An unusual Corinthian column caught my eye from the road and lured me closer. I was surprised to find an unexpected theme incorporating a diverse array of architectural materials. I grabbed a few photos and continued on my journey…
The column that sang to me as a siren sings her song…
Column detail. I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
More columns! Here they serve as an oddly-scaled and roofless porte-cochère.
Multiple stylistic elements join forces to create a one-of-a-kind assemblage of various materials.
A wide variety of fenestration types have been incorporated. The roofing material and red paint attempt to tie the disparate elements together.
A once-futuristic lamp keeps watch over an adjacent road. A quarter-circle window serves as a transom above a door on a shed-style addition to an addition to a former service station. Between them, a bus has been repurposed as an advertising billboard, complete with nighttime illumination.
Multiple window shapes and sizes enliven the rear elevation which is clad in various types of material.
These are really amazing- it’s incredible the sort of buildings people seem to prefer to build for themselves when given the option. I wouldn’t have believed these window choices if there weren’t pictures.
Do they actually prefer these designs or is this just what is most affordable? Do they care in the first place? I will forever wonder.
I, too, have asked myself similar questions! I would guess that the answers vary from place to place, and from situation to situation. In this case, I would guess that this was an existing structure – probably a rather conventional 1960’s motel – which has been added onto with various materials which were likely available as opposed to being consciously specified or intentionally sought. Regardless of the level of stylistic integrity, one has to admire the tenacity which must have been initially necessary to assemble these materials!
I bet you thought you could get away with it. I bet you thought we were napping like most blog readers. Think again vile blogger. So ‘fess up – what the hell is this place and where did those columns come from?
Ok; I admit it… sometimes when I leave out tantalizing bits of information it’s not always because I don’t have that information or because of a desire to maintain the privacy of property owners. Sometimes I do this just to aggravate you! Mwuahahaha!!!
This place is a motel and I have no idea where the columns came from. While trying to find out where they came from, I ran across the following blog post which shows how this place looked a decade or so ago (you have to scroll down to photos 15 through 22 to get to the pertinent images). You will find these informative: Photo Gallery
That was enlightening! I got caught looking the additional pics in the office, and people were mesmerized! We had a small crowd at the end – people really loved the quarter circle window over the glass door.
That makes me very happy – thanks!
ah how sad we we all continue to patronize a blogger with a camera who is mute?????
i bet the place was built by ex hippies trying to recreate the summer of love but as usual it falls flat as everything in Kansas is flat.
My point is – you evidently are a curious person (meant in many ways) so why didn’t you ask WTF is going on here? they seem to have a thoroughly uneven approach as some things like the 1/4 windows, sloping walls and the columns are genius but the mixed stone fences and piles of junk are just ugly. so, as another curious person (who was kicked out of the town his family had lived in for 214 years), i urge you to press on with your curious nature and get more information. as the old saying goes, just because people think you’re weird doesn’t mean you’re an artist.
While I appreciate your thoughts, it must be pointed out that some things don’t need to be spelled out; my ardent blog followers must sometimes read between the lines. If I take a picture of it, there’s a reason for it, and that reason is usually apparent. You can figure out if it is good, bad, ugly, neutral or beautiful.
I Iive in (and blog about) a geographic area which is more interconnected than than similarly sized areas in other parts of the country. While I want to share items of an architectural nature which may be of interest to others, I don’t necessarily want to bother business or home owners with my quest for the obscure; not everyone is going to be on board with my observations, perspective or potential questions.
Curiosity taken too far becomes nosiness! I don’t want my observations (especially the snarkier ones) to be thrown in the faces of the people whose property I may highlight; that’s why I sometimes omit information such as location which is highly searchable online. My blog is about architecture and not people.
Most of us would be mortified, hurt and or angry if we were to find that someone had written about our home or business in way that strayed from our own perception of it.
The stone fences you mention, by the way, are a regional thing. Few trees were found on the Kansas prairie when settlement began so everything was built of limestone which was easily quarried. While the stone fence posts seen here are meant to be decorative in nature, they pay tribute to many similar historic posts which still serve to fence the land with barbed wire.
oh, I suppose so but with a place as interesting as this one, I always want to know more especially where those columns came from. the capitals are so intricate and well done. I think with examples that are so intriguing, you should put your snark-o-meter away and give us more details. but keep up the good work anyway and I will keep commenting.
OK that second story cannot satisfy any local building codes.
I would guess that no building codes were in place at that location when the work was done. The sloping walls seen on the second floor (and the front of the addition to the former service station) would likely exasperate a code inspector today!