Readers at Bruce Ross’ blog recently caught wind of the looming financial crisis facing California Pension funds. Last week in Sacramento, we walked by the CalPERS building and it made quite an impression.
It’s a lovely building. Still, the central glass tower seems to serve no function other than providing full time glass cleaning jobs. As art, it’s beautiful. As a symbol, it doesn’t speak of thrift, or frugality, or savings, or any of those qualities one might associate with a retirement program. Such architectural hubris is not at all uncommon among big banks and securities firms, but this glass palace seems over-the-top for offices of state bureaucrats. But then, obviously they don’t see themselves as such, do they? The building speaks much louder than words.
This disconnect probably wouldn’t have caught my attention, were it not for the frustration of knowing we are unable to even do as much as house our police department in an abandoned shampoo factory in Redding. Or, that our city council appears to have been bullied into not buying a decent new office building across from city hall for 1/4 of what it cost to build it. In my opinion, this is such as missed opportunity. All it would take would be a few pieces of office furniture such as cubicles and the office space would be able to be used as a fully functioning headquarters.
I really do think things need to change in this regard. There are no doubts about it, office space is vital, even if all you do is fit out a head office. But a small, poor office is not going to help your business, so it’s important to improve upon this, and ensure that you can do better. However, it seems that private investors knew better than to pass that one up. Too bad CalPERS couldn’t have invested in either building. It would appear they have some money to throw around. I guess it’s who you know that counts.
