You all know I can't resist funky escalator pictures, and the long freestanding escalators up to the theater allow for some great opportunities! All of the exposed wood beams make this place feel ahead of its time, since that sort of on-display timber construction is one of the (and one of the only) big architecture trends of the 2020s. The theater isn't the only thing up here -- there's also access to the rooftop parking on the new part of the building, connected to the top floor of both parking garages -- so there's a lot more foot traffic than would be generated by the theater alone.
Ha, the building where I work, which was built in 1968, has plenty of exposed wood kind of like this. So, with this now being trendy, of course they've decided to replace the building with a new, modern glass and metal disaster and demolish the old building. Oh well, at least the new building will have a drop ceiling, real floor covering, and we talked the architects out of their idea of painting the interior walls yellow. While the new building may look a lot nicer than most new supermarkets, it still isn't what we have. I've yet to meet a single person outside of leadership who thinks this is a good idea, but you know how that goes.
ReplyDeleteMy local mall, which was built in 1981, certainly had the whole earthtones look going including plenty of exposed wood on the ceilings. In 1992, they painted just about everything white. In the last decade or so, they've restored the natural wood finish (they may have put some stain on the wood) on the main ceiling beams in the food court at the very least. You can see how that looks in the guest post at HHR I did about the mall some years ago and compare it to the other parts of the mall where the beams are still painted white. I think the natural wood looks a lot better! Link: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2021/09/01/happy-40th-anniversary-willowbrook-mall/
Ugh, it really is frustrating how many mid-century buildings are being demolished these days. Mid-century modern design is trendy and has been for a good while, but that hasn't stopped buildings from that era from being wiped out (demolished or blandly remodeled) en masse. And historic preservation organizations don't seem to care about anything built later than the 30s or 40s, still focusing on the same sort of buildings they were 20 years ago. I used to think that people would eventually start advocating to save modernist buildings, the way they pushed to save early-20th-century buildings in the 60s and 70s, but now I'm starting to think that's never going to happen.
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