Parking Spots: House of Cars

November 1, 2009

Okay, so the National Building Museum could use a jazzier name (Architecturama?) and their new exhibit, “House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage” (October 17-July 11), takes on a generally less-than-scintillating subject. But these car-crazy curators may have a point: this overlooked and much maligned practical urban necessity deserves a spot on the exhibition roster. For, as the press release states, “In a world without parking garages, parking lots would sprawl across our cities.” And that would be yucky.

Although many garages double as appalling eyesores, the show highlights innovative designs from such architect showboats as Frank Lloyd Wright and Eero Saarinen. It also touches upon the role of parking garages in popular culture, with appearances in All the President’s Men, Seinfeld, and way too many stock shoot-out scenes to possibly list.

If you’re in DC, make sure to check out the “automated hoist systems,” “an early time stamp machine,” and “a touchable model of a ramp system.” For those of you who wil not be pulling into the National Building Museum any time soon, here are RoadsideAmerica.com’s favorite garage destinations:

The most beautiful parking garage in America is the former Michigan Theater in Detroit. The elaborate French Renaissance interior was created in 1925 as a movie palace, complete with Wurlitzer organ and classy artwork imported from Europe. It later served as a concert hall until 1976. (Bowie, Kiss, and Aerosmith all performed there.) Most of the interior was gutted to create office building parking, although the incredibly ornate ceiling remains. You can see this auto wonderland in the Eminem movie 8 Mile.

In stark contrast, a modest 12-foot by 18-foot wooden garage in Palo Alto is recognized as California Historical Landmark Number 976 and the birthplace of Silicon Valley. This is where, in the late 1930’s, Bill Hewett and Dave Packard fiddled around with oscillators, before going on to grow their humble business into the computer behemoth it is today. The garage is not open to the public, although you can view it from the sidewalk (367 Addison Avenue) and peruse an informative plaque.

If you’re more body than mind, you may prefer to gaze at the former site of The Paradise Garage at 84 King Street in Manhattan. Imagine the sweat-soaked hoards of dance-crazy, disco-loving, partying revelers that packed the place from 1976-1987. It is now a pedestrian-looking Verizon Communications facility, and sadly, lacks a commemorative plaque. [Post by Anne D. Bernstein]

Sections: Events
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Flamingo Flap

October 29, 2009

The proud pink flamingo which adorned a steel fire escape above Baltimore’s Cafe Hon has triumphed in its bureaucratic battle with city officials.

Back in early October — after the decorative bird had spent about seven years minding its own business — city inspectors made a big stink over the giant pink waterfowl. A governmental brouhaha resulted from concerns that it was projecting “into the public right of way” (by how many inches exactly?). Therefore, the Department of General Services insisted that owner Denise Whiting apply for a serious-sounding “minor privilege permit” with an annual fee of $800.

Taking a principled stand (or perhaps courting a little extra free publicity), Whiting refused to go along and defiantly removed the gaudy icon from its public perch. This was not too difficult, as it was made out of a bed sheet and some chicken wire.

Eventually, the band of picky paper pushers backed down. Were they embarrassed by the way supportive media outlets flocked to the story? Or did they realize that putting an attention-getting, oversized animal in front of your business is enterprising capitalism at its best? (See Mainer C. Lobster in Woolwich, Maine or the angry giant badger head standing guard outside the Northern Exposure Gentleman’s Club in Birnamwood, WI.)

And Baltimore will always have a connection to Pink Flamingos by way of its native son, director John Waters, even though no Pink Flamingos appear in that internationally known (if not acclaimed)  film…

In any case, Whiting and the city reached an agreement on a reduced annual fee of $400. Plans are being made to create a new fiberglass version of the feathery feature and to proudly mount it above the Hampden neighborhood eatery, where it will hopefully hover forever, hon. [Post by Anne D. Bernstein]

Sections: Attraction News
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Tip O’ The Hat ‘N’ Boots

October 28, 2009

Lovers of down home colossal kitsch are kicking up their heels upon receiving news that the restoration of Seattle’s iconic Hat ‘n’ Boots is nearing completion. The well-loved, once derelict Western Wear trio is all spruced up and ready to serve as the centerpiece of Oxbow Park in suburban Georgetown. A few more coats of paint will be applied (”when weather permits” in Washington State’s rainy climate) and then Hat ‘n’ Boots’ decades-long saga of triumph, ruin, and redemption will finally have its happy ending.

