The people don't want greatness!

Just the other day, I watched the movie-version of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.  And then I saw this:

An artist's drawing released Wednesday, July 27, 2005, by The Fordham Company shows the proposed Fordham Spire skyscraper planned for the Chicago lakefront. The 115-story tower is proposed by Chicago developer Christopher Carley and designed by noted architect Santiago Calatrava. Over the past 20 years, dozens of high-rise projects such as the Spire have been introduced as reaching record-breaking heights worldwide, but most of the projects are often either scaled down or scrapped before being built.

I couldn't help but think of Rand's Mr. Roark and his desire to build buildings, not for the sake of the clients, but for the sake of the buildings themselves.  And I can't help but think that architect Santiago Calatrava will have to face his own Keatings and Tooheys, determined to mock his vision and break his spirit.  I hope Calatrava can show some of Roark's spirit.  Calatrava should demand, as Roark did, that his building only be built as he has designed it, or not at all.

We need bigger buildings: not because clients need them, but because they need to be built.