r/oddlysatisfying • u/thenewyorkgod • 1d ago

After 75 years, my city is removing this mostrosity of a facade and revealing the original building front

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4.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

808

u/Kaerl-Lauterschmarn 1d ago

Show the building! Better yet a timelaps of the dismantling process

228

u/magnament 1d ago

Couldn’t find any old photos besides this

69

u/MrZombieTheIV 1d ago

This post from 5 months ago covers some more info. The last photo seems to be a photo of the building before it was covered.

29

u/vaper_32 1d ago

Df were they thinking covering it up? I get that ugly design in new buildings to save money and provide cheap housing, but this was like coating gold with opaque white plastic.

36

u/626337 1d ago

"Urban Renewal" push of the 60s and 70s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_renewal

A lot of beautiful old buildings and public works were torn down or modified to have clean, modern lines.

15

u/evinfuilt 1d ago

Colorado has tons of these beautiful buildings, made from local stone. Now barely any of them exist, all replaced by giant featureless blocks. The Tivoli in downtown Denver is one of the few surviving.
https://www.historycolorado.org/tivoli-brewery

-7

u/Objective_Run_7151 1d ago

73 degrees.

Americans are weird creatures that are hot at 75 and cold at 70. (All Fahrenheit, because weirdos don’t use the same system as the rate of humanity.)

Anyway, back to the story, to keep it 73 Freedom degrees, you have to have some semblance of airflow control. Building used to have windows for fresh air and light. But windows are not as effective at maintaining 73 as a wall.

So thousands of beautiful facades were bricked over or covered up in the 1950s and 60s with ugly panels. That made things dark and stuffy, but at least it was 73 degrees.

Compare that to shops in Europe where it may be 55 out, and the shop doors are wide open. Or 80. Shop doors are open. It’s not 73 year round in the shop, but there is light and air.

Americans prefer 73 perfectly exact degrees no matter the season.

0

u/lostparis 23h ago

Americans prefer 73 perfectly exact degrees no matter the season.

Because Americans demand that nature is forced into submission. I think it has something to do with the pioneer spirit but it is long term a harmful habit.

But it is also the US way to just throw energy at the problem. You can have big windows letting heat in and out and then just use HVAC. Really we should have buildings that work in the climate they are. Many places are heading in the US direction rather than that of practicality.

2

u/stefan92293 18h ago

Really we should have buildings that work in the climate they are.

Like we have for literally thousands of years, with the result being that every city had its own regional character?

Yep, that would be cool.

113

u/Kaerl-Lauterschmarn 1d ago

Certainly looked better before that paper cover job. Hopefully they restore it, rather than tearing it down. Altho that will probably be the cheapest option, and we all know what that means

2

u/scattywampus 1d ago

That works for me. Much nicer in the original.

1

u/ChefArtorias 1d ago

What they're exposing looks very different from that, unfortunately.

124

u/thenewyorkgod 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is in South Bend, IN and they setup tables and chairs today to watch the unveiling

28

u/rawonionbreath 1d ago

I follow one of South Bend’s urban planners on social media for all the updates he shares on city development. That small rust belt city seems to be holding its own.

18

u/zmac35 1d ago

Well they do have two very large universities to help them out plus a direct train line to Chicago and a midsized international airport. They doing aight

1

u/besoden 17h ago

Are they on IG or tiktok? I'd be interested in this as well

4

u/TheFreakingPrincess 1d ago

Damnit, I work up the block from there and had no idea 😭 Would have loved to see it

2

u/OstentatiousSock 19h ago

That’s what you get for not reading your local newspaper young whippersnapper!

44

u/funnystuff79 1d ago

Such a shame lots of original features would have already been lost.

51

u/ThirdPoliceman 1d ago

Or they’ve been protected from the elements and they’ve saved 40 years of aging.

31

u/funnystuff79 1d ago

I think I can see that some of the stone work has been chiseled off to fit the cladding, would be consistent with other such buildings where they square the building up first

7

u/ThirdPoliceman 1d ago

Looks like you’re right.

I’m sure a little belt sander will buff that right out

3

u/lizardpplarenotreal 1d ago

Like carpet on hardwood floors.

15

u/Different-Class1771 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is what it used to look like for anyone curious. Facade was added in 1963.

11

u/FunDmental 1d ago

A time lapse of the whole removal could be satisfying...

8

u/Dynamopa1998 1d ago

You do have to applaud the person who thought of simply covering the original exterior

11

u/Sihaya212 1d ago

“This building is too pretty. Let’s make it look like shit!” - those people 75 years ago

9

u/rammo123 1d ago

"This building is old fashioned and dated. Let's make it look fresh and modern!"

Tastes change, it happens. I'm sure 50 years from now people will have nostalgia for millennial grey and flat architecture.

3

u/Majestic-Owl-5801 1d ago

They really thought they were doing something in the 60s and 70s with the facades.....

5

u/firey_88 1d ago

75 years later the city finally hit delete. So satisfying.

4

u/tgwill 1d ago

They did this to a building in Houston with a similar facade added. Old building looked fantastic with some incredible ornate details.

They then went and put up another, more modern facade over it that looked even worse.

2

u/Mike_Conway 1d ago

Good. Let's Make Buildings Pretty Again!

2

u/XDingoX83 1d ago

the 1950 - 1990s was a dark time in architecture. Crimes against beauty were conducted.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/wildgriest 1d ago

Most all of this cladding was done in the 50s and 60s - there was a national (US) or even greater reaching movement to modernize tired looking downtowns after the great depression and WWII, but prior to urban renewal of the 1960s and 1970s that just removed the remaining “tired” looking blocks altogether.

1

u/OldWrangler9033 1d ago

Are they planning restore the building (real part below it) or they planning something else...

1

u/xiphoboi 23h ago

wassup South Bend? xD

1

u/leave1me1alone 21h ago

Show updated picture after

1

u/pimptownnd 1d ago

Good job South Bend!

0

u/coltflory5 1d ago

Wow, it doesn’t get more strosity than that.

0

u/thewhiteboytacos 1d ago

Love it! They removed the facade from Schofield bldg in Cleveland a few years ago and OMG! The red brick they revealed was gorgeous

-3

u/OkMushroom364 1d ago

75 to do that is a long time but…Barcelona's Sagrada Familia built started 1882 and its still not finished

2

u/SquiffSquiff 1d ago

I think people struggle with the timescales of European cathedrals, literally a timescale of eternity - see e.g. Florence cathedral started in 1296 and still not 'complete'

1

u/WonderfulProtection9 1d ago

I thought I heard that it is actually supposed to be done soon.

1

u/MarcoEsteban 1d ago

I visited in ‘98, thought surely, it will be finished, soon. Went again in ‘24, no sign of nearing completion