Hat ‘n’ Boots was originally built in 1954 to serve as a novelty gas station. With its All-American pairing of gun-slinging and gas-guzzling, the eye-catching icon was intended to be part of a two million dollar cowboy-themed shopping center called Frontier Village, but that failed to pan out. Hat ‘n’ Boots then entered its heyday as the “Premium Tex” gas station, where attendants sported spiffy cowboy outfits. The hat shielded the pump station; the boots housed well-heeled restrooms.

By 1988 drivers had their fill of “Premium Tex”—construction of a new nearby Interstate Highway didn’t help matters. The pioneering petrol provider closed down.

Hat ‘n’ Boots began an era of neglect, its former plaster-and-chicken-wire grandeur (far less sturdy than those pyramids over in Egypt) beaten down by harsh weather and enterprising skateboarders fond of riding along its brim. But fans would not be thwarted and with can-do spirit and grant application genius they began a campaign to save the landmark, which took over two decades to pull off.

In 2002, the Georgetown Community Council bought it for $1 and the next year it was moved a few blocks north to its current location, a block-wide lot between a light industry and residential area. Nostalgia for 1950’s-style norms didn’t stand in the way of lead paint and asbestos abatement, and then a through rebuilding and repainting job could begin. The “Rise and Fall and Rise Again” of the Hat ‘n’ Boots was on its way!

Next on the agenda: Will someone please cough up the buckaroos to save Tex Randall? He’s the 47-foot-tall giant cowboy of Canyon, Texas. If no one moves him soon, the sun will set on his looming and leaning presence. Any and all offers will be considered, although the current owner wants nothing to do with PETA’s offer to lease him and turn him into a spokes-statue for their anti-leather campaign.

Sections: Attraction News
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Reach Party (or: Johnson & Johnson & More Johnson)

October 23, 2009

A second casting of J. Seward Johnson’s undeniably eye-catching 4,100-pound struggling sculpture, “The Awakening,” has been permanently installed in a grassy expanse in Chesterfield, Missouri. The grasping giant was added to Chesterfield Arts‘ public art collection and will be available for perpetual public gaping and climbing, forever frozen in an angry state, quite annoyed at being awakened from its underground nap.

The October 10th unveiling featured drumming and a T-shirt contest. For the event, children were encouraged to swarm all over the powerfully built yet helpless metal man (but let’s just see what happens when some reckless child takes a fall from a finger, or some frat guy jokester gets his butt stuck in its gaping jaw). J. Seward Johnson made it to the event in person; he also appears in two promotional videos, where he stated that the work “has a place in the universal subconscious” but also admitted that “God only knows what this means.”

Regular Roadside readers may recall the ongoing saga of the original version of “The Awakening”, which spent 27 years attempting to emerge from the earth at Hains Point in Washington, DC. Then, in 2007, it was sold to developer Milton V. Peterson for $750,000. The heavy duty cast aluminum body parts were dug up, hoisted onto three flat-bed trucks, and driven to their new home: a man-made beach within the appropriately huge 4-billion-dollar mixed-use waterfront development at National Harbor in Maryland.

It seems that developers just love Johnson’s work, which combines the caché of fine art collecting with a populist Neat-O Factor. The Chesterfield acquisition was commissioned by Louis Sachs and will serve as the centerpiece of an ever-growing sculpture garden — sure to add class to his Chesterfield Village (the “first masterplanned community ever developed in the St. Louis Region.)”

