15.9.10

White Wall

There was a mid-day glare on the white wall. Time had taken its toll. The wall was damaged. It looked like it has been through several rounds of poorly-done retrofitting. Pipes crept up and down and wires hung sideways. The wall is elderly.

It wasn't always that way. Once a long time ago the building was young. Back then the wall and these windows weren't anything special. They were very likely thoroughly unremarkable features of a thoroughly unremarkable structure. That's one more thing time has changed. This architectural style is growing rarer in Beirut. Now that it is rare, this wall has become special. It's special because it is dying out.

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art."

Eleanor Roosevelt said that. I think she was right. And I think it might have something to do with architecture and why old buildings pull on us the way they do.

2 comments:

  1. Go ER!!

    Not just old buildings, but old buildings that are the worse for wear. It is not age per se that draws me in. I am not attracted by, say, the Taj Mahal, because it represents perfection.

    The attraction of this building is the obvious decay and damage that life has wrought. The same with an old person. I like to see character writ large on both humanity as well as the built environment. I like to see the 'inside' made manifest.

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  2. I reckon there is a 60 year rule. I a building lasts 60 years there is a good chance it will be loved again.

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