“There are four architectural periods:
Pre-1850: Situated one floor above the ground level (the piano nobile) in a palace, chateau, or large house. Vaulted ceilings were succeeded by flat painted ceilings. Used for dancing. A mainstay of the Jane Austen-Leo Tolstoy novel.
1850-1945: Situated on the ground floor of hotels and commonly decorated with classical columns and gold leaf. The floors were sprung for dancing, but they are now most often used by businessmen’s lunch clubs to listen to speakers or for charity functions. A fixture of Edith Whartonesque fiction.
1946-1970: Situated on the fortieth floor (the penthouse) where they revolve. These rooms are decorated with oil-based materials in primary colours. They are usually empty. Sometimes used in feature films to depict modern life.
Post-1970: Situated in hotel basements beside the garage. These cement rooms seat 2,500 people when all partitions are folded back. They are used for BUSINESS CONFERENCES and AWARD SHOWs. Thanks to the division of society into thousands of specialized groups, they are always full. The basement ballroom has replaced the opera house, which itself replaced the royal palaces as a place in which the elites legitimize themselves. They exist in a post-literate vacuum. See: CORPORATISM.
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
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