It is a background building. Buildings today are not designed to provide a quiet support for people and their activities. They are designed to entertain. One might argue that such a trend should be welcomed. That this competition to create more stimulating buildings is making our cities more imaginative colorful places.
Buildings operate as background in two important ways.
At the scale of the city, they act collectively to frame important community architecture, reinforce streets and define public spaces. At the scale of the pedestrian, background buildings provide a specific setting for people and their particular activities. The role of a background building at the more intimate scale of the pedestrian is to promote the appearance and activities of the people for whom it was built. Background buildings provide a setting in which people are the most important visual elements. Though these points may seem painfully self-evident, it is clear from the visual clamor of our metropolitan areas and the bewildering visual complexity of many new buildings, that they have been largely forgotten, and sadly, on purpose.