Audrey Hepburn

There can be no doubt about what type of building will come to be regarded as almost pirodically representative of this age – a new type of structure characterised by its hollow vacuity, by its sculptural sensationalism, by its happy quasi-modernism and by its lack of actual utility.

And yet it possesses two definite purposes – to be instantly and arrestingly memorable; to be extraordinarily camera friendly.

He has a nice dig at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao – it succeeds as a massive sculpture on the outside, but has no relation to what’s on the inside. It could house anything – a call centre, an abattoir, a museum.

Te Papa seems to be of this era – build a massive iconic building and tourists will come! It’ll put Wellington on the map!!!

And perhaps it’s important to keep in mind that the Sydney Opera House was commissioned not as a city icon but as a much needed performance facility. The whole icon thing was a happy side-effect. That’s where the focus needs to be with the outer T space.

Let form follow function.

(from NZ shareholders association chairman Bruce Sheppard, whose glass is clearly not just less than half full, but well on its way to empty. Perhaps he had too many shares in US companies this morning?

Anyway: back to icons: this just in from Paris:
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10397

“A historic shift in the French capital’s strict planning rules this summer has opened the way for the first of a series of dramatic new towers. For over thirty years Paris has laid low in the building stakes with a ban on buildings over 37 m in height brought in under Jacques Chirac’s rule when he was Mayor of Paris in 1977. But on Thursday the first tower to be built in the French capital’s inner city, following the lifting of the ban in July, was revealed.

Officials in Paris voted to lift a ban on high rise buildings in the French capital in a bid to combat the city’s housing shortage and invigorate the city’s economic status. This decision has left the path clear for 20 high-rise designs, first flaunted by the current Mayor Bertrand Delanoe in November last year and following the inauguration of President Sarkozy, to be approved.”

So, a giant 200m high pyramidical structure is proposed for Paris, and although about twice as high as the Eiffel tower – its not described as an icon. yet……

While a lot of talk has centred on New Zealand being relatively insulated from the turmoil, Ward doesn’t really see that – pointing to the need of our banks to raise money offshore. The volatility is meaning banks are having to borrow money at high rates and then on-lend it to New Zealand businesses at high rates.

“I don’t think we are insulated at all. I spoke to a number of corporates at the weekend who said that their biggest issue was the terms of borrowing that they now have with the banks.
……
Global market observers are now likening the current crisis to the events of 1929 that led to the Great Depression. Ward said he couldn’t recall another time of such turbulence and uncertainty.

“For me, I’ve seen short sharp shocks, but not this prolonged period of unease and uncertainty. Even 9/11 and those sorts of issues got resolved reasonably fast. This thing’s been going on for well over a year now and we are still no closer to the conclusion than we were from when we first heard about it in August last year.

“And there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight…”

There’s a massive unfettered development in Albany that is just going under – and another unfettered development in Queenstown that has gone the same way. The problem on both of them is not that there is not enough land to build on, or too many controls over developing on empty grassland. The problem is that the banks won’t loan them any more money, as they don’t have it to lend out.

Even to put todays “plummet” in perspective – if you look across Wall St history, it isnt even in the top ten if you measure based on % values.

Anyway, while things are vaguely on this topic, perhaps this may be interesting, although somewhat slanted

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/09/22/blame-urban-planning/

Eventually, some time after the crash, America passed laws banning banks from having branches throughout the states. Therefore, in theory, nothing like that could happen again….. however, of course, these restrictive laws were “relaxed” in the 1980s and 90s, and banks were once again allowed to hold shares in other banks across the nation. And of course, banks in other countries can own shares across the boundaries as well. So the whole shemozzle is a lot more mixed up than before. For instance – Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group owns 220 Billion Yen worth of Federal National Mortgage Association stock – well, at last it did. Now it’s worth next to nothing. They were the 3rd largest bank in Japan, and the 8th largest bank in the world. Now? 220 billion yen is still a lot of dollars gone south…. about US $2 billion worth. Chicken feed to them i’m sure, but it’ll still come back to roost some time.

Banks are currently going bust, today, as we speak – in Europe and America. Asia, probably next. New Zealand will inevitably get caught up too – well we have already, as the developers go down like a lucky Strike at the Lanes.

Anyway, Mobsta – glad to hear you have dosh available to look for opportunities. Maybe take it out of the bank and keep it under the mattress in the meantime?

I am happy to meet here in a year and compare notes.
If it is worse than it is now, I will happily meet up, bow to your greater foresight, and buy you an Emerson’s somewhere (that’s if there are any businesses left selling beer – a glass of beer might be a week’s wages…)

It is in my diary.