Dan Antion

Remarkable Design – #1LinerWeds

I have, on numerous occasions, featured buildings from around New England that were built in the 19th and early 20th century. Most of these buildings are brick, and one of the comments that frequently is made is how they don’t build commercial buildings like that anymore. The buildings I’ve featured have all had interesting details in the brick work around windows and doors and very often there has been an interesting element worked into the brick at the top of the wall. I like to think that architects, building owners and the craftsmen who built these buildings all too pride in their work and wanted to give something interesting to the community.

This generally is not the approach to construction today. Today, construction seems to be driven by a desire to “get thew job done” and to “pay attention to the budget.”

About a mile from our house, just over the line of the neighboring town, Amazon is building a ginormous warehouse. When finished, the warehouse will provide over 2.2 million square feet of storage. While more than half of the building is still a bare steel frame, the image below, taken from the northeast corner, gives you an idea of what the finished building will look like.

It does look like painter’s tape.

When the Editor and I drove by the building, her comment was.

“It looks like they left a strip of painter’s tape on the top.”

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you would like to join in on the fun, you can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants.

The honeysuckle has started to bloom.
“I was sleeping”
The Mock Orange is blooming now.
“Is this OK? Am I up?”
Hi Smokey.
It’s hard for me to walk past these.
I think the cot was too hot.
“Are you looking at me?”
I think it’s time to take the cushion off. We are in the shade.
Out there, it’s 91°f (33°c)
We had thunderstorms overnight.
We walked early on a foggy morning.
Bunny!

64 comments

  2. That building is a little scary. As you say, older buildings tell a story about their long-gone builders; I wonder what story this will tell in the dim future. On the other hand, there are honeysuckle blossoms and mock orange. I haven’t seen honeysuckle in forever and mock orange in even longer! The mock orange takes me right back to my grandma’s house — thank you!

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    • If I had to guess, I’d say this building won’t last nearly as long as the brick factories that were built in Hartford over 100 years ago. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to like in this place after it’s done being a warehouse. The honeysuckle drives us crazy as it encroaches farther along the fence every year, but smelling these blossoms keeps me from hacking it to death. The mock orange is one of my wife’s favorites.

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  4. The Editor came up with the perfect one liner!! That’s exactly what it looks like! So sorry to hear all the bad press about this building. What is wrong with people?

    The picture of that squirrel in the tree is adorable. Poor MiMi having her beauty sleep disturbed once again. Mock Orange. Can’t remember the last time I saw it. Beautiful.

    Love your capture of the flag in the fog.

    Murphy hopes the three M’s stay cool and comfy today. Next few days promise to be a bit cooler.
    Ginger

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    • The controversy around the events at this construction sight is crazy. It’s very hard to understand, Ginger. I almost skipped this as a one-liner, but I love it ;-)

      Maddie and I walked earlier. I will do a little work in my shop before it gets too hot in there, but I’ll be calling it a day early, that’s for sure.

      Stay cool.

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  5. I agree with the Editor! Perhaps minimalism is making a comeback in architecture. More likely I think you are right. No one takes pride in their work anymore, in the aesthetics. The attitude now is get ‘er done! The soul has left the building.

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  7. Big square building to chuck out big square boxes to be delivered to big square landing pads at millions of homes. :-) Could any of us envisioned living in a time when you actually did not have to leave your house because everything could be dropped off on your doorstep? Interesting times for sure. I LOVE that mock orange blossom – beautiful. Now, do you think the WP happy folks can explain why your Wednesday post routinely shows up in my email but not the others? :-) Oh well, I know where to find you.

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    • I am going to pass that comment onto the WP folks, Judy. They tell me they are hard at work on this problem. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but it’s driving me nuts. Thanks you so much for finding me. As for the big square building, there isn’t enough paint and there aren’t enough shrubs to hide that mess.

      My wife loves the mock orange, too.

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  8. The concept of taking pride in one’s work… well, it seems like most people have no idea what that is, whether construction or anything else.
    Lovely gallery today, Dan. I’m relating to MiMi — not sure whether or not I’m actually awake! LOL. Hugs on the wing.

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      • Dan, you are so kind — thanks for the shout-out, and for your words.
        Ha! You know how I feel about that. I started calling the color scheme of DC “DC Drab.” My office building was next to a (small-ish) apartment building. It was mostly gray, like every other office building in the area, but it had terracotta color diamond-shape accents — so I loved it. That was the only splash of color I could see. Then they made “improvements” and changed the terracotta to grayish tan, just a fraction lighter than the gray. That’s DC. When they say a splash of color, tan qualifies.

