There's been a remarkable transformation in chicago's north burblands since COVID, especially in the areas dominated by massive office complexes. There are so many of them and a lot of them are growing grass in the parking lot cracks because of remote work. Plus, there's way less traffic.

It's not as visually dramatic as a hollowed-out downtown, but if you're familiar with the area, it's definitely a change.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240721/business/new-life-for-zombie-offices-suburbs-less-desired-buildings-are-gradually-repurposing-in-evolving/

#suburbs #chicago #BuiltLandscape #RemoteWork #covid

In the category "the past isn't gone. it's not even past", here is a building that still says "hakalau plantation company", because Hawai'i was once covered by sugar plantations.

That past is literally still in the landscape... it's even clearly-labeled! (A lot of the rest of that history is less apparent in the landscape if you don't know which lands used to be sugar lands. but this one is just right there, sitting on the side of the road. I don't know if anyone uses it for anything.)

#hawaii #colonialism #extraction #agriculture #history #pacific #BuiltLandscape #PacificHistory

my friends, they did it: they made an all-gray cinderblock-lookin' mconald's.

this beauty was spotted in des plaines, il, a suburb of #chicago that used to have an old-timey mcdonald's just sitting there with a little mannequin inside wearing an old-timey mcdonald's uniform (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_No._1_Store_Museum).

i wonder what philip langdon (author of "orange roofs, golden arches: the architecture of american chain restaurants" would think of this latest design turn?

#greige #greyification #GrayAgenda #architecture #suburbs #USA #FastFood #BuiltLandscape #BuiltEnvironment #VisualCulture #VisualAnthropology

📍: Pollington Visitor Moorings
ℹ️: wharf
🗺: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.6666743516929&mlon=-1.0727714847648#map=17/53.6666743516929/-1.0727714847648
📸: Photo by Geoffrey Thompson. on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/158303852@N05/43574717311

#canal #river #narrowboat #barge #gongoozler #england #uk #flickr #bridge #building #pylon #towpath #pollington #unitedkingdom #gb #waterwaterwayfeatures #britishisles #greatbritain #builtlandscape #yorkshire #westridingofyorkshire #lockwaterway #byways