In conclusion: the J. Seward Johnson juggernaut cannot be stopped! Emboldened by a recent decision in support of his over-sized sailor/nurse liplock “Unconditional Surrender”, and with the encouragement of well-heeled builder patrons from coast to coast, we predict that soon there will be a JSJ sculpture in every American hamlet that aspires to artiness. His only serious competition in this march to total public art project domination seems to be the proliferation of those endless painted fiberglass CowParades. [Post by Anne D. Bernstein]

Sections: Attraction News, Statues
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Walking Tall: Latest In Lofty Thrills

October 19, 2009

Do you enjoy peering over railings? Do you like to feel gusts of unobstructed wind shoving you toward doom’s abyss?

Then you’ll love the new World’s Highest and Longest Pedestrian Bridge in Highland, New York.

Foreign countries may have the tallest observation decks, but America has moved beyond cheap thrills — or at least it expects to get them through the windows of something more exotic than a building.

Better yet, let’s have no windows at all. Let’s have it so that we can walk out over the precipice, not just gawk at it from a skyscraper.

The World’s Highest and Longest Pedestrian Bridge satisfies those urges. It follows a trail blazed by Arizona’s successful Skywalk and Kentucky’s unsuccessful Purple People Bridge (unsuccessful for reasons other than the bridge). It puts you into the void.

Officially titled Walkway Over the Hudson, it’s a smooth concrete sidewalk laid atop a rusty, 120-year-old railroad trestle. It’s 1.25 miles long, and most of that length is spent 212 feet above the Hudson River. Walkers and runners are welcome, bicyclists and roller-bladers as well. Skateboards are banned, although we presume it’s for philosophical reasons rather than for any deficiencies in locomotion.

But who needs wheels, anyway? Just strolling across the Hudson River gorge during a howling snowstorm should be excellent exercise, as well as an exercise in terror.

Sections: Attraction News
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The Urge To Burj

October 13, 2009

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is set to open to the public on December 2, 2009. This titan of towers is the centerpiece of a 20 billion dollar development project that is bizarrely ambitious and ostentatious even by Dubai standards. Other record-setting features of this enormous undertaking include Dubai Mall (”the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination”) and the Dubai Fountain (”the world’s tallest performing fountain”). There will also be an Old Town (which is new, of course) and a 14,000 car parking facility.

Could it be that the U.S. has permanently opted out of the global skyscraper race (after all, our national ambivalence about tall buildings is entirely understandable post-9/11). Have we ceded the field to upstarts like the United Arab Emirates, China and Malaysia?

We at RoadsideAmerica.com scoff at the idea. For although we may come up short on the basis of feet and inches — we also scoff at such un-American units of measurement as the kilometer! — in this country we know how to have fun with our skyscrapers!

Sure, Burj Dubai will have an observation deck on the 124st floor. But will it have THRILL RIDES!!! like Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Tower? Will you be able to hang out over the edge of Burj Dubai in a contraption that resembles four claws of a giant robotic lizard? We think not!

Burj Dubai plans to offer non-scintillating interactive exhibits such as “Dubai: Then and Now” and “Burj Dubai Among The Greats”, but we think that the popularity of Chicago’s Willis Tower attraction “The Ledge” proves definitively that tourists prefer the heart-palpitation thrills of a claustrophobic, high altitude, tempered glass box to educational Dubai-boosterism of a multi-media nature.

Not only that, but Burj Dubai’s extensive fact sheet conspicuously lacks any mention of the most essential of high-altitude amenities: a tacky revolving restaurant that serves $35 eggplant parmesan and makes you feel rather nauseated when you try to wobble your way to the restroom after a few drinks.

This is all pure speculation, of course.  Maybe Burj Dubai will be great fun. After all, the “virtual time-travel” telescopes do sound cool.

Anyway, we still have the World’s Tallest Totem Pole and the World’s Largest Thermometer (which we assume is also the World’s Tallest). Not to mention the Wonder Tower, where you can (possibly) see six states and visit an eight-footed pig upon descent. It’s high time you check it out! [Post by Anne D. Bernstein]

Sections: Coming Soon, Rants, WorldTourWatch
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