Lileks comments:

Let us set aside the traffic noise, for a moment. You could never open the drapes. Ever. The giant plate-glass windows look right into the kitchen. Anyone walking past can look right in, so you can’t sit at your kitchen table and have a cup of morning coffee in your underwear. I cannot think of a situation in which you’d open your drapes, frankly.

What if you preferred to walk around the house naked as the day you were born? And likewise smeared with blood and lubricants? If you didn’t close your drapes – for that matter if you just didn’t buy any – could people complain? Even if you get around the matter of literal nakedness, there’s the matter of psychic nudity; living so close to the sidewalk with only glass between you and the thronging masses would feel like living in a department store window. No, it would be worse: store windows are set up a foot, so you have to look up and marvel; these units place you at the same elevation of the street, denying you any sort of mental distance between your space and public space. I cannot imagine who would want to live there.

This is why in all the time I lived in the South Bay of LA, I never wanted to live on The Strand. I would walk along and be looking right into people's kitchens, living rooms, home gyms. Perhaps some people are exhibitionists, but if I lived there, it would be to enjoy a view, not provide one, and I'd do most of my living on the upper floors.

Some smart performance artiste' will get a grant to "live" there and say "they" ARE art.

They artiste' will cook, drink, p00p, have s3x all in plain view of men women and children walking by. The art world will be agog, and the "art" will be shown on CBS Sunday Morning, and Oprah. Susan Sarandon will make a guest appearance at the opening and Cindy Sheehan will drop by, but will refuse to eat and she will thus be unable to join in the Groop P00P, held daily at 7:00 AM.

A Religious group will go to court to have the entire exhibit shut down. The ACLU will jump to the artiste's aid pro bono, as opposed to pro bozo, or pro Sonny Bono. The 9th Circus Court of Upsetting Apples Carts will find for the artiste' and fine the religious group for having an opinion on the city owned sidewalk without a permit.

They will be jailed and the artiste' will get to take center stage at every Hollywood awards show for the next 12 months.

This reign of terror will only end when another artiste' builds a stack of rusted Old Milwaukee cans into a wall hiding the original artiste's art. The new piece will be called "Rusted Old Milwaukee cans built into a wall to hide the original artiste's art." The art world will be agog.

The new "art" will be shown on a special 1 time, 2-hour version of 60 Minutes. Mostly done without voices, or any commentary, just the sounds of the streets for the atmospheric effect of the inner city. They will win 6 Emmys for their efforts, even though only people associated with the project, their families, and Michael Moore, watch the show. Art world agogs with the network in attendance, this time!

The artiste's will fall in love, and get married with no regard to race or birth-era sexual predisposition and move to Santa Fe.

The space will be turned into a shrine for tolerance, and the religious group will be banned due to their criminal records.

In 2056 the building will be torn down to make room for the Chelsea Clinton Presidential Library. Even though Ms. Clinton never visits the art exhibit or the city in her lifetime and she never becomes President.

The art world will be, once again, agogged.

My alma mater built a new science and engineering library a few years back. One of the styling cues was a set of full-length ground-level windows, looking right in at a row of tables where students could study. Now, during winter, the occaisonal jerk comes along and throws a snowball at one of the windows; that produces a suprisingly loud "THWACK", and causes the poor souls at the nearest tables to jump half out of their skins.