They aren’t glamorous, and they’ve gone from utilitarian to unnecessary in a surprisingly short amount of time. Their decline in use came so quickly that you may not have noticed them disappearing from cultural landscapes across America. What am I talking about? The pay phone, of course! As of last week, I couldn’t have told you… Read More Calling the Curious: Pay Phones and Preservation
The Space Needle, as the most readily-identifiable landmark in the Seattle skyline, is without a doubt the best-known structure created for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Seattle Center served as the main stage for the World’s Fair and features dozen of other buildings and structures that were originally built for fair use. Among others,… Read More St. Paul’s: The Space Needle’s Unlikely Companion
Novelty architecture arose with the coming of car culture. An early and iconic form of this kitsch architecture is a building shaped like an item, known as a “Duck,” after the iconic Big Duck in New York, built in 1931 (term coined by the authors of Learning from Las Vegas in 1977). Novelty architecture comes in a range… Read More Novelty Architecture: Hat N Boots
Susie Trexler 