The Glass Curtain: Promiscuous Conspicuous Consumption

People who live in glass houses should zip up their pants.

Penelope Green's exposé, "Yours for the Peeping," in the Nov. 4 edition of the NYT poses an insightful connection between the vogue for glass apartment buildings and the loss of privacy in a connected transparent society. I immediately thought of Greta Garbo and her quest for solitude within the fortress-like walls of the Campanile building on E. 52nd St. and while walking on the streets of New York. Green's essay ends with a hint of a return to privacy in our era.

Who knows? Erecting brick walls again may literally and figuratively come back in style.

Image: sketch of lobby of Edward Larrabee Barnes' IBM building, 590 Madison Avenue.