Thursday, April 04, 2013

1958 Hodgepodge Lodge

I notice new buildings going up. And, as I suppose I'm meant to, I notice the architecture. Architects have a couple of goals in mind. One is to build a building that meets certain values of functionality, like "LEED standards" which champion energy efficiency. The other thing architects want is for people to take notice of the esthetics of their buildings.
The art of architecture, as it were.
But, like most people, they follow trends. Creativity is nice but plagiarism is quicker, as they say. That must be why I see so much of what I'm seeing today. Back in the late eighties, when for no apparent reason everything macaroni-like was suddenly called pasta, the big architecture fad was canopies, those tent-like overhangs that were snapped on new buildings and used to update old.
The recent tendency at first seemed to be structures not unlike 60s airport terminals, but then today's building fashion frenzy became any jumbles of mixed materials on the exterior. Hodgepodge Lodge. Some brink and some stone. Some horizontal lap siding, in two or three different widths. Some board and batten perhaps.
Then there'll be something that looks like corrugated aluminum sheets. But it won't actually be colored aluminum, it will have some solid earth tone. The net artistic intent of all this materials mishmash appears to be contemporary visual variety.
Or, as I like to call it, Trailer Trash Modern.
"I got your corrugated mobile home siding here on my pop-out. Then there's the brick for my homemade smoker. Some lap boards on my shed with the blue tarp on the roof. Then I got some Krylon painted plywood here to fix that hole Jim-Bob blew out of the bedroom when he was cooking up a batch of meth.
“Purty ain't it?"
America, ya gotta love it.

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