(re)reading Koolhaas’ delirious New York:

“In the tradition of the dime novel, one day in the mid-twenties a pastor comes to see Hood in his office. He represents a congregation that wants to build the greatest church in the world. "The congregation was one of businessmen and the site was an extremely valuable one.... Therefore they wished not only to build the greatest church in the world, but to combine it with revenue producing enterprises including a hotel, a YMCA, an apartment house with a swimming pool, and so on. On the street level would be shops, to bring in high rentals, and in the basement, the largest garage in Columbus, Ohio. The garage was very important, because, in giving his congregation a place to park their cars on coming to work weekdays, the pastor would indeed make the church the centre of their lives...." The pastor had first gone to Ralph Adams Cram, a traditional church architect, who rejected him, especially indignant about the suggested garage. "There would be no room for cars because this noble structure would be constructed on tremendous granite piers ... that would support [it] through all time as a monument to their faith." New York - Hood - is the pastor's last resort. He cannot go back to the businessmen to tell them that the basement will be completely occupied by piers instead of cars. Hood reassures him: “The trouble With Mr Cram is that he has no faith in God. I will design a church for you that will be the greatest church in the world. It will include all the hotels, swimming tanks and candy stores you desire. Furthermore, in the basement will be the largest garage in Christendom because I will build your church on toothpicks and have faith enough In God to believe it will stand up!" For the first time Hood works on a multipurpose building. Indifferent to programmatic hierarchy, he simply assigns parts of the building to the necessary functions. With barefaced literalness he projects two floors, one for the Cathedral and one for the Parking Garage, separated only by inches of concrete - that realize his boast to the pastor and represent the final implementation of the Great Lobotomy's indispensable complement: the Vertical Schism, which creates the freedom to stack such disparate activities directly on top of each other without any concern for their symbolic compatibility.”