Posted on 03/14/2008 10:52:17 AM PDT by JZelle
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — From the ground, the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home looks like any other building. But fly over in an airplane, and the outline is unmistakable: It's one big swastika.
Prompted by complaints from a Jewish activist, the agency that owns the government-funded building is planning to alter its shape to disguise the Nazi symbol. The move comes just a few years after a $1 million design modification meant to quiet similar complaints from a U.S. senator.
"The difficulty is there are a limited number of options for fixing a building that has been there for some time," said Mike Giles, counsel for the Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida. "We have to come up with a way to fix an appearance that we want solved and not hurt our residents."
Wesley Acres provides government-subsidized housing for 117 low-income people ages 62 and above. Most have no reason to suspect their hallways take on a sinister shape.
The one-story building, designed in the mid-1970s and completed in 1980, underwent a $1 million alteration in 2001 with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development following complaints by Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, who has since died. But the addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive shape, and in some ways accentuates it.
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Why is this funny?
It shouldn’t be. But it is.
And one noticed this prior to construction...lol
So the only way you can see this shape is from a plane?
And these people are concerned about this?
Yes it is.
There’s a building at the Navy Base in Coronado with the same shape! It hit the news a couple months ago.
LC
I can see the utility of the design, but damn, just damn.
Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:13PM EDT
Your tax dollars at work: The US Navy will be spending about $600,000 to redesign or camouflage a 1960s barracks building in San Diego because of complaints that it looks like a swastika when viewed from the air. In the past this might have been a problem only for the occasional air traveler who happened over Coronado island, but with the advent of aerial mapping and visualization tools like Google Earth, everyone can see anything from the sky. In fact, many people have made a game out of finding oddities in satellite photos.
Now it's one thing to see landmarks like this and snicker over a designer's missteps 40 years ago (the Navy says it noticed the shape but that it didn't think anyone would see it from above), but it's another thing altogether to complain to the Navy about the shape of a building when viewed from space. But people really seem to have the time on their hands: The Navy says it's been inundated with complaints; enough, I suppose, to justify spending that much money on new structures and extra bushes. It's the first known case of its kind.
So what will the building look like when the job is done, I wonder? A set of four connected squares? A pinwheel formed from triangles? Post your ideas for what the Navy ought to do out of the wayward swastika here and we'll see if we can't pass them along to the powers that be.
LINK: Google Maps Causes US Navy To Change Its Swastika Building
A view of the barracks, near San Diego. The Navy has long known it looked like a swastika but thought people would not see it. “In the ’60s we did not have the Internet,” a spokeswoman said.
Why don’t they ban the air space. Cheaper and easier. Charge stiff penalties and possible jail time for violation.
It does not look like it was all built from one original plan, but rather several additions were added over time.
Just plain stupid.
34 33 15 N, 86 59 38 W, for those looking on Google Earth.
From Google Earth:
34°33’14.77”N
86°59’38.63”W
The strange thing is you could use basically the same design with the same utility but mirror-image. Then it it becomes a symbol for (among other things) a Buddhist temple.
vaudine
Good point.
That’s cool! Thanks
I’ve heard about those militant Methodists. LOL
This is absurd.
Many nursing homes are similiar to this one, which is designed to give every room an exterior view, to provide courtyards for residents to enjoy and to have a central workplace for employees to service the residents in each hallway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.