Architecture of US Capitol is fundamentally anti-democratic
The original design for the Capitol was based on the ancient Roman Pantheon. That never came to be.
Megan Goldman Petri 13 February, 2021 3:44 pm IST Text Size:
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Honoring the Capitol Police officer killed in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently invoked the building’s symbolic role in American democracy.
“Each day, when members enter the Capitol, this temple of democracy, we will remember his sacrifice,” she said of the slain officer, Brian Sicknick.
Former President Donald Trump was impeached for inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol and is now on trial in the Senate. The insurrection has reaffirmed the building’s almost sacred status.
The domed neoclassical Capitol building was inspired by European cathedrals and the Roman Pantheon – shrines to imperial power, not rule by and for the people.
Linda Laban Realestate.boston.com correspondent December 9, 2020 7:18 pm
The soaring glass-clad Sudbury stands in stark contrast to the now-demolished, Brutalist-style Government Center Garage, which for decades straddled Congress Street where this 48-story residential tower now dominates.
The Sudbury’s completion marks the beginning of a mixed-use, six-building, five-acre development on both the west and east sides of Congress, in one of Boston’s oldest neighborhoods.
“The big, ugly garage is gone,” said Thomas O’Brien, founding partner and managing director of Bulfinch Crossing’s development firm, The HYM Investment Group, which is also behind the Suffolk Downs and Boston Landing developments, among others.