Comments on Notorious BIG

So, do they have an elevator down to the train tracks?

yah i totally have a rain poncho fetish too.

Of course, the "mountain" space underneath the building is where they put the gulag.

It would've worked. Right up until everyone realizing it wasn't working.

Err... shouldn't there be some shots of what that thing looks like *under* the track? You know... street level?

All I ever see in the monorail propaganda are shots that are at-level with the train. Looking at what is in Las Vegas and here, something tells me there is a reason for that.

Err... and why did I assume that shot was some kind of monorail propaganda when that is actually a light-rail?

I think that would be imbuing the field of architecture with more power to shape social institutions than, rationally speaking, seems reasonable.

If socialists had better architects, socialism would have defeated capitalism? What the hell, Charles?

Sometimes you write these things that sort of sound really nice but just make no sense whatsoever.

How do they decide who gets the view units?

Hell, architects have quite a bit of control over social institutions. Look at the oppressive (but oddly beautiful) architecture in the Soviet Union.

Look at the King County Admin building across the street from the jail. That is a pretty intimidating government building.

I'd go on some crazy long tangent... but naw. I'll just assert that architecture has more of an influence (and control) on your behavior that you give credit to.

The proposed monorail, with it's huge cement beams casting shadows over buildings, views and the street would have been one significant work of oppressive architecture. It would have had a slick view while riding in it (kinda like the oppressive viaduct).

It's called Brutalism, coba.

And, done properly, it's super cool.

"How do they decide who gets the view units?"

Those who provide the most benefit to society obviously---artists, baristas and fixie riders.

Im we could have only danced more to architecture disco would have never existed!

@11, Right up until they fall out of favor, at which point they are disgraced, exiled or executed, and their unit is given to the next hipster in line.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, in Everyday Stalinism, actually relates some fascinating information about apartment mobility as it related to party favoritism during the early Stalin years. In favor, up you move. Not in favor, down you go, eventually to be escorted from the building in the middle of the night.

Sorry RB, in socialism land, The Stranger is the mouthpeice of the all knowing government. It is impossible for artists, baristas and fixie owners to fall out of favor.

Footnote: An artist, barista or fixie owner will be evicted if:

a) They:
1 - chop up a fighter jet and hang it inside a light rail station.
2 - forbid the touching of their outdoor artwork.
3 - create art that is:
i - too local
ii -or- not local enough
b) They work for:
1 - Starbucks
2 - A coffee shop bought out by Starbucks.
c) They side with the driver instead of Critical Mass.

These rules are all clearly printed on the back of your government sanctioned re-usable plastic bag. Didn't you get the memo?

I wasn't impressed until I clicked the link. Turning suburbia into a mountain isn't quite *my* idea of socialism, but it is intriguing.

@14 - using a plastic bag is enough to get you kicked out - it has to be a hemp bag.

Wrong again Will. Remember on Socalist Stranger Land, hemp of all kinds is legal. Using a hemp bag in Strangerland will be about as edgy as listening to Smooth Jazz (ps: smooth jazz artists will also be evicted).

No, in strangerland, what is edgy now is humdrum there. Thus, you would make quite a statement to use plastic over hemp. After all, what is rebellion if the government endorses it?

Sexy Socialism- now defined as when a profit making capitalist architecture firm designs a building for an Oil Company?
40% of Copenhagen residents use bikes for their primary transport- those must be the capitalists, huh?
Because these high end apartments are for those sexy socialist auto owners.

How about using a plastic bag you fished from the ocean? Complete with algae and other stains?

As to Socialism, I don't really want to talk about Bush or McSame any more, and their comrades in Red China and other countries.

That would be acceptable, yes. However, In Communist Stranger Land, fishing depletes our oceans an so is outlawed. Conversely, fish farms are not natural ("orgainic") and so are also outlawed in preference to wild caught fish.

Further, since Communist Stranger fixed global warming with it's recent ban on Bottled Water and SUV's, algae no longer grows in the ocean. Anti-Erica, using a Windows Brand Computer from her ten story hipster home in Newcastle, has began to worry about the environmental effects from our rapid decline in CO2.

Remember, in Strangerland, the Stranger could not exist. Everything is opposite because in Strangerland, everything hipsters do is the norm. Since The Stranger is Seattles Hipster Newspaper, in order to be hipster in Strangerland, the Stranger has to be against everything that made Strangerland exist in the first place.

Strange, isn't it.

Charles, we have a saying here in some parts of the U.S.:

"If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bus."

Socialism, sexy, and Scandinavia are redundant.

I went to a party in this building a few weeks back. For a fucking parking garage, it aint bad.

I missed the part where living in a dense environment constitutes socialism. Seriously, WTF.

Maybe Charles should read some more actual architecture theory and journalism before writing about buildings, because he doesn't know very much about them at all.

This quote is from the BIG website: “We live in a world where individualism has a larger resonance than previously. Diversity is well accepted, even desired. People who live in a housing complex should have the same access to individuality.”
Julien De Smedt
That doesn't indicate a corporate preference for political socialsim. All communities are social but that doesn't make community architecture Socialism.