{"id":2628,"date":"2010-05-26T23:07:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T06:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/?p=2628"},"modified":"2010-05-26T23:07:30","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T06:07:30","slug":"gertrude-stein-might-agree-ectomy-is-an-ectomy-is-an-ectomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/2010\/05\/26\/gertrude-stein-might-agree-ectomy-is-an-ectomy-is-an-ectomy\/","title":{"rendered":"Gertrude Stein might agree: -ectomy is an ectomy is an ectomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

File this one<\/a> under “why not?”<\/p>\n

It’s not a new item, but it made me go wow…<\/em><\/p>\n

A while back, I read that Vornado<\/a> Realty<\/a> Trust<\/a> left a big hole in Boston’s Downtown Crossing<\/a> …after demolishing Filene’s Basement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That was “wow” #1 (not a good wow): Gertrude Stein smelled a rat when she wrote, “there is no there there,” which I’m freely marrying to her “rose is a rose is a rose” to say that “-ectomy<\/a>” is an ectomy …is an ectomy …is an ectomy.<\/p>\n

In another context, we might easily just call it a hatchet job.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Realize, dear reader, that Filene’s Basement<\/a> was surmounted by a venerable piece of architecture, … namely Filene’s<\/a>. (… ^Illustrated above)<\/p>\n

Alright, I admit to an attachment to traditional (old) department store architecture: it’s a built form<\/a> that has tons of embedded<\/strong> intelligence<\/em><\/a>, and yep, it’s one of those built forms that, once you tear it down, it’s gone. And it takes a huge chunk of civic and urban history with it.<\/p>\n

But alright, let’s move on: since it is already torn down – and the new project is not being built – at least (for the love of it all) put something interesting and striking (and bloody useful!) in its place (even temporarily).<\/p>\n

Like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Arthur Dent, faced by a Vogon destroyer, might wonder, “what the hell is that?” – but you, dear reader, can rest easy knowing that it’s made-by-humans<\/span> it could be<\/strong><\/span> made by humans (if, that is, it weren’t left unbuilt, and if, that is, humans could overcome their imagination-deficit). What is it? Bio-Fuel Growing Eco Pods [to] Rejuvenate Stalled Boston Project<\/a> (Sept. 2009).<\/p>\n

One can dream. In the waking interim (knowing it’s not gonna happen), some juicy links to the doings of Vornado (and its CEO Steven Roth):<\/p>\n

Mayor Battles Vornado in Boston<\/a><\/p>\n

Downtown Crossing’s money pit<\/a><\/p>\n

Menino threatens to oust Filene\u2019s site developer<\/a><\/p>\n

Boston Mayor Blasts Vornado\u2019s Roth Over \u2018Blight\u2019 Speech<\/a><\/p>\n

Is City Truly Wise to Vornado\u2019s Roth Deliberately Stalling Filene\u2019s?<\/a><\/p>\n

Curbed New York’s articles tagged “Vornado”<\/a><\/p>\n

All in all, if you read through those links you’ll see that Steven Roth and Vornado have done a heck of a job<\/a> – the company has given development a very very bad name. That by itself should get them a black eye. That this company has taken out department stores (like Filene’s and Alexander’s) and the social history they embody makes it even worse.<\/p>\n

PS: I was going to write a “part 2” to last night’s post<\/a> about Salim Jiwa’s talk at Social Media Club Victoria. It will have to wait until a later date – I want to gather my thoughts about this, and have had no time to do so today.<\/h4>\n

\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vornado Realty Trust destroyed Boston’s key downtown area. Damage done (courtesy of Vornado), are innovative repair options even possible?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1061,1419,1795,2233,2164,1897],"tags":[412,910,15910,15909],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-cities","category-heritage","category-land_use","category-real_estate","category-scandal","tag-boston","tag-development","tag-filenes","tag-vornado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2651,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/yulelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}