Boringization

It was nearing eleven o’clock on a Monday morning in early March, and I was at a demonstration to oppose a planned lobby renovation. I overheard Liz Waytkus, the executive director of Docomomo US, going over talking points with a colleague:

“I’m going to invent a new word: ‘boringization.’”

“What’s that?”

“That’s what’s happening to New York City—everything is becoming boring, dumbed down.”

She turned to me. “Glad you’re early… this might not last long. Ownership is also in attendance,” she said, eyeing the men in suits standing in the opposite corner of the lobby with their arms crossed. As demonstrators set up their sign, two men in yellow security vests walked over to ask, “What’s on our radar?” A PETA demonstration? Occupy Wall Street, Part II? Nope—a lobby renovation.

In the 1980s, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo designed a distinctly postmodern tower for JP Morgan. At its base stood a triple-height, column-studded, publicly owned private space (POPS) wrapped in mirrors and white marble. At the time, Pa…