Hmmm ... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6mlw07paglc/Ul16rmtOVfI/AAAAAAAAC0I/2EFUdSjfzDE/s1600/Kaaba.jpg
On Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 5:46 PM, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://www.citylab.com/design/2017/06/the-dark-architecture > -of-national-security/529302/ > > > The Dark Architecture of National Security > > How the built environment of the security state reflects the anxieties of > the modern age. > > - *KRISTON CAPPS* <https://www.citylab.com/authors/kriston-capps/> > - Jun 8, 2017 > > · > > · > > What's going on in there? (National Security Agency) > > All that is known about this photo for sure is that it was taken after > 1986. The Headquarters Building for the National Security Agency is the one > in the back, a modest nine-story structure that resembles an anonymous > apartment complex. It was completed in 1963; the lower, mall-shaped > building, Operations Building 1, predates it by a decade. The more > prominent towers—a pair of blue-black boxes, Operations 2A and 2B, clad in > copper to block electromagnetic signals, like a Faraday cage—were finished > in 1986. > > That much is knowable thanks to a 2012 document published by the NSA for > its 60th anniversary. The agency itself would not confirm when the > buildings had been finished (or if they even were), according to Jack Self, > a writer for the U.K. magazine *Dezeen* > <https://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/26/nsa-headquarters-fort-meade-maryland-privacy-home-jack-self-opinion/> > who > dug into the history of the NSA campus a couple years back, revealing the > unlikely architects behind the structures. > > Mirrored and forbidding, the NSA campus stands as a fortress surrounded by > a moat of parking. The public knows almost nothing about what happens > inside: As Self writes, “the authorised information available on the > building could practically be published in a single tweet.” > > A 2007 photo of the National Security Agency Headquarters Building, which > was built in 1963. (Charles Dharapak/AP) > > The NSA dominated headlines this week after *The Intercept* > <https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/> > published > agency documents on June 5 that detailed Russian efforts to hack the 2016 > election. An hour after the story went live, the FBI arrested Reality > Winner > <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/us/politics/reality-winner-contractor-leaking-russia-nsa.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news>, > an intelligence contractor and the alleged source of the leaked report. > Winner, who may be released on bond on Thursday, is expected to plead not > guilty > <http://www.npr.org/2017/06/07/531956597/reality-winner-accused-nsa-leaker-to-enter-not-guilty-plea> > to > charges of “removing classified material from a government facility and > mailing it to a news outlet.” > > Photos of Winner, a 25-year-old woman who lives in Augusta, Georgia, are > circulating widely. So is the official photo of the NSA campus in Fort > Meade, Maryland—one of the most striking architectural images of the > moment. It is a reminder that the built environment of the security state > has taken dark turns over the last 30 years. > > There is a through-line from the federal government’s most secretive and > ominous buildings to its most noble and idealistic ones. The NSA’s > Operations 2A and 2B buildings were designed by Eggers and Higgins, a New > York architecture firm named after Otto Eggers and Daniel Higgins—the > architects who completed the National Gallery of Art and the Thomas > Jefferson Memorial. (The firm has since changed names through mergers and > acquisitions. Eggers and Higgins were longtime associates of John Russell > Pope, the original designer of these classical projects; Pope died before > they were constructed.) > > Like the FBI Building, the NSA headquarters is a metaphor for the agency > it hosts. > > The NSA headquarters building is as compelling as it is unsettling—much > like the J. Edgar Hoover Building > <https://www.citylab.com/design/2014/07/requiem-for-fbi-hoover-building/375279/>, > the headquarters for the FBI. The hundreds of cars parked around the > building stand in for the thousands of intelligence workers inside—the > serfs of the deep state, as it were. The photo anonymizes them: It’s not > possible to make out the make or model of most of the vehicles, much less > any information about the lives of the employees who drive them. Dots of > colors of vehicles reflected in the mirrored building envelope betray > nothing about what happens inside. Fort Meade looks like it might be the > end of the earth, an exurb you never hope to have reason to visit. Like the > FBI Building, the NSA headquarters is a metaphor for the agency it hosts. > > The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters, > pictured in 2008. (Ketzirah Lesser and Art Drauglis/Flickr > <https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiredwitch/2509575163/in/photolist-cVL3M1-5tbJcw-4MxM8E-7f71KK-4MsZcM-22PRW9-4W9gnr-M261cx-sHC6yq-e4MQd2-a8Eda2-e4Tspo-e4Tsi9-N9PcaP-93z2ZR-4PLegi-8jruSj-6tSkfW-4Q7CSF-Q86Acq> > ) > > The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters in > Washington, D.C., is another piece of security architecture with a design > pedigree. It was built by Moshe Safdie, who is best known for designing Expo > 67 > <https://www.citylab.com/design/2017/04/a-look-back-at-expo-67s-us-pavilion/524589/> > in > Montreal and Crystal Bridges <http://crystalbridges.org/> in Bentonville, > Arkansas. Elsewhere in D.C., he designed the U.S. Institute of Peace > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/not-at-peace-with-buildings-style/2011/05/17/AFsPuy7G_story.html?utm_term=.02578d6b905e>, > a building that is more frequently mentioned in connection with Safdie’s > name locally than the ATF Building. > > But the latter is absolutely more distinctive, especially as an example of > security theater in the built environment. ATF’s headquarters, completed in > 2008, was the first to abide by new security standards set forth for > federal buildings after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in > Oklahoma City in 1995. Blast-resistant glass is a defining feature, as are > deep setbacks—a “landscaped demilitarized zone between the building and the > street,” as critic Witold Rybczynski once put it. Much of the ATF campus is > given over to pure design: Two giant arching wings form a crescent “garden > wall” along the north and west sides of the building, which face out to the > busy intersection of New York and Florida Avenue NW. (A grave concern, then > and now: As far back as 2003, al Qaeda was pledging that “cars of death” > <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/nov/23/terrorism.turkey> would > rain destruction down on D.C.) > > The Embassy of the United States in London, designed by KieranTimberlake. > (KieranTimberlake) > > A paranoid style is easy to spot in even the more sophisticated national > security designs from the post–9/11 era. Consider the forthcoming U.S. > Embassy in London, a $1 billion landmark designed by KieranTimberlake. > While (soon-to-be former) Rep. Jason Chaffetz described the project’s glass > curtain wall as “opulent looking,” > <https://www.c-span.org/video/?401738-1/hearing-building-new-us-embassy-london> > his > comments came during a discussion about whether Congress could rely on > claims that this façade would be utterly blast proof. As my colleague Amanda > Kolson Hurley > <http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/architecture/us-embassy-design/index.html> > explains > for CNN, critics say that the embassy—which also gets its own moat—is too > forbidding. The architecture of the security state is awesome: terrible in > its implications, but also an almost poetic reflection of national anxiety. > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > [image: Avast logo] <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> > > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus> > > > <#m_8842514256287828538_m_-9179852468708166690_m_-4051686177151003282_m_-1142866115813781648_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> > > > __._,_.___ > ------------------------------ > Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected]> > ------------------------------ > > > Visit Your Group > <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNzZnbzVtBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0OTcyMTAxMjY-> > > > [image: Yahoo! 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