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Ray Rolfe

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The Code Allows It

The Code Allows It
The Code Allows It

From my laptop
From my laptop

to the wall of MIA
to the wall of MIA

The people who saw
The people who saw


Statement

This was hung in the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts for a show called "The Art of Democracy".

I created it to influence the current onslaught of building developers in Minneapolis.

It is the new Guthrie Theater, still in construction, with a geodesic dome on top. I tried to get as close a color/light match as possible so that it looks as if the dome is really there. I belive it looks like the dome BELONGS there, the Guthrie unfinished without it.

The phrase "The Code Allows It", to me, has become a call for topping cillindrical architecture with domes as a necessary finishing touch. The Minneapolis convention center has many "the code allows it" type structures. Look around town, you will see many more.
I first heard the phrase from either Shaffer or Richardson. One of the new high density residential developers gave a presentation at the Soap Factory because their massive proposed condo developments will greatly effect our art gallery. Lighting conditions will change, supreme views of downtowns skyline will disappear behind a 30 story building. It's sad to me. Anyhow, there was and may still be some issue about the heights of the buildings in this historic district.
The developer was attempting to calm the shock by saying, oh this is just a draft and they probably won't be so large. Something to the effect of everything can change. Speaking for a plot of land behind the Soap, rail track side, which I think should be used to expand Pillsbury Park and preserve the art galleries view of the city, I said "Well how about you just don't build them at all?". Thats when he said it.
"Oh but the code allows it, this is what the city wants"
Oh really, you speak for the city? I thought, but stayed quite the rest of the presentation.

So later I realized, thats how rich people think. The code allows it. Everything can be financed, city subsidies, bank loans, high rents/prices. Hey the rich can do whatever the code allows.

So I thought to apply this logic to influence innovation in city planning and building development. Can we have a healthy city with rooftop geodesic housed botanical gardens? SURE! THE CODE ALLOWS IT! Just look at the masonry design. Those
guys who built cillindricaly, they were preparing for the future. You can read the master plan, if you know the code. And what the code allows.

Idealy, this is the kick-off piece of a whole serries I will do entitled "The Code Allows It".

This print is currently in a time capsul under the M.I.A