The Japanese believe that sadness comes from an awareness of the fragility of life at the same time one is captivated by its transient beauty. The cherry blossoms. But that is a very superficial understanding of sadness, may I say. True sadness arises when we realize that the world around us is imperishable, and rather ugly Let me hasten to add that the ugliness of New York is instantly amenable to a mental flipflop that converts it into beauty-but a sad beauty, such as the StarrettLehigh Building, since it cannot claim the beauty tiara on LSEA PIERS AND TROCCHILAND 123 С н E unironically. The dated obduracy of the manmade is sadder than the i feeling to look across the East River at the Bronx, Queens, velt Island's asylum in ruins, than across the noble Hudson at the paJI ades forest with its scattering of condos. I don't mean to imply that w Jerseyans lack a tragic sense, only that the industrial vista across the £ t River is much more heartbreaking, and the proof is that Woody Allen ould never have chosen a location on the Hudson River for his famous scene in Manhattan (looking out from Sutton Place at the 59th Street Bridge) to convey the tenuousness of love. APPROACHING THE Jacob K.Javits Convention Center, which stretches from West 34th to West 39th Streets, I am struck by how little this bold lump of coal has been assimilated into Manhattan's bosom since it opened fifteen years ago. It was supposed to transform all the blocks around it, making Tenth and Eleventh Avenues bloom with hotels and shops; but of course the area has remained just as bleak and nondescript as ever. The only signs of new commercial enterprise serving the conventioneers are the silverfish dropped by hookers on the pavement. ;ts 0 transience of nature, which explains why it gives you a more I remember my excitement when the Convention Center was first under construction. I managed to sneak inside and clamber over sacks of dirt, and look up at that ebony glass roof, with its echoes of the Crystal Palace or some nineteenthcentury Paris railroad station. Today I cast about for some explanation as to why this building, by the internationally renowned I. M. Pei, has had so little impact on New York's consciousness. The man who solved the Louvre's entrance problems with a pyramid must have thought to anchor the West Thirties with a stark, jagged rock. If only he hadn't compromised the shivery black glass with that superfluous off white concrete bulwark on the river fa5ade: was it meant to add a touch of monumental dignity, or protect the building's backside from outof eontrol cars crashing into it from the adjoining highway? Pei may not be У favorite architect in any case, but I don't think that design flaws were reason the Convention Center failed to click with the city around it. 'lf Was built for outoftowners, hence never meant to be read as "New York"; then, the moment it opened it was declared too small f some expositions; then it was bedeviled by corruption and kickback scan dais.