Farewell to DC
Comments: 4
After work yesterday I was exhausted but couldn’t resist taking advantage of the fact that it stays light until nearly 9:00 p.m. here at this time of year. I walked up to the Capitol and watched it turn slowly from building to icon as twilight deepened. There are other buildings in Washington, and I have photographed them, but this one is really something else and I wasn’t going to leave town without getting close to it.
Washington is a city of horizontal monumentality — buildings can run entire blocks — and I’ve more than once found myself thinking about this ‘Roman’ monumentality and how it stands, well, perpendicular to the vertical, modernist monumentality of Manhattan which I will visit tomorrow. An embracing ideal (the vistas — i.e., the spaces — convey power) compared to the upward striving ambition of convened concrete wealth.
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Posted to General Rants • 2005.05.14 (Sat) • 10:24
Comments
Posted by heather 2005.05.15, 09:46
DC is an abnormal city to work in, because it is a city, but doesn’t have the classic vertical look of a city. No building in the city can be taller than the US Capitol. Manhattan’s vertical monstrosities are dwarfed in terms of square footage by the Pentagon and the Reagan Building.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to DC.
Posted by Mike 2005.05.22, 23:49
Roman horizontal monumentality vs. ambitious verticality. Wow. That’s really retarded. Stick to taking pictures, my friend.
Posted by jh 2005.05.23, 20:56
Mike, sorry but your comment doesn’t count unless you say why it’s retarded. I mean, feel free to disagree and everything, but give me something more to work with than Beavis and Butthead.
Posted by eB 2005.05.23, 21:54
Lift any rock, and you’ll probably fine a troll ‘neath it…
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