Where feminine hygiene is no laughing matter ...Rick's Cafe Americain

I think it might be a long time before I decide if I like the structure or not.  I still don’t have a “feel” for it.  When it was revealed this morning live on New York 1, the lighting on the 12 foot model was so bad that it was impossible to get much of sense of the design.  My immediate impression was that it looked like a rectangle with a pointy thing arising out of one corner (i.e., not so impressive); however, I think the bad lighting obscured the more subtle nature of the design.  For example, the building torques and tapers as it rises to the sky and much of the upper part of the building is lattice work that is supposed to have a cable that invokes the Brooklyn Bridge.  None of the models I have seen so far really demonstrates any of these features, however, so I wonder to what degree the actual building will.

Apparently, the building will incorporate wind turbines in the upper lattice work to capture the wind and create electricity for the building.  I think this is an excellent idea, I just hope that it is real and not a publicity stunt that will ultimately generate only a negligible amount of energy.

Anybody else think the name “Freedom Tower” is cheesy.  I don’t have a better suggestion, but I don’t like that name.

I heard on the radio that, rather than break ground on, oh let’s pick a random date, September 11, 2004, they will instead break ground a week-and-a-half earlier to coincide with the Republican National Convention.  I hope this is not true.  It was also suggested that Pataki wants the steel “topped off” by fall 2006, because that is when he will be running against Hilary for Senate.

On a personal note, when I was walking to work today and listening to a critic on the radio describe David Childs’ (one of the two designers) other two buildings in Manhattan, I realized I was looking at one of them – the pencil shaped building on 8th Ave. in the lower 50’s that most lawyers know as being the home of Cravath.  That was a great New York moment.  I agree with the commentator that it is not a particularly impressive building (Childs’ other Manhattan building is the new Time Warner Center).

I think it might be a long time before I decide if I like the structure or not.  I still don’t have a “feel” for it.  When it was revealed this morning live on New York 1, the lighting on the 12 foot model was so bad that it was impossible to get much of sense of the design.  My immediate impression was that it looked like a rectangle with a pointy thing arising out of one corner (i.e., not so impressive); however, I think the bad lighting obscured the more subtle nature of the design.  For example, the building torques and tapers as it rises to the sky and much of the upper part of the building is lattice work that is supposed to have a cable that invokes the Brooklyn Bridge.  None of the models I have seen so far really demonstrates any of these features, however, so I wonder to what degree the actual building will.

Apparently, the building will incorporate wind turbines in the upper lattice work to capture the wind and create electricity for the building.  I think this is an excellent idea, I just hope that it is real and not a publicity stunt that will ultimately generate only a negligible amount of energy.

Anybody else think the name “Freedom Tower” is cheesy.  I don’t have a better suggestion, but I don’t like that name.

I heard on the radio that, rather than break ground on, oh let’s pick a random date, September 11, 2004, they will instead break ground a week-and-a-half earlier to coincide with the Republican National Convention.  I hope this is not true.  It was also suggested that Pataki wants the steel “topped off” by fall 2006, because that is when he will be running against Hilary for Senate.

On a personal note, when I was walking to work today and listening to a critic on the radio describe David Childs’ (one of the two designers) other two buildings in Manhattan, I realized I was looking at one of them – the pencil shaped building on 8th Ave. in the lower 50’s that most lawyers know as being the home of Cravath.  That was a great New York moment.  I agree with the commentator that it is not a particularly impressive building (Childs’ other Manhattan building is the new Time Warner Center).