NYC’s Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model

A couple of days before The New York Times published Garrison Keillor’s hilarious op-ed piece “The End of an Era in Publishing” lamenting the decline of New York City’s literary elite, it published a nostalgic article about the city’s historic Flatiron Building titled “A Quirky Building That Has Charmed Its Tenants.” Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly all of the building’s office space is occupied by Macmillan, one of several old line publishing houses that are having great difficulty adjusting to technology, business and life in the 21st century. Here are my favorite lines from the article:

• “Everyone will be dragged kicking and screaming from here,” said Airie Stuart, publisher of Palgrave, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

• “I came in to find the window on the floor and a 1,200-page manuscript all over the place,” said Mr. Janssen, director for academic and library marketing at Macmillan.

• “I have an incredible view,” said Charles Bozian, Macmillan’s vice president for finance and administration. “But not unless I stand up.”

• “And the bathrooms are not very nice, either,” said Alison Lazarus, the president of Macmillan’s sales division. When important guests visit, she has them use the spacious bathroom on the 18th floor, by far the building’s best, offering a view all the way to New Jersey.

• The elevators were so slow that one executive claims you could read an entire manuscript while waiting for one and then riding it up. Mr. Murphy lived in a high-rise right across the street from the Flatiron for 15 years. “My commute,” he said, “was a half hour.”

• “I think they were surprised by the response of people wanting to stay in this building, even with its foibles,” Mr. Shear said. “You see these strange little offices. There’s nothing cookie-cutter here. I mean, did you see the 21st floor?” he asked, laughing. “It’s like a place you’d put your mad aunt.”

Although Macmillan’s lease runs through the year 2018, the beautiful landmark Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model.

U2 launches 360° world tour in Barcelona with some space oddities

Irish rock band U2 kicked off their 360° world tour on June 30th before a crowd of 90,000 rabid fans in Barcelona, Spain. Performing inside Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona and Europe’s largest stadium, U2 played on a space-age circular stage, dubbed “The Claw,” which is designed to provide fans with an unobstructed line of sight from any seat in the stadium.

According to the Irish Times, when Bono and the boys walked onto the stage at the beginning of the concert, they were greeted by David Bowie’s famous line “Ground Control to Major Tom.” Addressing the crowd, Bono welcomed fans to “our space station,” saying “it looks like it was designed by Gaudi, but then this is Barcelona -- the capital of surrealism.” Later in the show, Bono mentioned the fortieth anniversary of the first moon landing and established a live video linkup with the astronauts on the International Space Station. Band members asked the astronauts questions and Bono even convinced one of the astronauts to signup -- from space -- to his charitable
ONE Campaign.

According to The Independent, a British newspaper, “the stage for U2's 360° tour looks like a spaceship or a supersized version of HG Wells' War of the Worlds tripod Martian fighting machines with a dash of Catalan visionary architect Antoni Gaudi thrown in for good measure. [...] What looks like four huge tentacles sprout from a central structure wrapped up in video screens and speakers with a radio transmitter on top. The Irish group look like they're about to be squashed like ants.”

Somewhat related: If you've never seen the vintage U2 concert film Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky (1984), pay a visit to your local video store. It's awesome!

Straight out of Sci-Fi, Canberra’s iconic Martian Embassy building celebrates its 50th birthday

The Australian Academy of Science's Shine Dome, which is known affectionately as the “Martian Embassy” among locals in Canberra, Australia, recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Designed by architect Roy Grounds and completed in 1959, the iconic building has won numerous awards and has been nominated to the World Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture. One of the building's more interesting features: it's surrounded by a moat of water.