6 thoughts on “Eye on the Street”


  2. OK Brian, I give up. Tell the clueless (me) what’s going on in this pic.
    But what I do notice is the building in the background. No, not the church (God bless all the Methodists) but what I call “The Fortress”. I work in the building to the right and can’t tell you how many times people have stopped me to ask, “How in the heck do I get inside” the fort? I wonder what the architect had in mind when designing the building. It looks like late 1960s, a little too early for the zombie apocalypse. Maybe it was designed for Howard Hughes? Whatever the reason, it is a unique building in Decatur.
    Is that what you had in mind Brian?

    2. The administration building at my grad school had a similar design. And fortress is exactly the right connotation.

      They were designed to keep the street rabble and the protesters of the 60’s outside and the responsible administrators safely inside. The windows don’t have ledges or square jambs, they have slopes and angles so nobody can climb up and those inside can aim down or to the side with clear sight lines, if need be.

      You can see a similar aesthetic in John Portman’s designs and the tall building on West Ponce in Decatur — narrow, vertical windows that are hard to climb through, blank walls and few entrances at street level. Portman’s entire career is based on creating spectacular interior spaces during a time when it was scary to be outside.

  4. Yes, it was meant to be a shot of the Little Shop of Stories bus, apropos for the coming book fest (and it’s positioned between the library and the Decatur office of Literacy Action–which is in the fortress you mentioned– where I volunteer a bit). But the bus was pulling off as I walked up, so I couldn’t get a better shot of it.

  8. I see The Fortress representing time’s march, ever-changing yet not, juxtaposed with the bus carrying children that represents aging and the passage of time frozen in a frame of pretty flowers.
    And I walk away thinking, what this town needs is more concrete.

Comments are closed.