• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    1·
    3 months ago

    I have mixed feelings about Le Corbusier’s architecture (to say nothing of his urban planning philosophy - he clearly influenced Robert Moses), but I think the UN Secretariat building was one of his successes.

    An aside: If you look at the full resolution version (downloadable on flickr), you can see the HF amateur radio antenna on the roof. Nerds are everywhere, even/especially at the UN. There’s also a family taking a group picture on the street in front.

    • Bill Ricker@mastodon.radio
      1·
      3 months ago

      @mattblaze@federate.social
      This view of the Secretariat only focuses thought on your discussion, considering it by itself as a historic building.✅️

      Usually it’s reduced to straight-man for the GA building’s punchline, a study in contrast.
      Which is fine, that was the point C & N &al were making. ( Similar to unicameral Nebraska statehouse. )

    • Bill Ricker@mastodon.radio
      1·
      3 months ago

      @mattblaze@federate.social
      I wouldn’t blame LeC for the excesses of Moses but yes, his and contemporaneous urban planning violated his own ‘human scale’ critereon; planned dystopias. We’re lucky so few visions were completed.

      Is there a planned city drawn & built in the automobile era as successful as Paris or D.C., drawn & built for horse-carriages ?

    • Orin@mastodon.social
      1·
      3 months ago

      @mattblaze@federate.social The vertical is for ham HF? Interesting. I could picture other reasons for HF, but wouldn’t expect ham.

      • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
        1·
        3 months ago

        @auroran@mastodon.social Yeah, there’s a small but active amateur radio club for the staff and friends there (4U1UN).

        • Bill Ricker@mastodon.radio
          1·
          3 months ago

          @mattblaze@federate.social @auroran@mastodon.social
          Geopolitical-aware nerds at the UN, figures.

          I would expect the station would be dual-use in a communications emergency. There’s usually a reason besides staff morale to allow roof use like that: contingencies.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a Rockwell full coverage 5kW 0-30Mc transceiver from the supply available to the state CD bunkers in 1950s-60s. Beautiful.

          • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
            1·
            3 months ago

            @n1vux@mastodon.radio @auroran@mastodon.social Way back when I visited a few times, it was just some higher-end Yaesu rig. I think the station is just amateur; the NY UN HQ isn’t where most the operational stuff (peacekeeping, etc) is based.

            • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
              1·
              3 months ago

              @n1vux@mastodon.radio @auroran@mastodon.social Also, it’s an off the shelf HF amateur-band-only vertical, not the monster wideband log periodic that you see on typical “real” gov’t type stations.

              • Bill Ricker@mastodon.radio
                1·
                3 months ago

                @mattblaze@federate.social @auroran@mastodon.social
                Ah well, then it’s at best a limited contingency for Secretary General to get a voice connection to some besieged capital. I expected better of a cold war institution.
                (OTOH that would’ve been a decent contingency 50 years ago.)