When the last crowds have dispersed from the Plaka in Athens and the television ratings have been scrutinized high in midtown Manhattan, the real hero of the 2004 Olympics will emerge.
The World War II Memorial, recently unveiled on the Mall in Washington, D.C., embodies the term “neo”—Neoclassic, neo-Modern, even neo-Postmodern—and inhabits a nether region in the landscape between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
Welcome to China! And to a new world for Architectural Record. Throughout its 113-year history, this magazine has featured work by American architects, and with increasing frequency, informative, inspirational, or provocative work by architects from around the world.
Wait. That single word may be one of the most difficult to achieve in our frenetic age, but concerning the memorial at the World Trade Center site, the best advice is to slow down, allow time to pass and our perspective to clear, and then to build: We are simply too close to events to commit to such a seminal urban monument.