December 2021 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold the proposed Affirmation Tower by Brit architect Sir David Adjaye for a site adjacent to the Javits Convention Center in New York City. At 1,663 feet, it would be the new tallest building in the city, surpassing the Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) by 295 feet and the Empire State Building by 413 feet. But, what is being affirmed here exactly? To quote the character Inigo Montoya from the movie The Princess Bride: “I do not think it means what you think it means.” I think Sir David is affirming every misunderstanding about what the city requires in the way of buildings going forward.

New York does not require any more skyscrapers. That type of building is obsolete. There are too many of them now — including scores of office towers that are 30-percent-or-less occupied these days, due to Covid-19 and the new mode of working-from-home, now firmly established as a corporate money-saver. The destiny of these buildings is a humongous problem for the city. At those ruinous occupancy rates, the reduced revenue cannot pay for taxes, mortgage-financing, and maintenance. The city has also seen scores of hotels go out of business as tourist industry revenue dropped from $4-billion pre-Covid to $531-million post-Covid. These are now long-term trends. The city will continue to contract. There will be a lot of empty skyscrapers, and many of them will not be cared-for.

By now, you have surely noted the peculiar design of the Affirmation Tower. It’s intended to produce the unsettling effect of defying gravity. Cute. But guess what? The human brain does not really appreciate buildings that even just look like they are liable to fall down — especially post-9/11, when several gigantic buildings actually did fall down. The cultural memory of all that will thunder through generations. And, contrary to the current dogmas of the architecture clerisy (Libeskind, Koolhaas, Mayne, et al.), city life is not improved by inducing additional anxiety in the people who live there. Since we are moving swiftly now into the next era of capital scarcity and social disorder, the darn thing probably has zero chance of getting built.

Thanks to Derek D. Markovic for the nomination!