Thursday 2 February 2023
I approach the doors to 501 Groveland and ring the bell and wait. It is a public entrance, but it is secured, and I wait for the buzz that will signify that the door has automatically unlocked. Does someone inspect me from a distance, weighing my dress and visage to see if I am suitable for entry? Or does the person on duty hit a button as reflexively as Pavlov’s dog salivates in response to it bell. I suspect I would only be subject to scrutiny if it were late at night, where I am nothing more than an unknown body emerging from a grey mist of fog.
The buzz comes, and I open the door to the alcove, and encounter the inner doors. These doors, too, are locked. Although I have been here many times, it is only recently that I have learned to wait for a second buzz. Something in me feels that having been granted passage through the first set of doors, the second should be open, or at least the buzz should come quickly enough that I need not pause. But that is not the case. It is always a few moments, so that my rhythm of passing from outside to inside is interrupted.
Perhaps, it is not so much a matter of security, but of comportment. I am being slowed down. I am prevented from bringing my sidewalk pace into the building. I am gently reminded that I am entering into a domestic space, although in fact there is a restaurant, currently closed, off to my right. Still, my pace moderated, I now approach the front desk — this place used to be a residential hotel before transmogrifying into condominiums – where I am to state destination and business.
But Andrea is at the front desk. She recognizes me, knows my purpose, and waves me along. I walk through the carpeted space, and pass the floral display in the inner lobby., and approach the elevator. Somewhere someone pushes another button, which will allow the elevator to lift me to my destination on the second floor. Now that I am recognized, now that my business and destination is known, everything flows.
I am reminded of a project from my work days, probably a decade ago. We were imagining how buildings, or spaces, or vehicles, would work, if they were smart, if they knew their visitors and inhabitants and users. We sketched ideas for a smart airport, as airports are a place of total identity, at least beyond security. Everyone has either a badge, or a ticket, and thus much can be inferred about each person.
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