When I first photographed this small commercial building I was smitten with its Brutalist / Modernist vibe – not something one expects to find in an obscure corner of “flyover country”. I loved the concrete, oddball windows and corner emphasis. I knew it was much too interesting to survive unmolested, so I took this photo to document it. The second photo is maybe five to eight years later, while the third photo is a Google Street View image from 2013:
Just old enough to be interesting. When I first photographed this little gem, I did so thinking that it was just a matter of time before someone had to try and “normalize” it… it was just too unique to survive in a culture which worships mediocrity. I knew it would change, but I didn’t expect to see it in Safety Yellow a few years later:
Ouch!!! Brutalism does not look good in yellow. Oh, well, paint can always be stripped… at least nothing was physically altered.
Egads! So much for architectural integrity! The brutalist character has been erased and replaced with a collection of contemporary design cliches that are not nearly as chic and stylish as the building was prior to the “updating”. Sadly, this is an increasingly common occurrence.