There are not many standing structures: most houses, lives, property are now in giant rubble heaps.

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He saw Beethoven as a giant who had shown what it was still possible to do with basic structures such as sonata form.

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At the Satsop site, two giant cooling towers still stand unmolested, and a local community college, Centralia, occasionally uses one of these structures to host an energy conference.

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Asked for specific structures that have inspired him, Mr. Payne e-mails 13 photos of old parks, giant industrial pipes, public benches and the whimsically shaped "Seuss Landing" area within Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park.

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