A site to make eyes sore.
I clicked on a headline offered by Slate, “Anti-Gay Segregation May Soon Be Coming to Oregon,” because I was curious what in the world that could be.
But I didn’t find out because I got totally sidetracked by the photograph of something like a cross between a mausoleum — one erected by someone who detested the deceased — and the ventilation tower of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (which we saw in the movie as the entrance to the secret headquarters of the “Men in Black”).
But the cutline said, “A 2007 rally for gay rights at the Oregon State Capital in Salem, Ore.” And I thought, That’s the actual state capitol of a state in the United States? Wow. They sure do go for some ugly out in Oregon.
Wikipedia describes it this way:
Chosen from 123 entries in a countrywide competition, the design of the new building deviated from the normal design of state capitol buildings. The design was labeled a combination of Egyptian simplicity and Greek refinement.[18] Overall it is Art Deco in style, and is one of only three state capitols in the United States constructed in that architectural style.[20]
Yeah, I’m glad there are no more than three in that style. I can barely take this one.
And I thought I kinda liked Art Deco, until now.
It’s like the architect thought, “I’ll start with something that vaguely suggests a dome, but make it cylindrical — only not smoothly cylindrical; I’ll add this ridge thingies. It’ll look kinda like the chamber of a revolver, or the edgy interior of an oil filter. And I’ll make the whole thing out of something that looks like cheap concrete.”
Man, I’m glad I don’t have to drive by that every day. I can think of a lot of bad things to say about that generation of SC lawmakers who built our present State House, but at least they had some taste. Or maybe, as a native South Carolinian, I’m just genetically predisposed toward neo-classical.
Ahhhh… It’s just so soothing to look at this after contemplating that monstrosity out West.
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Not so fast. Actually, I’ve long found the SC State House a bit of a monstrosity, because of its confusion of styles. Yes, it started out neo-classical, but the Unpleasantness intervened, and postbellum poverty and government stinginess made it impossible to complete the original design, so they wound up with that grotesque Victorian cupola, which in my SC youth was rendered even worse by being that icky-green corroded copper color. At least it looks like real copper now. By comparison, consider the other art-deco state capitols; the Nebraska one is fascinating for its iconography, and Louisiana’s is fascinating if for no other reason than its expression of Huey Long’s megalomania.
But see, that “confusion of styles” makes it organic feeling. To me, anyway.
But I’m with you in not liking cupolas. They always look like an architectural afterthought, like something that was jammed on top even though it didn’t fit. They break the lines in ways I don’t like. But ours looks less jarring atop the dome than just jutting out of a gabled roof.
I realize they have an honored history, but I don’t like them whether they’re atop Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre or the Tennessee state capitol, which has also always looked kinda odd to me.
Speaking of the Sheldonian, right behind it is a dome with a cupola atop it, much like our own in SC — on the Radcliffe Camera.
That’s more pleasing — even though the Camera does sort of look like a dome that fell off a larger building…
Wait a sec — don’t MOST domes have kind of a cupola on top? The U.S. Capitol does. St. Paul’s Cathedral does…
Speaking of cupolas, below is a link to the website cupola.com that has a detailed history and pictures of all the state capitol buildings:
http://www.cupola.com/html/bldgstru/statecap/cap01.htm
@David: You don’t like the verdigris that forms on copper? I always thought that it made the item look refined. I guess that’s me being a southerner who likes old things. It kind of “softens” the copper look into a more gentle color.
FYI, that’s why the statue of liberty is green. The entire skin is made of copper.
Yeah, I think the green on copper looks cool…
Definitely mausoleum-like (Cairo — City of the Dead?) . Absence of flagpole in preference to a very imposing statue (the “Oregon Pioneer”) is also distinctive. According to the “Oregonian”, the design combined Egyptian and Greek styles. Some have called it a “squirrel cage”, lacking in majesty.
Oregon’s 2nd capitol (1876–1935) was fairly similar in appearance to SC’s now.
You speak of squirrels, I think of ferrets. To wit, someone needs to resurrect Stephen (I or II — either will do), to ferret out what digital footprints preceded this blog post.
I like the OR Capitol because it reflects the time when it was built, rather than being a pastiche of retro neoclassical styles as so many buildings around here are.
Bless their little Oregonian hearts, but that really is an ugly capitol building.
The first thing I thought of when I looked at the picture was that maybe they ran out of money before being able to finish the top, so they just stuck a statue on it and called it “done”.
It looks like a government building from some grim, dystopian novel, like 1984. The sort of soulless building that would send shivers down your spine if you were summoned to it. The sort of building where you would find Room 101…
You notice how the photographer shot it backlit, with the sun on the lawn and the blooming trees rather than on the ugly mass of the building itself?
There’s a photog with an eye for beauty, and a willingness to minimize ugliness…
While in high school, I started working for one of the first female architects in the Southeast as a draftsman and eventually moved into design, and I can tell you that is one least appealing buildings I have ever seen. My mentor would have choked if she had been asked to follow through with a concept like that one. The “dome” looks like a gear or something and the shaded marble(?) panels on the exterior didn’t add one thing to the building at all. To me it resembles a poor attempt at Prairie Style design but should have been left on the prairie so the prairie dogs would have a nice home. From a distance, the figure on top looks a lot like “The Tick” – overlooking the city he has sworn to overlook.
The Southeast is not noted for its great living architects….or any other than Robert Mills
And your point is?
That your architect may not have had the most advanced taste.
Well, I guess the dozens of design awards she received over the years were meaningless according to your perception of architects in the Southeast. Maybe she can earn a little respect since she died a few years ago. And, if she were alive, she simply wouldn’t give a damn about your opinion anyway.
When the State House was remodeled it was stated that the copper dome would eventually change over to the green which we were all accustomed to seeing before the remodeling took place. In fact, I have noticed recently that the process is already underway.
Unless they sealed it, the copper will develop a green patina….
It kinda reminds me of Fort Knox. Here’s a slideshow of all 50. New Mexico’s appeals to me–it looks like it belongs where it’s at.
I was curious seeing the reference to the other “Art Deco”-influenced state capitol buildings, so I looked them up. They are, by the way, Louisiana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. The Oregon capitol is the only of the four to at least be laid out on basically the traditional horizontal axis of a capitol building. And when you see this picture of the North Dakota state capitol, you might begin to like Oregon’s a little better by comparison!
Yep, that’s some kinda ugly…
Take a look at Nelson Rockefeller’s remake of the Capitol complex in Albany, NY. Could be Ukraine or something…
Wow, that is indefensibly awful! Looks like a cross between a suburban manufacturing plant and Soviet housing.
It could withstand a hurricane, though.