Day 59 / 2022 Photo Project365

Building Under Reno(vari)ations.

The hulking edifice built on stilts, next to which IKEA built their New Haven, Connecticut store, was an empty eyesore for many years. According to local legend, it was originally designed as an office building with a nice view of the harbor beyond the highway, but it looks like an armory, prison, industrial, or government building in Siberia, instead of a place for office workers to work. Apparently, it fell out of favor, all the tenants moved out, and the forbidding façade of crumbling concrete was left alone to glower grimly at shoppers as they arrived and departed…

Then, on a mid-pandemic shopping trip — much to my surprise and amazement — I noticed signs of a gut-rehab under way! Months later, it was a full-blown renovation project-in-progress, complete with construction vehicles, dumpsters, and that lingering dust left behind by old sheetrock getting removed, new sheetrock being compounded and sanded in prep for paint. Here’s a shot of the building so you can see what I’m talking about:

As you can see, there’s a grim geometry to the building which is somewhat interesting, but a bit drab and difficult to work with photographically. However, after repeat visits, I discovered the building’s secret: it comes to life on any clear day when the sun swings to the west and hits the north-facing side. In late afternoon, the sunlight creates dark triangles and lines in sharp contrast to the weathered concrete exterior — something photo-worthy!

So I took a few iPhone photos of the “hulking edifice” on my last visit and had some fun editing variations of my favorite shot from the batch, using the Hipstamatic app. Here’s a gallery of the demented, deconstructed, edited, rebuilt, reconstructed results: