Salesman of the Year
It’s only March but I’m for giving Jaume Plensa, the Spanish artist who’s sold Mayor Meeker on $2.5 million in ‘art’ for downtown, the Salesman of the Year award.
The good news here is this $2.5 million – it appears – is going to be paid for by Jim Goodman, of Capital Broadcasting, and not taxpayers. The bad news is taxpayers’ money has a way of creeping into these things. And a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.
What Mr. Plensa wants to build – I don’t know how to describe it. The News and Observer says it will feature a stainless steel sky-grid that will drip a wall of water over the Fayetteville Street Plaza. And that “cars will flow past a grassy square [in the middle of Fayetteville Street], driving on black granite streets sunk three feet down.” The capstone of this masterpiece is a spotlight that “will beam a mile into the air, and a stainless steel canopy that will hang over the street flashing bits of poetry.” Mr. Plensa says, “Let’s talk about light, darkness, light, heavy, peace, love.”
Well, yes, why not.
Mayor Meeker is ecstatic. He says, “From my perspective, it’s two thumbs up.” And he adds the steel grid (which Mr. Plensa says will look like a micro-chip from above) is “a classical design with contemporary relevance. The initial reaction is very positive, and I think this is something that’s going to move forward very quickly.”
Not everyone agrees.
News and Observer columnist, Dennis Rogers, started out his commentary on the city’s new art project this way: “This could get ugly.”
Mr. Rogers adds, wryly, that Plensa’s stainless steel sky-grid, (combined with the arty twenty-five foot, stainless steel, reflecting streetlights covered with mirrors the Mayor wants to put on Fayetteville Street) “would be perfect if we were creating…a casino.”
Salesman of the Year
It’s only March but I’m for giving Jaume Plensa, the Spanish artist who’s sold Mayor Meeker on $2.5 million in ‘art’ for downtown, the Salesman of the Year award.
The good news here is this $2.5 million – it appears – is going to be paid for by Jim Goodman, of Capital Broadcasting, and not taxpayers. The bad news is taxpayers’ money has a way of creeping into these things. And a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.
What Mr. Plensa wants to build – I don’t know how to describe it. The News and Observer says it will feature a stainless steel sky-grid that will drip a wall of water over the Fayetteville Street Plaza. And that “cars will flow past a grassy square [in the middle of Fayetteville Street], driving on black granite streets sunk three feet down.” The capstone of this masterpiece is a spotlight that “will beam a mile into the air, and a stainless steel canopy that will hang over the street flashing bits of poetry.” Mr. Plensa says, “Let’s talk about light, darkness, light, heavy, peace, love.”
Well, yes, why not.
Mayor Meeker is ecstatic. He says, “From my perspective, it’s two thumbs up.” And he adds the steel grid (which Mr. Plensa says will look like a micro-chip from above) is “a classical design with contemporary relevance. The initial reaction is very positive, and I think this is something that’s going to move forward very quickly.”
Not everyone agrees.
News and Observer columnist, Dennis Rogers, started out his commentary on the city’s new art project this way: “This could get ugly.”
Mr. Rogers adds, wryly, that Plensa’s stainless steel sky-grid, (combined with the arty twenty-five foot, stainless steel, reflecting streetlights covered with mirrors the Mayor wants to put on Fayetteville Street) “would be perfect if we were creating…a casino.”