About three-quarters of the people who spoke favored renovating the existing pier or picking a "Mediterranean-style" design for a replacement. The ultra-modern design of "The Lens" did not draw support from most of the people who spoke.
"We are paying for $50 million for a sidewalk over the water," one commenter said.
"I wanted Mediterranean style. (I) feel we are being locked into (a design) that doesn't have any local flavor."
— oldnortheast.patch.com
6 Comments
In fact, what Michael Maltzan's office got is very Mediterranean, kind of futuristic Venetian...
It's a sidewalk like the Eiffel is a radio tower and the arch in St Louis is an elevator. The east coast and gulf shores have thousands of piers. They *could* have something special. If they go 'mediterranean' (i.e., like most of FL?), then they deserve what they get.
I hope that our pier project here in Chicago does not degrade into such petty shortsightedness.
And I thought that St.Petersburg was in Florida? When did they move it to Southern Italy? local flavor?
People just don't value (or understand?) creativity in design. They want what they know, and won't want something else until it's been added to their mental repertoire. That's just how aesthetics work and how the human brain works; we're inherently psychologically predisposed to dislike unfamiliar things. Basically, if they build it, people will bitch and moan, then like it eventually. Next generation will love it.
Matt --
When did they move it to Southern Italy? local flavor? Circa 1920s were boom years for Spanish Revival. Same for Southern California.
eric chavkin
Since when is Florida on the Mediterranean?
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