That's like giving the ol' building the tranny treatment, really. Make it look like something it's not. Call it "Trans-Modern" architecture or something.
This December 24 blunder leaves me speechless . What a gosh darn atrocity for the unfortunate people of that town to have to endure. I fear for humanity, not only did someone have to conceive this, but a committee had to approve it. What were they thinking?
I can understand the need for absolute bare-bones construction. Poor people need shelter too. But this church has been deliberately defecated on, and I think it must have been considerably more expensive than building a block of HUD housing.
Flat roof nightmare reminds me of the horrible jibber-jabber of a building known as the Wexner Center for the Arts committed by Peter Eisenman— leaky from nearly day one and a $10M renovation bill after only 12 years following its misbegotten spawn onto the OSU campus
I highly recommend binge reading from the beginning. I used to look at these when I needed a hearty laugh. This is an amazing archive, thank you, JHK!! Your Geography books are on my trapped on a desert island top 10 list. I even used the Home From Nowhere prologue to teach reading comprehension in a GED class - your prose is truly ineffable. One of my students in his fifties, who had failed it twice previously, passed after this exercise. I will never forget his light bulb moment as we assiduously traversed the sentences one by one. I missed the final book in the series though, so it's on my to-order list now!
Why I’d never discovered JHK before is a mystery, I’m led to books when I need them. Since discovering JHK on Substack,I’ve downloaded; A World Made By Hand and read, currently reading The Witches of Hebron, and waiting for me is A History Of The Future. (A bum eye makes reading easier on Kindle). I’ve also ordered; The Geography of Nowhere just finished devouring that today and coming Monday is Home From Nowhere. I intend to read all of his works, fascinating reading and I’ve so enjoyed each one. I highly recommend them.
I spent 20+ years traveling the US in a tour bus, no I was not a county singer, but an auctioneer of real estate. I‘Ve sold just about every type of real estate imaginable, each one an interesting assignment. We had some very large clients like WalMart whom we sold surplus commercial land parcels for. Lots in front of existing stores sometimes going into the millions. Mansions, ranches, entire towns, 79 closed service stations for a major oil company and an all glass pyramid home in the Ozark Mountains, that was a weird one, are just a few of what we sold.
Traveling in that bus we got a firsthand look at the blight that has befallen America. An endless stream of strip centers, roadside motels, fast food crappy places, car lots, malls, disgusting downtowns and once beautiful small towns that look like sets from a war movie. I’ve done rural developments, like he talks about in his books. I’m disgusted by the sameness seen everywhere, the ticky tacky housing developments that all look alike. Often in looking out the tour bus window we used to be excited asking “what city is this coming up” until finally it was “here we are in another crappy city.” I now live in Florida where our landscape is an endless view of strip centers, gaudy motels, outlandish tourist traps, office buildings, gigantic size apartment buildings, massage parlors, strip clubs, and well you get the picture. I’m in Tampa and soon it’s going to be one continuous same thing over and over again from St Pete to Daytona and beyond.
Years ago I lived in Irving Texas in the big planned development of Valley Ranch, moved there during the mid 80s bust moved out in the 90s to the country. One day I came back to the area with my son who was then maybe 12, as I passed a “newer” housing development I said. “ boy those houses look like crap”, my son replied “dad they looked like crap when they were brand new.” It was even obvious to a child, now he’s an Army Captain flying Apache helicopters and keeping his lifestyle very minimal.
I had a near death experience back in 2011 (In Search of A River by Jim Owen), that’s a book I wrote about it. In there I talk about how I was promised if I kept studying, and reading I would be lead to the books I needed to read at the time they were needed in my life. So, to this statement, I was lead to JHKs books and Substack and damn glad I was. There was a solid purpose to it as I was told I would have an important function to play in the upcoming Chaos of the world, while it’s very chaotic now, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Hang on!
