Last one standing

There’s this old building.
It has been here since we arrived and for a long time before. It sits, hidden in the middle of a light industrial estate, in a small drive-through town a few miles from here and, despite all the pre-fabricated, non-descript, soulless monstrosities growing up all around it, it has always remained quietly there.

I have been meaning to photograph it, to make it into a sort of photo-essay, for a long time now and kept putting it off for one reason or another, and also because there was a rather high fence all round it. 

Then, last week, things suddenly changed. 

I noticed that the gate was open on Monday, nothing more on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning someone had parked a bulldozer in the forecourt. It seems that this old boy has to come down to make way for something new.
So, in haste, I had to get myself in there and do my best. I’m not sure what it is about this building; perhaps the squareness, perhaps the fading stucco walls, the sense of what it was (and I still can’t figure that out), perhaps the fact that it is the last one standing, or just that I hoped it would make strong and striking images.

Anyway, as I write this, it’s still hanging on. The ground either side of it is now flat and prepared for something, and it looks even more exposed and under threat than before.

So, I have put a few examples of my (all too hasty) photos in the sidebar. Have a look before it's too late!

Comments

[gillian ageros]

I have been reading all your blog entries with great interest - I especially love Amanda's "The best thing I ate today" pieces, for the way they transport me back to the huge old kitchen at La Loggia, San Andrea in Caprile, where we have such pleasure concocting marvellous meals in the evenings!

But I wanted to comment on this entry too, because like you, I give my heart to old buildings all over Tuscany. We look at them very differently though, I guess: my interest being of the purely domestic sort - ie I just want to buy them, and turn them into homes!

There's one in particular, on the road to Lucca.... It's just the most perfect little domestic villa, with the prettiest, most elegantly balustraded little balcony I ever saw. It stands though, alas, slap bang on one corner of a busy crossroads. Everybody admires it a while as they wait there - but nobody is ever, ever, EVER going to buy it!

It's For Sale sign swings so sadly - soon the sign will fall down, and in time, the pretty villa will crumble away, and presumably, be demolished ....

In New Zealand, where I was born and grew up, the houses were mostly made of wood, and could be picked up whole, and moved elsewhere ... you often saw a house being transported along a motorway on the back of a lorry.

How I have wished the same thing could be done with my pretty villa on the Via Pesciatina! Or failing that, it could be carefully de-constructed stone by stone, then put together again in the simply perfect place!

[David Jones]

Building.
Beautiful building. Brilliant photos. We are thankful you got in to record it for posterity.

[karen cole]

Yes, a beautiful building. Love those detail shots. Those colors.

Hope everything else is beautiful in your life.

[Pegret]

The contrasts, the colors, the structure, the "bones" of the building are special....the sun's play of lights and darks on the walls is evocative and your photos are so very romantic and beautiful....They make you want to embrace the building and care for it....lovely, thank you

[travelingsuep]

I think this building is beautiful - I wish I was staying with you so I could draw it. I used to draw a lot of urban decay, but haven't done so for years. I'm inspired by your great pics.

[Scintilla]

It's to your merit that you can create beauty in a potentially ugly structure. Bravo!

[Suzy]

Don't know if this true, but I've heard or read that this is one of the few buildings in the area that was bombed in WW2 and never repaired.
I look every time I pass it for obvious bomb damage, but must admit I'm not knowledgeable enough to recognize it.
Your photos capture the essence of the building. Thank you.

[Fern Driscoll]

Lovely photos - so evocative. It's a pity it can't simply be restored, but it probably would cost a lot more to do that than to tear down and rebuild...

[somepinkflowers]

oh

i am so sorry
they are tearing down YOUR building!

:-(

it is not only beautiful but
also
gives off such interesting vibes.

thank goodness you did capture a bit of it
before it was too late...

{{ for me
it is the color and the texture contrast.
you just could not replicate THAT effect
if your tried! }}

[saretta]

Well, I can understand...it's beautiful!

[Antonina]

There is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson"The Ornament of a house is the friends that frequent it. I suppose this can also apply to buildings, once the work or lives of people who worked there is gone , the buildings life energy appears to be seeping out of its pores {stucco}, decaying paint peeling,you were compelled to photograph it as it awaited its final days in the sun.A catalog of what once was useful and is no more.You have an excellent eye in capturing that.Then again your are an artist!

[Judith in Umbria]

Big fat SIIIIII from me! I can see that this neglected place is not old enough to attract the restorers, but the amount of patination is impressive and your work is much appreciated.

[Rosaria]

Despite the darkened and broken windows giving it the look of a building with a lost soul,the exterior, weatherbeaten colors and textures and how the light plays on them, still reveal intense character and a glimpse of a history where it had been a sturdy infrastructure for something important. Your pix look inspirational for painting.

[Elda]

where is this building?