-based, Target. Since 2006, Target has been experimenting with affordable health clinics in both Minnesota and D.C. I was surprised to find this, and from the looks of it, they are expanding their services to include flu and hepatitis vaccinations.

When going beyond corporate citizenship lip service, a public health clinic can go a long way to prove that Target actually cares about preventive, afforable health care.