Icons and Development

This recent article highlights the latest debate of historical preservation vs. development.
Its a matter of icon, history, memory and perhaps ego. How long to be hold onto images? Who has the right to fight for them, and what this the reason we move forward, change, alter and adapt? In this case, the all mighty recession is given the reason to build, leaving the Empire State Building in the shadow. But what is reassuring about this recent development plan is the possibility that New York City isn't dead yet. Not dead as in debt, no jobs or a defunct rail system. But dead in the sense of soul. What are the global cities of today? Dubai, Doha, Shanghai. And what is it about them that sparks the excitement of city, of living and of a future tomorrow. Wasn't New York City THE one city that brought all those terms to mind? When the city was at its explosive youth, it set the standards for codes, setbacks...It redefined an urbanity, it created an synergy and it imagined a future. Now, bogged down in its own history, stagnate from its own memory, its own inhabitants are themselves holding back its greatest potential - that to evolve.

Sure, this is just one building, but numerous other projects in the city can attest to the old age amnesia the city and its inhabitants have taken on...while the young, restless and future-seeking global cities leave it in the dust.