{"id":1082,"date":"2026-09-02T11:18:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/?p=1082"},"modified":"2026-09-02T11:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:18:36","slug":"just-say-bonwit-teller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/?p=1082","title":{"rendered":"Just say Bonwit Teller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The article in the Times today is about Trump outpacing the court in illegal construction, etc. Building it before they can decide. This is his normal speed of business — at least as far as construction goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you listen to him, he always talks about it — “We’re ahead of schedule, under budget,” and so on.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Doesn’t matter if it’s true — nothing does in his world. It’s what you say that matters. And in construction, the almost uncountable business failures he’s had, and even the wars he’s started, it’s always got to be done fast and quick. Now, now, now. Psychologically, he probably thinks that if he doesn’t push it through quickly, it’ll be bogged down in paperwork, which is often the case of most construction jobs. But… there’s only one construction job I can think of in New York City which actually never got completed. And that’s because the tower started to lean and the project was declared unsalvageable (it’s still down there near the South Street Seaport, empty and probably in danger of collapsing one day).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when he purchased the old Bonwit Teller building, he had promised the Metropolitan Museum of Art that he would preserve several pieces of the building, including the art deco relief work was at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well they tore the building down and he didn’t keep his promise. (Wasn’t in writing, but he probably wouldn’t have cared if it was.) He claimed they were useless and ugly. This was one of the first stories I heard about his criminal mind. So the fact that he’s pushing this new construction at breakneck speed is not unfamiliar. The ballroom might be finished before he dies, but fortunately — you just have to look at Las Vegas — everything constructed can be torn down. Las Vegas is a little weird in that it seems to think that it should <\/em>be torn down. Most places, including D.C., like a mix of new and preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the oldest “things” in New York City is not McSorley’s pub or 6 Weekhawken Street, it is the Battery Park fence. It was erected in 1771 so it is 255 years old this year. Bowling Green itself was formed in 1733. There had been a statue of King George III and the fence’s posts were all topped with crowns. During the revolution, the statue was torn down and all the posts’ crowns were knocked off. No kings! No kings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the fence remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballroom will come down in my lifetime. The “arch” will not be built. The gilding will be removed. One way or another, it all comes down. This is the law of entropy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article in the Times today is about Trump outpacing the court in illegal construction, etc. Building it before they can decide. This is his normal speed of business — at least as far as construction goes. And if you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1085,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/1085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thomasfcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}