{"id":2455,"date":"2008-09-14T17:44:04","date_gmt":"2008-09-14T21:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2008-09-14T17:44:04","modified_gmt":"2008-09-14T21:44:04","slug":"new-orleans-beijing-same-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-beijing-same-difference","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans, Beijing: Same Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicolai Ouroussoff: still here, still batshit-crazy<\/a>. He asks why, if China could make a major architectural statement out of Beijing, the U.S. won’t do the same in . . . New Orleans. No, really.<\/p>\n

Somehow, he misses the points that<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Beijing is the capital of a burgeoning world power, while New Orleans’ economy is driven almost entirely by drunken tourists,<\/li>\n
  2. New Orleans, we now understand, faces destruction by flood every hurricane season, thanks to its georgraphy, a series of incredibly short-sighted development decisions, and the admitted incompetence of the Army Corps of Engineers,<\/li>\n
  3. “New Orleans” and “coherent vision” don’t belong in the same article.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Maybe he’ll propose Frank Gehry to design new curved levees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Nicolai Ouroussoff: still here, still batshit-crazy. He asks why, if China could make a major architectural statement out of Beijing, the U.S. won’t do the same in . . . New Orleans. No, really. Somehow, he misses the points that Beijing is the capital of a burgeoning world power, while New Orleans’ economy is driven … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “New Orleans, Beijing: Same Difference”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,17,19],"tags":[287],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-orleans","category-politics-explicit","category-urban-issues","tag-nicolai-ouroussoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-DB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2133,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/thats-one-fierce-embrace-you-got-there","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":0},"title":"That’s one fierce embrace you got there…","author":"Gil","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I goofed on NYTimes writer Nicolai Ouroussoff's starchitecture rimjob about planned cities. I contrasted it with a second NYTimes article that discussed the moral quandary of taking commissions from dictatorships. In yesterday's NYTimes, Ouroussoff managed to top himself, going gaga over the starchitecture in Beijing, conflating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2337,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-29-2008","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 29, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"August 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Long weekend, dear American readers! Better fill it up with lots of oddball links! Just click more! How do you really feel, about Jay Mariotti's departure, Mr. Ebert? * * * Rupert Murdoch cares not for your silly books! (seriously, book publishing is such a minuscule contributor to News Corp.'s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"J.M.W. Turner\"","block_context":{"text":"J.M.W. Turner","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/jmw-turner"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5082,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-march-12-2010","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: March 12, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"March 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Unrequired Reading time! You know you wanna check out this week's load o' links! London: the past ain't what it used to be. * * * The hidden thread of Martin Scorsese. * * * I've written before about how NYTimes architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sucks. Here's a designer's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307273539","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/writing-on-buildings","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":3},"title":"Writing on Buildings","author":"Gil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just because the NYTimes' architecture critic lives on another planet (lemme tell you, Nicolai: the problem with starchitecture is not that it failed to focus on public housing), that doesn't mean there isn't good writing about architecture in other newspapers. Dwell's blog offers up a bunch of them!","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3773,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/building-perspective","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":4},"title":"Building Perspective","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Nicolai Ouroussoff seems to be celebrating restraint in his review of the Standard, a new hotel on 13th St. in NYC: These are simple but powerful moves. And they are a reminder that enveloping a structure in a flamboyant wrapper is not always the most effective way to create lasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2578,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-3-2008","url_meta":{"origin":2455,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 3, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"October 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you ready for some linkage? I put in some hefty ones, to make up for last week's hiatus (woop-woop-woop!). Also, because my brain was going to shut off if I listened to any more of the VP debate. Just click more! Make your blog more like The Wire! (Seriously,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/2456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}