From “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center”
By Ed Roberson
That [science] which treats of those conditions of knowledge which lie in the nature, not of thought itself, but of that which we think about ... has been called ... Architectonic, in so far as it treats of the method of building up our observations into system.
—Sir William Hamilton
... one of which systems is a poem.
1. what the chicago window was for
mainly light.
the supporting function
on the sides opens to let in
air. the proportion
wall to door dependent on heat.
repeated upward
into cold wind
around the columns
and garland
sky high reflections off the face of their
investment the blueprint raises money longer
hours profit piles up
the american beauty of work yourself
to death to look out on.
2. otis
railroad architecture ran elevators
off the ground to get weight it needed up
like people off land to get over then
an elevator railroad floated architecture
up floors open as plains to the sky
through walls into rooms coupled like cars
to each other without a climb
hallway distances like vistas through
zigzag mountain valleys as work’s landscape
the first time since walking sheep in the cloud
meadows far away from the later smoke
the elevators laid more meadow out
than the mountain had basis for
its little square created acreage out of air.
more than the fiery iron horse the hidden
legged spider wove worlds more tightly into
her realm of feeding upon more needed
immediately she trained her fare
into catching her by waiting for her to swallow
the fat rides she needed to keep her moving.
and moving faster with no feeling
of movement she has architecture anesthetized
to no other way as long as there is up
it will feed her with it.
she has learned
how to go streetwise through airports
she tells you when
the moving walkway is ending.
3.
the rookery
was built out of birds
which were actually
individual flames
not really
birds with fiery plumage
they stood out against
the masonry of black smoke
all that survived the fire. I have
that x-periential thing about fire that makes me crazy
at even the thought of it I x.
so the idea of the city
having only this place for birds to land after
took me a long time to visit.
the difference between locate identify
know something about and visit
re-experience identify with is
in if the roosts that become return call back a sky
unclear how much what’s left
tells that much
about what has been lost enough
to nest its shard against which tomorrow lies best
living its death until death is shown the lie
it lives into life. it stirs
nothing suddenly. more the politicking of birds
found a place to buy
and sell the audacity
to have survived. as the architectonic of a city.
4. any programmable hall
crown hall is a lyric
miniature of bridge
el and street-stacking
engineering.
railroad
building to art song.
the base work. the columns
of profit. and a capital.
the vast empty spaces
re-created
inside are potential.
what ended frankenstein always waiting
to be given life it already has.
any programmable hall a machine.
but these are new life
designing already
itself piece
by piece cell
to embody back maybe even
the species that crashed
into the vast invisible window
walls in their migrations.
the artificial intelligence of walls
in the first place that beheld us in
to our cathedral
now to other worlds
out of the darkness. the light
the open. in their way the intelligence.
5. against all that square straight up
the hancock leans away in all
faced direction from you
to the side up ahead
the darkness so strictly structured
it erupts in a gusher of sky pure
american brought in
against all that square straight up
drill out on the plain of it all x-ed out
into simple
optimistic shift of dimension.
all tapering has its vanishing point.
infinity its asymptote.
any two lines converging downtown has
its hancock its lift off michigan avenue. pyramid
6. the aqua
only underneath
the water from the street
can you see up
the moss hanging floors
of the waterfall cliff
orchids of light
off the ledge balconies
the re-vegetation
of the canyon
the re-visualization of our spaces
from our animal
need to be curious about what’s around
our corners not just
that they square.
the walls of wave canyons
beneath the southwest wash out up here
with clear views divest of the ground
to dust of much that has lifted them to where
they can see
is runoff.
a drainage of romanoff
richness in its dissolution of geography.
the appalachian humps—
bodies bedded the long house
state to horizon the smokies roused
from the valleys by the updrafts’ bump
you to look up into
a landscape from a bird up turned view.