Jim Owen— Thanks for your heartfelt note and welcome aboard. I'm very grateful to have a reader-audience, and I never forget it. I traveled the country all over, too, when I was on the college lecture circuit, and I saw what you saw in every corner of America. Recovering from the destruction of landscape and townscape will be harder than getting over "Joe Biden." Maybe it's time to get into the salvage business. A lot of the materials those discount stores, muffler shops, and fast food joints are made out of might be things we'll never manufacture again. Then we can reassemble all the I-beams and concrete clocks into something better. Thanks again for the kind compliments and merry Christmas!
I would fear getting into that salvage business may have the same disastrous result for me , as it did for “Wayne Karp.” In my auction career we held several auctions for a nuclear power plant in Arizona, selling surplus material. If they needed one pipe they ordered like 5 so we were selling new assets. These auctions were attended by salvage dealers from all across the US and a few foreign countries. One day while I was auctioning, prices were going sky high, one buyer stopped me and said; “I just want to announce to my assembled friends and competitors that we are no longer in the scrap metal business, we are surely dealers in Precious Metals.”
As you and I can attest, travel is the greatest education one can obtain. Provided, that is, the traveler does so with eyes and mind wide open observing not only the surroundings but that of the fellow travelers and locals alike. We just returned from a delightful Christmas trip, the town of Mount Dora Florida and the 1883 vintage Lakeside Inn. If the cars were removed and replaced with horse and buggy the hotel and town would be in its element. Truly a trip back in time. The town developed in the 1800s , it’s the very type of town you talk about people fondly remembering, and that developers try to emulate. We parked the car and didn’t touch it for 4 days as everything was in walking distance.
Traveling there we had to go through the newest section of the gosh awful Villages, Eastport it’s called with its downtown coming along nicely surrounded by what appears to be thousands of acres of homes. Homes so close together a man can fart and a man 4 houses away will hear and complement him on it. Have you ever traveled to the Villages and witnessed this place first hand? Unbelievable.
Thanks for replying to me. Right now my nighttime Kindle reading is A History Of The Future and awaiting me on my front porch was Home From Nowhere which I started my daytime reading on today. I can tell this is going to be a very enjoyable read.
I’ve written one book, a book about my near death experience and a 10,000 mile motorcycle ride seeking answers, I’d like to share that book with you, if you would be so gracious as to accept a copy. If so, email me at Jim@jimowenauthor.com with an address and I’ll send it to you. I’m not a professional writer but many have enjoyed my story.
Again, I’m blessed to have found you, and your awesome writings. 2025 is going to be a very exciting year, chaos will be there but the achieved outcome will be worth it.
If I can find it, I’ll send you a picture of an all glass triangle house I tried to auction in the Ozark mountains, you know surrounded by beautiful log cabins, drew a million lookers online but not a single bidder.
Thank you for showing us some of the ugliest buildings (and sculptures) that none of us have ever seen. It is an abomination what they did to the church. Nice touch of bricking up the beautiful gothic windows. Avarice is an ugly building. I actually was not offended by the one in Dubai. It seems to fit the city.
I am loathe to use the hackneyed word/phrase "gobsmacked," but I fail to find another one that is really apropos this... monstrosity, this abomination, this plague of architectural mismatches and... I can't think of any more descriptive terms. I fear my brain has been damaged merely by laying eyes on it. Gaaaagh!
Aaah “modernity” … it’s almost like someone with a deep loathing for humanity is deliberately turning everything in modern society into a mock-humiliation ritual … “look upon my works and despair” never more apt in this instance
That's like giving the ol' building the tranny treatment, really. Make it look like something it's not. Call it "Trans-Modern" architecture or something.
Brilliant!
"Trans-Modern" coined by substack user, The Crimson Ghost, on Wed 11 December 2024.
Edit: cannot "LIKE" your comment enough!
This December 24 blunder leaves me speechless . What a gosh darn atrocity for the unfortunate people of that town to have to endure. I fear for humanity, not only did someone have to conceive this, but a committee had to approve it. What were they thinking?
