I happened to stumble on this article from the Indy Star that appeared on my home page (don't know why as it really has nothing to do with Cleveland even though it is mentioned).
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...612240375/1040
Dennis Ryerson
World-class city deserves to be dazzled
Some years ago, when I was an editor at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, the leader of the largest insurance company in town invited me to meet with him and the then relatively unknown architect Frank Gehry to discuss a high-rise building the insurer wanted to build.
In explaining his decision to hire Gehry, whose building designs remind me of a pile of aluminum foil run amok, the executive told me this:
"I want a design that people will be fighting in the bars of Cleveland over."
In short, he didn't want an ordinary building; he wanted to make a statement. The building never was built. Gehry, whose work I have come to admire, has become one of the leading architects of our time.
And that quote has remained with me.
I thought of it last week when Indianapolis selected a proposal for a rather ordinary-looking though high-quality Marriott as the flagship convention hotel.
The 25- to 30-story building seemed a much less dramatic design than a 44-story alternative.
I don't know that there were fights in Indianapolis bars over the preliminary design for the project, described as the "Hotel Mundane" by a Star opinion page editorial.
There was, however, instant and sharp reaction. Within hours of the story's posting on our IndyStar.com, 125 readers provided a wide range of comment, most of it sharply critical.
"The last thing we need is more 'highway exit' kinds of hotels," a Zionsville reader wrote.
"If you want us, and the rest of the world, to believe that Indianapolis is indeed a WORLD CLASS CITY, give us WORLD CLASS architecture!!!" a former Hoosier now living in California pleaded.
"I fear that Indianapolis will always settle for mediocrity and never become a world-class city," said an Indianapolis reader. "Indianapolis was given a tremendous opportunity to add an identifiable landmark to the skyline (one that won't present itself again for quite some time) and instead they chose a cookie cutter box hotel that will be as memorable as the pants you wore three months ago."
The readers were reacting the way Clevelanders did about another building that, unlike the insurance company proposal, was built in that city. The CEO of the building's owner, the Sohio (now BP) petroleum company, responded to the criticism by saying he built "a lunch bucket building for a lunch bucket town."
Is Indianapolis forward thinking, creative and adventurous? Do we have a sense of humor? Do we appreciate beauty? Do we take risks? Or are we as the Ohio executive described Cleveland years ago -- a "lunch bucket town"?
These aren't just local, American issues. I'm reading Ohran Pamuk's lovely account of his life and the city he grew up in, "Istanbul." His take is this:
"If I see my city as beautiful and bewitching, then my life must be so too."
Indianapolis officials have asked REI Real Estate Services, a lead developer in the Marriott proposal, to make the building more significant architecturally. Mike Wells of REI has said his company is open to doing just that.
Here's hoping he keeps the words "beautiful and bewitching" in mind.
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