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  10. I think Amazon was trying to mimic Costco’s red stripe, but it didn’t turn out exactly right. I love the old brick buildings. We have a few around here and perhaps some day I’ll find the time to photograph a few and show up at Thursday doors.

    Ooooh, the Mimi paw…I want to come through the computer screen aaannnddd….
    I’ll let it go for now, but you and the kids and the Editor have a great and awesome day.

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  11. Are they still moving along with that building? I suppose they want it to be noticed–no matter what you notice it for. You have some beautiful flowers in your yard, Dan! My Mock Orange has bloomed and gone already, and the honeysuckle is working on it. Your pine cone photo is a little gem–very pretty! I do believe your temps are higher than ours. The humidity is killing us, but we are at lower temperatures than you. Don’t work too hard!

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    • They are still moving along, Lois. Trying to keep the bad news quiet as they hang sheet after sheet of dull, drab concrete on the walls. I’m glad to see someone else has mock orange plants. My wife loves ours. We have one more day of 90-degree heat, then a return to the 70s where June belongs. Take care and keep the AC humming to get that humidity out.

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    • It’s so big, Ally that it can’t help but get your attention. I know it’s just a warehouse, but I recall the brick warehouses I’ve seen along side the railroad tracks and I guess I just long for those days. Of course, those were measured in thousands of square feet, not millions.

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  14. Hurry. Hurry we are watching you. How would you like a job where your performance is measured down to the second ? Measured down to the second all day long. Where the timing of your restroom break, the time it takes to walk across the warehouse and the time of the restroom break counts against your productivity. Where everything must be done quickly. Except arriving and leaving. Once you are finally off the clock it can take a half hour to get out of the parking lot. Maybe that is why they forgot to take the painter’s tape off the top of the building.

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  15. I’ve seen lots of buildings like that where there are distribution centers and the like. In one like this in Naperville, there’s a brewery that has an outdoor seating area that we visited when I was back there. The outside didn’t look great but at least what was inside was fun! I much prefer your photos to the painter’s tape (and the Editor was spot on.)

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    • Ha! I think it would be sad to be asked to design something like that. There are a couple ins and outs, but everything is 90-degrees, flat, white or gray – the essence of drab.

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  18. Amazon is building those warehouses all over the place. Hopefully they have at least an inner courtyard for their employees. Your startled squirrel shot is great. One for the Nature magazines for sure.

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    • From what I understand, Amazon has little regard for employee comfort. At some point, technology will render these warehouses obsolete and Amazon will abandon them. If they wanted to build one in our town, I’d suggest they be made to sign an agreement to remove it if they leave.

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  19. The Editor is right on – it does look like they left a strip of painter’s tape on the top. Given all the beautiful structures you’ve shared and continue to share, this building belongs on the bottom of the heap. Loved your photos, Dan. Thanks for another great tour. 😊

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  20. We’ve had trouble getting people to work on our house. Our painter says there’s more construction work than there are workers available. I enjoyed your flowers and critters.

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  21. Hi Dan – most warehouses are big boxes aren’t they – built to be knocked down within a generation. Definitely not worthy of a nod to artistic design. I much prefer your plants, critters and appropriate notations. I’m now glad the Brutalist designs have been given some merit – however appalling they might have been deemed.

    I saw a programme this week on Coventry Cathedral, bombed in the war, and re-envisaged when a new one was constructed in the 1950s using many avant garde outstanding artists … the building was constructed with stone from 50 miles away … all done by hand … the bombed remains were left to stand guard. I’d love to write a post on it – if I can summon the courage … the programme really inspired me! Cheers Hilary

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    • I’d love to hear about that. So many fine buildings were lost during the war – everywhere in Europe and England. We didn’t suffer that kind of destruction, but we didn’t have buildings that were more than 150 years old for the most part.

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  22. I think you are right, Dan. Like all things in life, the focus has shifted to functionality and cost and away from beauty and attractiveness. This is reflected in the way the average person views jobs, artists, writers, and other artistic fields are regarded differently to accounting, commercial and IT jobs which are seen to be the important ones. Well, that is my perception in any event and I straddle both worlds.

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  25. lol. Maybe they are protecting the top from cats and dirt like I do with my diamond paintings. I put blue painter’s tape around the edges to protect the cats and dirt from sticking to the edges. lol Love the honeysuckle and the bunny.

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