{"id":608,"date":"2005-07-05T21:03:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-06T01:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=608"},"modified":"2007-03-31T07:04:27","modified_gmt":"2007-03-31T12:04:27","slug":"unreal-city-under-the-brown-fog-of-a-winter-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unreal-city-under-the-brown-fog-of-a-winter-dawn","title":{"rendered":"Unreal city, under the brown fog of a winter dawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, I&#8217;ve goofed on Frank Gehry before, with his &#8220;Ooh! Look at me! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2005\/03\/02\/gehry_fries_pedestri.html\" taget=\"_blank\">I&#8217;m using curved metal surfaces AGAIN!<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But nothing really prepared me for his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2005\/07\/05\/nyregion\/05brooklyn.html\" target=\"_blank\">inane new design for Brooklyn<\/a>, centering on Bruce Ratner&#8217;s new NBA arena for the Nets (guess what? It uses <span style=\"font-style: italic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bball.net\/documents\/jpg\/09_urban_room.jpg\" taget=\"_blank\">curved metal surfaces<\/a><\/span>!)<\/p>\n<p>Yes, as you can see below, by 2011, Brooklyn will look like the set of a Tim Burton movie. Congratulations. Glad the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2005\/07\/05\/nyregion\/05appraisal.html\" taget=\"_blank\">NYTimes likes it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(Probably doesn&#8217;t have anything to do with the fact that real estate developer  Ratner is the Times&#8217; partner on their new building.)<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/images\/brooklyn.jpg?w=525\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Gehry&#8217;s also a <a href=\"http:\/\/helleronline.com\/gehry_main.htm\" taget=\"_blank\">bullshit furniture designer<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, I&#8217;ve goofed on Frank Gehry before, with his &#8220;Ooh! Look at me! I&#8217;m using curved metal surfaces AGAIN!&#8221; But nothing really prepared me for his inane new design for Brooklyn, centering on Bruce Ratner&#8217;s new NBA arena for the Nets (guess what? It uses curved metal surfaces!) Yes, as you can see below, by &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unreal-city-under-the-brown-fog-of-a-winter-dawn\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Unreal city, under the brown fog of a winter dawn&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[25,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-9O","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4050,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/city-of-glass-shards","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":0},"title":"City of Glass Shards","author":"Gil","date":"June 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In our last Unrequired Reading, I noted that Frank \"curved metal surfaces\" Gehry had been bounced as the architect of the Atlantic Yards (AY) arena project for the Nets, in favor of a design that will shave $150-$200 million from construction costs. At the time, I laughed over the depiction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Architecture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2071,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-brooklyn-accent-okay","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":1},"title":"A Brooklyn accent, okay?","author":"Gil","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy 125th birthday, Brooklyn Bridge! Here's my post from last September about walking across the bridge with my pal Mark.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Urban issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Urban issues","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/urban-issues"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2455,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-beijing-same-difference","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":2},"title":"New Orleans, Beijing: Same Difference","author":"Gil","date":"September 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New Orleans&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":996,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/dont-be-frank","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":3},"title":"Don&#8217;t Be Frank","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jonathan Lethem has an open letter to Frank Gehry, enumerating reasons to pull out of Bruce Ratner's \"development\" project for Brooklyn: The proposal currently on the table is a gang of 16 towers that would be the biggest project ever built by a single developer in the history of New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Urban issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Urban issues","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/urban-issues"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13164,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-dean-haspiel","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":4},"title":"COVID Check-In with Dean Haspiel","author":"Gil","date":"April 15, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Dean Haspiel Cartoonist and playwright Dean Haspiel checks in from Brooklyn (home of his superhero, The Red Hook!). We talk about making art (good, bad or ugly) during the plague, finding yourself while putting your life on hold, how our social norms may change after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coviddinocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coviddinocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coviddinocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coviddinocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/coviddinocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C500&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12300,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-323-hugh-ryan","url_meta":{"origin":608,"position":5},"title":"Episode 323 &#8211; Hugh Ryan","author":"Gil","date":"June 2, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 323: Hugh Ryan \"I come to these stories in part because I'm trying to find myself.\" Let's celebrate Pride Month with a conversation with Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer: A History! We talk about Brooklyn's untold queer history and how it reflects the story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Architecture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hughcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hughcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hughcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hughcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/hughcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C450&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}