The Architect That Thought Wrong
Here’s something that ended up in my mailbox and totally freaked me out. How come nobody ever noticed it?
Go to google maps and enter this : –> eniwetok R&D san diego
Switch to satellite view and zoom in to the max. Then say ‘wtf’ when you see the building that looks like this :
Dude. This is so wrong…
The swastika only has its negative connocations here in the west. It is thousands of year old, and was originally (and still in other parts of the world) a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
That said, who would design that building?
Comment by badrad | November 6, 2005
Who the f… is that stupid?
Comment by Randy Charles Morin | November 6, 2005
I guess someone never thought that you, me, and Joe Sixpack would be peaking at his building from space.
Comment by Brock | November 7, 2005
I spend much of Sunday morning removing such symbols of good luck and auspiciousness from my house, but I can’t help to feel that since my house is located in Germany that they were meant in the “get the f*** out of here” context…
Still let me raise just one question.
Was this building complex built prior to lets say 1918?
Reason I ask, if it was prior to then, I don’t quite think anyone is to blame. If it was build after that date (and I would think it was), well I have to seriously question the sanity of everyone involved…
Comment by Mt. Otz | November 7, 2005
If you look south-west of the building, there are two buildings that look like two air fighters attacking the Swastika. Maybe that why they designed this way, a little military joke?
History of that base can be found here.
Also, if you like to see another place that look like swastika: try Devner Airport…
Comment by GamingFox | November 7, 2005
I can’t see the joke in that, sorry. Like Mt. Otz says, the original meaning of the swastika disappeared by the abuse of the nazi’s since the late 1930’s.
Any use of it will always be linked to this period of history, especially when it comes to military buildings. Jets or no jets.
Comment by Coolz0r | November 7, 2005
Also, when I use Google Earth to take a closer look, I noticed the center part of the building is a courtyard with concrete ground and what appears to be a empty water foundation and smaller building on the southwest side of the courtyard. The courtyard create an illusion that the 4 buildings are connected which they aren’t.
Now before anyone start posting “then why 4 L-shaped buildings???”, L-shaped is a common method to save space while giving access to all sides. For example, in small clothing stores, they tend to put clothes on the hangers in 4 L-shaped patterns so the customers can easily walk in and pick out the clothes, while efficiently using limited space on the floor. Some airports did the same thing with their runways (look at Devner Airport). Nothing Nazi about saving space.
Same can be applied to buildings. In the Naval Base, I noticed there is almost no free space anywhere in the base and they are sitting on very thin island. So it is reasonable to assume that The Navy want efficient usability of their limited amount of land for barracks large enough to hold certain amount of men and at the same time leave enough of grass area to make the men feel conformable. (One officer who worked there said the 4 buildings are barracks).
And finally… It is JUST a building (or 4 of them), not a flag or a giant billboard. No one is waving swastika and no one is shouting “Heil Hiler!” in the U.S. Naval Base. It is true that swastika is a symbol of evil, but most buildings are not meant to be taken as symbols (especially the ones in naval bases).
Just my 2 cents.
Comment by GamingFox | November 7, 2005
Yeah, the buildings do resemble an old Nazi swastika, but so what? WW2 is over so people can stop getting offended by stupid symbols from a retarded army that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s really sad to see America (the strongest country in the world) so easily stirred over issues that are senseless and obviously blown out of proportion. Whoever feels offended by the way these buildings look is the same kind of person that looks at the Washington Monument and sees a giant cock instead of a tower. There isn’t some group of evil Nazi conspirators within the U.S military going around building swastika naval bases, these particular buildings just happen to look that way. In conclusion, the appearance of the naval base shouldn’t be altered just because a bunch of over-sensitive people got bored and decided to complain.
Comment by Brian | September 30, 2007
[…] barracks facility near San Diego, changing the look of the 40-year old building so it no longer resembles a swastika. Because of the availability and popularity of Google Maps, Google Earth, and other satelite maps […]
Pingback by » Google Earth Forces $600,000 Navy Bill»InsideGoogle-part of the Blog News Channel | October 5, 2007
instead of worrying about this inconsequential building design, spend the money on education, where a large percentage of young people believe the U.S. and Germany were allied against Russia.
Comment by jonathan | October 8, 2007