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January 2, 2010
And he says architecture has a vacant stare?
I think the author of this critique of the latest tallest building in the world is looking a little dim himself.
But the extent to which the building had to battle worries about the wisdom of its construction even before it was finished -- the way it seemed doomed, at least in financial terms, while it was still going up -- may be unique in the history of skyscraper design. In that sense it seems impossible to write about the Burj Dubai without at least mentioning the Tower of Babel, which also, if the biblical story and various historical sketches are to be believed, combined a tapering, corkscrew design with heaps of overconfidence.
Luckily, someone in the comment section already pounced and reminded him of the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center towers - both completed as spectacularly empty monuments.
The long-term memory (let alone knowledge of History) of the average journalist or stock trader never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps it is because they're all too young? Whenever I read one of those paragraph openers about "none of the traders active today remember a downturn like this" I realize that I am not only middle aged but that I also have a reasonably detailed memory of my childhood - I remember stagflation, inflation, and other flations. And then I heard stories about the Depression.
Please, people - learn your field before you use the phrase "unique in the history of...." There is nothing particularly new under the Sun.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at January 2, 2010 8:35 AM