Once the curtains lifted and the explosive, starburst chandeliers had risen to the ceiling, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky brought cheers and tears at the Met's fiftieth anniversary gala at Lincoln Center this year. Baritone Hvorostovsky in a surprise return, despite a brain tumor, sang "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" from Verdi's Rigoletto.
For a miracle machine, capable of nudging humanity back from the rocky ledge of eco-suicide, it looks inauspicious—like a fridge with waffle-like filters finning the air. It's the kind of thing Sears will gladly remove and replace. But hold on!
Is There Life Beyond Sustainability?
The 140-bed hospital complex stops time, like a long-lost friend you run into where you'd least expect to. In such a surprise occurrence, past and future appear to come to a standstill. Here, just outside Rwanda's capital of Kigali, it's impossible to ignore that the site once held a police outpost in the whirlwind of mass murder.
As earthmovers groaned and power saws whined, one of those giant turtles, the pride of Wellfleet, MA showed up at the site. It might be fairer to say, showed up not just at the site but one can only assume his site; a kettle pond occupied by his terrapene carolina line since the last Ice Age.
Louis Postel covers architecture, design, and technology.
Louis Postel, Freelance Writer and Editor.