Zephyr
Active Member
Yet one wouldn't blithely *discard* the Nashville Parthenon because it's not the "real deal"...
I would agree, they are not likely to discard it.
When I was in Nashville about two years ago, visiting friends at Vanderbilt University, we went down to this Parthenon - along with a number of others - to take a look-see. It looked a bit yellowish in the twilight, and up close there was all manner of graffiti on the columns. I asked the Vandy people, who came from the surrounding area, what they thought about all this, and they were quite convinced that the structure would be torn down before too long. Why? Because they believed that no one really cared about it anymore.
That structure has been there over a hundred years now, so I think a tear down is unlikely - it has acquired a perceived historical value in recalling a state's 100th birthday when it was completed in the late nineteenth century, and that city's pride in proclaiming itself the 'Athens of the South'. This Nashville Parthenon is part of a strange duet in Tennessee - the other being the more recent Memphis Pyramid (just knew that association with its namesake in Egypt would inevitable translate into this).
These two structures are not too far removed from a country in the Far East, recreating selective parts of Venice, including St. Marcos. Or nearer still in the garish nods to the past in neon and laser lights in Vegas (Robert Venturi's embrace aside). Or the recreation of ancient Chinese buildings, and French Landmarks in Disney World. Or on our doorsteps in a certain building which is Robert Stern's recent speciality, and the subject of this thread.
The last may recall another era in a quasi-generic way, but in the final analysis it will fall short. I see it becoming a long-term dogged reminder of what we will settle for here, and not what we can aspire. The spoils of nostalgia of this type will not age well.