Verisimilitude
For no explicable reason, the Lansing Bureau runs a story about a new Ann Arbor garage that’s supposed to look like an old Ann Arbor barn. The garage, which is two stories tall and heated, is finished in “Navajo Red” and employs some modern technology to achieve its antique look - or, as the Bureau writer puts it, in a sentence containing about $1.63 worth of words, “In his quest for verisimilitude, McElrath paradoxically used some illusory means. “
I’m pretty sure it’s because East Lansing has a parking monstrosity of their own. Misery loves company.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on December 1st, 2003 at 9:08 pmHeh - that really does look like a Habitrail! But the weird thing is that this garage - the barn one - is just somebody’s private garage for their cars, on private property. Why it rates a mention in the Lansing Bureau, unless their reporter is a wickedly subtle satirist, is beyond me.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 1st, 2003 at 9:52 pmThere’s something odd about the way these comments format on my screen.
I didn’t design East Lansing’s Habitrail, but I admit that I was partially responsible for it. As an East Lansing politico in those days, I supported the bond issue, and I was among those who slammed the city for the unoriginal design of the last parking structure they built before this one. Reportedly they instructed the architect that THIS parking structure had to be UNIQUE.
The thing has really grown on me over time. Its colorful metalwork has been a lot more durable than cynics predicted when it opened. But I have always been fond of bizarre architecture.
Ironic sidelight. East Lansing numbers its parking facilities, and the Habitrail is #10. In Roman numerals, that would be X. Which is also the surname of a famous black militant who lived on (or maybe very close to) that site, when he was a boy in the 1930s.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 1st, 2003 at 10:49 pm