I can understand the need for absolute bare-bones construction. Poor people need shelter too. But this church has been deliberately defecated on, and I think it must have been considerably more expensive than building a block of HUD housing.
And as JWK states, the "flat roof", what genius in Massachusetts thought that one up? Certainly not someone who lives there. Snow anyone?
Flat roof nightmare reminds me of the horrible jibber-jabber of a building known as the Wexner Center for the Arts committed by Peter Eisenman— leaky from nearly day one and a $10M renovation bill after only 12 years following its misbegotten spawn onto the OSU campus
Wexner, as in Les? The enabler for Jeffery Epstein?
I'd like to say more about this collection of folks, but I'd probably get banned for it.
Winter rooftop igloo rentals anyone?
Wonderful. Can't wait to wander through the catalog of eyesores.
its almost like they're trying for monstrosity.
They actually make want to cry.
I highly recommend binge reading from the beginning. I used to look at these when I needed a hearty laugh. This is an amazing archive, thank you, JHK!! Your Geography books are on my trapped on a desert island top 10 list. I even used the Home From Nowhere prologue to teach reading comprehension in a GED class - your prose is truly ineffable. One of my students in his fifties, who had failed it twice previously, passed after this exercise. I will never forget his light bulb moment as we assiduously traversed the sentences one by one. I missed the final book in the series though, so it's on my to-order list now!
It's like the architectural version of a tuxedo T-shirt.
Why I’d never discovered JHK before is a mystery, I’m led to books when I need them. Since discovering JHK on Substack,I’ve downloaded; A World Made By Hand and read, currently reading The Witches of Hebron, and waiting for me is A History Of The Future. (A bum eye makes reading easier on Kindle). I’ve also ordered; The Geography of Nowhere just finished devouring that today and coming Monday is Home From Nowhere. I intend to read all of his works, fascinating reading and I’ve so enjoyed each one. I highly recommend them.
I spent 20+ years traveling the US in a tour bus, no I was not a county singer, but an auctioneer of real estate. I‘Ve sold just about every type of real estate imaginable, each one an interesting assignment. We had some very large clients like WalMart whom we sold surplus commercial land parcels for. Lots in front of existing stores sometimes going into the millions. Mansions, ranches, entire towns, 79 closed service stations for a major oil company and an all glass pyramid home in the Ozark Mountains, that was a weird one, are just a few of what we sold.
Traveling in that bus we got a firsthand look at the blight that has befallen America. An endless stream of strip centers, roadside motels, fast food crappy places, car lots, malls, disgusting downtowns and once beautiful small towns that look like sets from a war movie. I’ve done rural developments, like he talks about in his books. I’m disgusted by the sameness seen everywhere, the ticky tacky housing developments that all look alike. Often in looking out the tour bus window we used to be excited asking “what city is this coming up” until finally it was “here we are in another crappy city.” I now live in Florida where our landscape is an endless view of strip centers, gaudy motels, outlandish tourist traps, office buildings, gigantic size apartment buildings, massage parlors, strip clubs, and well you get the picture. I’m in Tampa and soon it’s going to be one continuous same thing over and over again from St Pete to Daytona and beyond.
Years ago I lived in Irving Texas in the big planned development of Valley Ranch, moved there during the mid 80s bust moved out in the 90s to the country. One day I came back to the area with my son who was then maybe 12, as I passed a “newer” housing development I said. “ boy those houses look like crap”, my son replied “dad they looked like crap when they were brand new.” It was even obvious to a child, now he’s an Army Captain flying Apache helicopters and keeping his lifestyle very minimal.
I had a near death experience back in 2011 (In Search of A River by Jim Owen), that’s a book I wrote about it. In there I talk about how I was promised if I kept studying, and reading I would be lead to the books I needed to read at the time they were needed in my life. So, to this statement, I was lead to JHKs books and Substack and damn glad I was. There was a solid purpose to it as I was told I would have an important function to play in the upcoming Chaos of the world, while it’s very chaotic now, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Hang on!
