URBAN MONOLITHS (selections)

“The Old World has its ancient monuments, megalithic sites, castles, cathedrals, and Great Pyramids. But here in the urban deserts of the United States, there’s nothing to provide that kind of mystical connection to pre-modern history, no sign of the towering wonders created in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution. So, whether fulfilling a basic human need or simply ‘imprinting’ the way a dog deprived of its natural mother will do, we city-dwellers latch onto other structures to play that role. Urban monoliths—mysterious roadside buildings, awe-inspiring industrial containers, unexplained arrays of concrete blocks—are, for better or worse, our Stonehenge and Taj Mahal.”