7. 860-880 lake shore drive
we were discussing how devoid of everything—
it was
she was listening to our conversation
she said she had lived in one
of his residences and it was calmly scary
how the building almost wasn’t there
yet everything you needed was
within reach
the way she went
at things was the way it was
already it was like there
were no walls
which made it feel
really spacious she was never in a place
that fit her so every
where she turned was where
she wanted
it directed her in
that it didn’t
everything was there
everything else was out of her way
it was as if he refused
to build in the way anything ever again. it was almost insane.
( lake point )
rippley mies
van der rohe licorice
melting farthest out
into the lake
walls waving around
like a curtain a sail
of window
melting into solid wind
lotte lenya singing brecht
the remembered ship
against which the rational was not a defense.
which loaded his tools.
nothing but the existence of line
left not even a rule. the pencil the point wavering
8. marina
pie in the sky with petal
pinched crust stacked high
above its park of delivering vehicles
on the river a pie boat too
can cut in (there’s a marina) home
to pinecone peel down balcony
symmetry fun for tie up
and sing dock of the day as it.
this city doesn’t hold back
bay manners up nor not
talk straight it does look like
a corncob. a celestial gate from here
a bean. cakes
of ice with faces on them. us. a fountain.
the base. the column.
of river wheels roof
over your head with food
and amenities layered in
between
your work all day and immediate
need to sit down without traffic
stacked up in one convenient
location residents willing to pay
for required. freedom
of imagination insight into freedom—
the capital. let’s say
to try anything once
but more deeply freedom from fear of response.
9. the drawbridge houses
the boats go by
the drawer
bridge pants’ flies
go up
the river
like the moaners’ bench
of fifteen-year-old boys when
the girls go by.
think how heavy the weight
that balancing lifts
to let the delicately lilting
sails like skirts through and the traffic
back across
if it were in your pants to toss
up or down. the massive
concrete counterweights like balls.
streets go up at the helens
navigating the obstructions some
not come down except at some castrating
war of recollection a reconnection.
think of the engineering
of the open and close as of arms.
who houses in the palaces of these gates.
what counter power holds place
on the bank of this flood
this flowing and crossing of desires?
the palaces balance’s hub
a dowry to house the form of the beloved.
11. di chirico chapel
a Franz Kline ceiling painting on
the tunnel vault of a building
which incorporated its partial collapse
from a bombing the black paint swaths
beside the open to the night sky
the stars
the outdated old style of stars
lit the chamber pale
a standing shadow fell across the floor
through a small open door slanted off the wall
the no one there stood outside any light to block
her hoop balanced
on its own shadow not rolling still
a dress model of its architecture rose off the air.
12. the mecca
this isn’t there
anymore something famous
is built over
it that has nothing
to do with it or for
now
as public
housing went up and
torn down
too to defeat
.
.
.
.
13.
robie house mock horizon sub urb laying down
its give up retreat from the city back into
the low against the ground against the high
of skyscrapers re-carpeted the nation outside.
but is back now to reclaim
the collapsed properties it let go grow
weed to re-gentry
heedless of tearing up whose rooms back into profit.
the however here
police drawn blood on their doors have lived
dangerous and can paint it angel mad sign again
anytime if flipping back and forth for gain
were to spread too far the spread could find their
horizontal shrunk to their floated upper floor.
14. shedd aquarium
Arapaima gigas third
most ancient species my totem fish
made so from the fact it targeted me
to eat. six feet of it attacked me
when forgetting protocol
I slipped my legs into its tank without
warning
it I was feeding not food it mauled
my toe it thinking it a goldfish which
was usually how I announced service.
The Shedd’s A. specimen is the oldest living
in the country so old its heavy tail
dragged down its spine into that hump of the frail.
This might be the last time we meet.
Some sheds you walk into with experience
of a specific song to reclaim.
I couldn’t see the building for checking first
the clarity of the tanks’ water the name
plates above the windows how well
the shit was cleaned off the bottom and if it came
there was nothing in a tank at all having
eaten itself— this first fame
is what was always held up to the staff
for us to surpass. and here I was degrees
and jobs later still holding it up
for inspection. it is
a beautiful building we have built
together this life arapaima gigas. huge thanks.
Source: Poetry (June 2019)