✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Thomas Heatherwick: The Architect of Our Neoliberal Hell

artnews.com · 77,073 words · saved by 1 readers

Years later, it still seems unbelievable. A designer is tapped to build a grand public structure, with a budget of $75 million, as the centerpiece of a Manhattan real estate project. As he works, the cost rises above $150 million—more than the annual expenses of the Whitney Museum, more than the price of an F-35 fighter jet, more than any artist before could ever possibly hope to have at their command. Eventually, it is said to climb further, to $200 million, with some landscaping added. The design is closely guarded until 2016. Then, renderings are released. The grand reveal: this designer is planning to make … a tower of stairs—154 flights, to be exact, all arrayed in a kind of upside-down cone, like shawarma on a spit, stretching 16 stories (some 150 feet) into the sky. In 2018 the designer offers a wan explanation: “What I like about stairs—as soon as you start using your body, it breaks down potential artistic bullshit, because there’s just an immediacy to straining your leg,” he

Thomas Heatherwick: The Architect of Our Neoliberal Hell @import"https://use.typekit.net/apq0bri.css";:root{--border-color-grey-lightest: rgb(247, 247, 247);--border-color-brand-secondary-light: rgb(0, 0, 0);--border-color-grey-light: rgb(204, 204, 204);--border-color-grey-dark: rgb(106, 106, 106);--border-color-brand-secondary-dark: rgb(0, 0, 0);--border-color-brand-secondary: rgb(241, 247, 252);--border-color-grey: rgb(140, 140, 140);--border-color-brand-primary-light: rgb(236, 28, 36);--border-color-white: rgb(255, 255, 255);--border-color-brand-primary-dark: rgb(236, 28, 36);--border-color

Explore this link on the map →

related reading