Is the Limelight a Yuppie parable of the American Dream?

I was in Chelsea running an errand for someone and I passed the Limelight. In case you don't know, the Limelight is an old deconsecrated church which was an infamous nightclub in the early 1990's; home of the "club kid" movement (as portrayed in the film Party Monster) and temple to hedonism unbound--given the allegedly limitless flow of cocaine and Ecstasy. And pray tell, what now is the Linelight? A high-end mini mall. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I view this as a progression of degradations and perversions. I am no moralist (perish the thought!) and yet, I find the transformation of this building twisted. I find the shopping mall even more base than the nightclub. I am certain that the transformation of a once-holy space into a paradise of pleasure (in both of its modern iterations) was fully deliberate. Yet I feel a certain malaise about this. The gorgeous churchyard lays bare--it looks like what the French would call a bosquet, or small grove, is now a stomping ground for the homeless. I feel this building curiously functions as a parable for the American Dream-- perhaps the American dream of the yuppie generation. Of course the American dream as we know it is pure mythology, yet it informs so much of our literature and our cultural signifiers. Perhaps this structure is a testament to transformation, reconstruction, and ultimately, narcissism--all themes present in perhaps the greatest work centered around this concept-- The Great Gatsby. Yet the American dream is ultimately a myth in Gatsby'a world--his grandiosity cannot save him in the end--and I see an odd, bittersweet parallel in the strange odyssey of this building. Then again, maybe a building is just a building. ;-)



UPDATE: I actually went inside when I was walking back (okay, I'm still inside now) and boy, is it worse than I could have ever thought. Pumping dubatep music, this place is a furious sea of pleather and sequins. Bandage dresses galore! Moisturizer made with tiny bits of gold! And it's pretty much completely EMPTY. Also, the interior design is a mess, with staircases jutting around everywhere (but not in a cool MC Escher kind of way) which leads to complete disorientation. And instead of working with the great vaulted arches already here, they are clashed with stark black and white staircases at odd angles and multiple mezzanines. Is this the apotheosis of our culture, America? I sure hope not! This place is, in many ways, such a symbol of conspicuous consumption. I feel like you'd never see this kind of thing (in a former church, anyway) on any other continent. Is this ingenuity and innovation or a signifier of corruption and capitalism?