Thank you JHK for the great books you’ve written.
Jim Owen— Thanks for your heartfelt note and welcome aboard. I'm very grateful to have a reader-audience, and I never forget it. I traveled the country all over, too, when I was on the college lecture circuit, and I saw what you saw in every corner of America. Recovering from the destruction of landscape and townscape will be harder than getting over "Joe Biden." Maybe it's time to get into the salvage business. A lot of the materials those discount stores, muffler shops, and fast food joints are made out of might be things we'll never manufacture again. Then we can reassemble all the I-beams and concrete clocks into something better. Thanks again for the kind compliments and merry Christmas!
I would fear getting into that salvage business may have the same disastrous result for me , as it did for “Wayne Karp.” In my auction career we held several auctions for a nuclear power plant in Arizona, selling surplus material. If they needed one pipe they ordered like 5 so we were selling new assets. These auctions were attended by salvage dealers from all across the US and a few foreign countries. One day while I was auctioning, prices were going sky high, one buyer stopped me and said; “I just want to announce to my assembled friends and competitors that we are no longer in the scrap metal business, we are surely dealers in Precious Metals.”
As you and I can attest, travel is the greatest education one can obtain. Provided, that is, the traveler does so with eyes and mind wide open observing not only the surroundings but that of the fellow travelers and locals alike. We just returned from a delightful Christmas trip, the town of Mount Dora Florida and the 1883 vintage Lakeside Inn. If the cars were removed and replaced with horse and buggy the hotel and town would be in its element. Truly a trip back in time. The town developed in the 1800s , it’s the very type of town you talk about people fondly remembering, and that developers try to emulate. We parked the car and didn’t touch it for 4 days as everything was in walking distance.
Traveling there we had to go through the newest section of the gosh awful Villages, Eastport it’s called with its downtown coming along nicely surrounded by what appears to be thousands of acres of homes. Homes so close together a man can fart and a man 4 houses away will hear and complement him on it. Have you ever traveled to the Villages and witnessed this place first hand? Unbelievable.
Thanks for replying to me. Right now my nighttime Kindle reading is A History Of The Future and awaiting me on my front porch was Home From Nowhere which I started my daytime reading on today. I can tell this is going to be a very enjoyable read.
I’ve written one book, a book about my near death experience and a 10,000 mile motorcycle ride seeking answers, I’d like to share that book with you, if you would be so gracious as to accept a copy. If so, email me at Jim@jimowenauthor.com with an address and I’ll send it to you. I’m not a professional writer but many have enjoyed my story.
Again, I’m blessed to have found you, and your awesome writings. 2025 is going to be a very exciting year, chaos will be there but the achieved outcome will be worth it.
If I can find it, I’ll send you a picture of an all glass triangle house I tried to auction in the Ozark mountains, you know surrounded by beautiful log cabins, drew a million lookers online but not a single bidder.
Jim Owen
Church-in-a-box. Craptastic! 😵💫
Thank you for showing us some of the ugliest buildings (and sculptures) that none of us have ever seen. It is an abomination what they did to the church. Nice touch of bricking up the beautiful gothic windows. Avarice is an ugly building. I actually was not offended by the one in Dubai. It seems to fit the city.
Communists do not see beauty.
Kinda like going to Wally World and people observing.
You've got it all wrong. It's the deconstructionist intersectionality mashup of old and in the way with eclectic postmodernism.
I am loathe to use the hackneyed word/phrase "gobsmacked," but I fail to find another one that is really apropos this... monstrosity, this abomination, this plague of architectural mismatches and... I can't think of any more descriptive terms. I fear my brain has been damaged merely by laying eyes on it. Gaaaagh!
Aaah “modernity” … it’s almost like someone with a deep loathing for humanity is deliberately turning everything in modern society into a mock-humiliation ritual … “look upon my works and despair” never more apt in this instance
It's a metaphor for the replacement of meaning by money.