Old Buildings
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The architecture thread sent me off thinking about a related subject...
What about old buildings? You know, ones that need renovating, but are torn down for whatever reason.
A local example I thought if, was the hospital I used to work at. Shuttered and empty now for seven years. I talked with both the consulting architect and an engineer before the old hospital closed, and both agreed the old 1937 building had at least another 100 years of life left in her, maybe a lot more.
A three story building, it was a government box, but it had a lot of art deco elements.
The old front doors are stored in the building. They're bright brass ( they had to polish them every day) and very heavy. Those decorative panels on the front are original artwork. They are cast bronze and each one is a different flower found in Louisiana, such as an iris. The ends of the building are rounded, with outside stairways and small covered patios on each floor (it may not have been designed as such, but those are where the patients smoked). The floors are all terrazo, except in a couple of the new editions. The gate shack and the front fence are art deco style. The hospital sits at the end of a boulevard.
The plumbing is shot, the HVAC was barely getting by and the electrical needs replacing. As the engineer and architect told me, the old building needed to be gutted inside down to the support columns and then redone. Made more expensive, though, by a lot of asbestos.
But you'd have a grand old building when you got through.
And it's a shame...I know the different state agencies in the area well. They're scattered all over the place, many in leased and rented spaces, yet...There stands a three story building. Empty. Three parking lots. And in a very central location for the parish.
There ought to be a societal push to save sound old buildings such as this one. And our laws should reflect that.
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Close to where I live - then, then closed, and now:
It's now apartments - I've always wanted to live in a converted mental hospital!
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@Jolly said in Old Buildings:
Speaking of empty buildings, what do you do with this?
Hotel, business center. Just like Chicago did with the old Cook County Hospital.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Old Buildings:
@Jolly said in Old Buildings:
Speaking of empty buildings, what do you do with this?
Hotel, business center. Just like Chicago did with the old Cook County Hospital.
Would certainly like to see it. I do believe I would move the physical plant out of the basement, though.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion.
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One of Chicago's iconic places was the old post office building which straddled the eastern end of I290. You'd drive under the post office, cross the river, and be in the south loop.
It had been an eyesore for years, with busted windows, and crumbling exterior.
Then...it was redone:
https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16327244/old-post-office-renderings
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Speaking of physical plants...The old hospital I kicked off this thread with, had a physical plant down the hill from the hospital. All that stuff was routed to the main building by a pretty decent-sized tunnel. In inclement weather, the maintenance guys would walk to the hospital through the tunnel, rather than walking in the rain.
Lot of people didn't know it, but the basement and tunnel were rated as fallout shelters, with Geiger counters, etc...
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@Jolly said in Old Buildings:
Would certainly like to see it. I do believe I would move the physical plant out of the basement, though.
Why, to prevent another "Five Days at Memorial" scenario?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Old Buildings:
@Jolly said in Old Buildings:
Would certainly like to see it. I do believe I would move the physical plant out of the basement, though.
Why, to prevent another "Five Days at Memorial" scenario?
Amen.
University Hospital has its plant on the third floor, IIRC. It takes a while, but we can be taught...
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There is a lot of movement in higher ed architecture toward renovation as the correct response to sustainability and carbon reduction, as well as just better built, more durable, and more beautiful, human scaled architecture.
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Train stations seem to have some pretty cool (or at least interesting) architecture. Always like going through them.
Pyongyang, DRPK (sorry for the darkness of the picture)
Los Angeles
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30th Street Station in Philadelphia is not grand, but us very elegant.
