A cheat-week here, as previously noted.

More bad architecture assembled over the last week.

Say, we’re building a structure devoted to Brain Health. What sort of shapes would best reassure the people who need it?

We think that people in the future will wonder what was wrong with us, exactly, but I worry that they won’t.

Say, we’re building a tall tower that will soar to inspirational heights. We want it to give people a sense of aspiration and wonder, don’t we?

No, we want it to unnerve them at a fundamental level.

AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO

This gives you the impression that you, the little person, does not matter at all, and the black bulk of the Institutions will grind right over you like a dark malevolent glacier.

From the end-of-things school of empty overgrown wrecks of a dead civilization school:

"Living."

When the Life Reapers arrived on earth, the soul-eating machines descended from the clouds and bore into the heart of every city.

There’s just something sick at the heart of this design, something intentionally revolting. And of course a few on Reddit thought it was awesome.

The Lovecraftian Oil Horror has revealed itself.

What building would it have replaced? Why, our old friend 230 Wall.

Okay, not our old friend, but it was the subject of some musings last spring when I went to New York. An ordinary building that's getting a rehab.

When I was strolling around the street on Google, I noticed something interesting. Here’s a residential building under construction.

Here’s the same site four years ago.

Why isn’t it finished? Because it’s doomed. It leans.

Scott City, actually, but I'm too lazy to change it. Four thousand souls. The history doesn't seem to tell the entire story:

Scott City was founded in 1885. Like Scott County, the city is named in recognition of a United States General, Winfield Scott.  In October 1884, two women from Chicago, Illinois claimed the land that Scott City is on and built a cabin.

The following February, two men from Chicago came to the cabin and settled. Soon after, many people started arriving in the county and Scott City was then founded in 1885.

Before being founded, Mrs. M.E. De Geer, one of the women that came from Chicago, started a newspaper called the Western Times in March 1885. 

There were many papers in town, but that's another entry.

For some reasons I decided to do a few then-and-now shots, perhaps because the place isn’t particularly interesting. We’ll see.

The church before:

The church after, with new decorations on the painted wall.

Oooh, a post-war grocery store. Do we have a better shot?

Yes, but alas.

It's hard on a town when the grocery store goes out. Hard.

Putting the urns around the door helps to reduce its off-centeredness, but it’s not enough.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Midwest

Looks like it got a thick coat of stucco; I’d bet there are bricks beneath.

FOR THE LAST TIME NOW WE DON’T SELL HOME AIR FILTERS

Des Mart: a fine post-war facade, if a bit rote. Nice to see it intact, and well kept; not a trace of rust.

I can hear the Herb Alpert play. I don’t know why. But I do.

Post-war building in the “public service” style, which could include utilities.

Old man Brenner comes out once a month, wild-eyed and smelly

See? The same “public service” style.

OUMBist of the OUMB.

The modern interpretation of the Main Street commercial strip has been, for decades, an almost instant failure.

No one loves this stuff.

The side was done in 60s Flintstone style.

Something interesting: the high school. I’ll bet it was a WPA building. If not, at least it was built during that era. Kids must have felt pretty spiffy: this was as modern as Buck Rogers.

Finally: a bit of the bygone times.

There's more . . . but there isn't, really.

That'll do! No motels. I'm fresh out of this year's supply.