The Lobby: Volume One

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Paul Miller

Document Type

Thesis Prep

Degree

B. ARCH

Date

Fall 2008

Keywords

Lobbyists, Architecture and Politics, architecture thesis book, Washington D.C.

Language

English

Disciplines

Architecture

Description/Abstract

"There have been many projections of a utopian society where all should have access to humanity's total body of knowledge. With that knowledge, the people would be granted power: But in fact, not many have access to the kind of knowledge that produces power; and many who do don't know how to use it. Knowledge is only power if you control it.

In Washington D.C., a priviledged group of political consultants, the lobbyists, have slowly and steadily gained a tremendous amount of power through their control of information needed by private citizens, corporations, and elected officials. Always the middleman, the lobbyist constantly mediates the party that wants something and the other that can give it to them.

Currently housed in generic office space near K Street, there is no architectural presence of the lobbyists where they do most of their business. More than two miles from the Capitol building, they make their home far from where power is represented in Washington. The lobby proposes to physically plug these middlemen into the system they alreadty have much control over; simultaneously giving them presence, acknowledging their access, and revealing their control."

Additional Information

Advisors: Jonathan Lott / Mark Robbins

Recommended Citation

Miller, Paul, "The Lobby: Volume One" (2008). Architecture Thesis Prep. 25.
https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_tpreps/25