Edifice complex

is one of the buildings commonly cited as an example of the Marcos dictatorship's edifice complex. The term "edifice complex" was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos' practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda. Typically built with a Brutalist architectural style, perhaps to emphasize their grandiose character, these construction projects were funded by foreign loans, allowing the incumbent Marcos administration to create an impression of progress. The first of the crises occurred in 1970, which many economic historians consider to have triggered the socioeconomic unrest which later led Marcos to impose martial law in 1972. The expression has also been generalized outside of the context of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines.

is one of the buildings commonly cited as an example of the Marcos dictatorship's edifice complex. The term "edifice complex" was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos' practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda. Typically built with a Brutalist architectural style, perhaps to emphasize their grandiose character, these construction projects were funded by foreign loans, allowing the incumbent Marcos administration to create an impression of progress. The first of the crises occurred in 1970, which many economic historians consider to have triggered the socioeconomic unrest which later led Marcos to impose martial law in 1972. The expression has also been generalized outside of the context of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines. ==In popular culture== American humorist Jean Shepherd used the term in a short story, "Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb that Struck Back." Shepherd wrote: "All around me New York was busily, roaringly, endlessly rebuilding itself, like some giant phoenix rising from the red-hot ashes of its dead self. New York's incurable Edifice Complex blooms mightily in midsummer." The story was first published in the July 1965¹ issue of Playboy and later appeared in Shepherd's 1966 book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. The term was mentioned in the contemporary 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno in which the developer of the ill-fated skyscraper was maneuvering with a U.S. Senator to secure federal funding for similar buildings around the United States. In episode 39 of the 1990s television sitcom Home Improvement, titled "Love is a Many Splintered Thing," main character Tim Taylor's next door neighbor, Wilson, jokes that Tim has "an edifice complex" due to the fact that he is a handyman who enjoys building things. The term is again mentioned in the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies when, after being captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon (from which Elliot Carver has hung a large banner featuring his face), James Bond remarks: "Another Carver Building. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he developed an edifice complex".

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