THE HOMAGE TO MAGNATES, CAMOUFLAGED OR IGNORED
Their entrance has vanished:
(Since 2011)
The statues have been "restored." Rather than almost palpable, they are hard, slick and cold:
# # #
But how mask a space so vast that only its center is used? Two-thirds are easily neutralized...
- The section near the department stores is naturally hidden until late afternoon. The light is in the eye and passers-by see the colonnade alone:
- The center is a restaurant terrace. Tables and parasols divide its immensity...
...while greenery and a barrier separate it from the street:
Passers-by do not notice it:
But the last third is too big to hide. Empty, it stands out. Changing the exit masks the space from visitors leaving the building:
- They used to leave by a vast glass portal, descended a staircase that was short but wide, walked through the whole space and left with a sense of majesty.
- Now a small, dark, new exit leads directly to the street.*
* Because the much smaller doorway is easier to guard from theft? On the contrary: Half closed, the earlier glass door was of the same size and its luminosity favored control.
That is another example of a detail that seems to have little importance, yet throws light on what counts most.
But about passers-by
there is nothing to be done.
This photo was not posed
and the onlooker seems to wonder
why there should be space
that is empty except for a pothole.
