A steeply angled concrete support at street-level at the base of the new academic building at Cooper Union between 6th and 7th Streets has had several rows of low metal spikes recently applied not to thwart homeless people wanting to take a break but skate-boarders not wanting to break their legs.

According to a posting yesterday at quartersnacks.com, "drunk people will still climb on it, but skateboarders will not." The support is not far from the entrance to McSorley's, an old saloon that sells light and dark ale in pint mugs, two at a time at a very reasonable price and cheese and crackers with a devilish horseradish mustard for even less, making it the "in" spot even if it doesn't bother with velvet ropes.

"Clearly a display of 'progressive' architecture," the article at quartersnacks.com noted, "this retarded appendage of the new Cooper Union building quickly turned into one of the best skate spots in the area. The bank is an upwards triangle, fairly mellow, and made out of ridiculously smooth, polished concrete. It is narrow, and you will need to dip in and out of the corner when skating it, or simply pop a wallie over one of the many slanted pillars also extending from the building."

The item also observed that "the spot is positioned right next to the front security desk, so odds are inevitably against you," adding that "Oh, and white people with liberal arts degrees will often stop by and ask you why you're destroying such a magnificent work of art."

The recently completed building was designed by Thom Mayne of Morphosis, an architecture firm best known in this country for its Caltrans District 7 Headquarters building in Los Angeles and the University of Toronto Graduate House.

The Cooper Union building is a-kilter with its scrims and deep gashes and is among the most distinctive buildings in the city since Marcel Breuer designed his marvelously Brutalist Whitney Museum of American Art that may be abandoned soon by the museum.

Curbed.com took note of the quartersnack.com item with its report under the category of "starchitecture sullied" with the headline "Cooper Union to East Village: Skate, and Die."

The curbed.com item noted that "while the school has tried to put the brakes on such lawsuit-baiting revelry in the past, this seems awfully harsh, and awfully permanent," adding "as always, we blame our parents."

Many apartment buildings have placed similar metal spikes on their shrubbery walls in an attempt to thwart and maim lingering by rabble, well-dressed or not, but most have not sicked the dogs on skateboarders yet.