Ala. Building Can't Shake Swastika Shape

[Scribbler1]

Is this overreacting or is there a real, deliberate insult here? Check the photo. LINK (http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/general/2008/03/14/Swastika.Building/)
DECATUR, Ala. — From the ground, the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home looks like any other building. But fly over in an airplane, and the outline is unmistakable: It's one big swastika.

Prompted by complaints from a Jewish activist, the agency that owns the government-funded building is planning to alter its shape to disguise the Nazi symbol. The move comes just a few years after a $1 million design modification meant to quiet similar complaints from a U.S. senator.

"The difficulty is there are a limited number of options for fixing a building that has been there for some time," said Mike Giles, counsel for the Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida. "We have to come up with a way to fix an appearance that we want solved and not hurt our residents."

Wesley Acres provides government-subsidized housing for 117 low-income people ages 62 and above. Most have no reason to suspect their hallways take on a sinister shape.

The one-story building, designed in the mid-1970s and completed in 1980, underwent a $1 million alteration in 2001 with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development following complaints by Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, who has since died. But the addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive shape, and in some ways accentuates it.

[4Reaganomics]

I read this story a while ago. While I'm unsure if it was a deliberate insult, I do not get how an architect missed that in the modeling stages.

[AnnEsthesia]

Oh give me a break. I am sure someone said "Let's stick it to the Jews! Let's make it a swastika and someday, someone will fly over it with a plane and know we got em!"

[PatrickHenry]

This is a new one on me. I read a story about this one earlier:

http://www.tagzania.com/item/5326

[Scribbler1]

How many Swastika-shaped buildings do we HAVE in this country? And I wonder if the shape of the building to the South West has any meaning.

Maybe witches or something.

[Cobra]

Well it's not a bad shape for a building. A central hub with four wings coming off.

[4Reaganomics]

ha, I am not saying it was intentional. I just think that the architects who modeled that and didn't notice were pretty dense

or maybe they just didn't care

[Scribbler1]

The story refers to the fact that it wasn't made quite as designed.

And the Swastika has been around for a lot longer than the Nazis, and it used to mean something good. I can't recall exactly, but it was a positive symbol.

[AnnEsthesia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika स्वस्तिक ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing (卐) or left-facing (卍) forms. The swastika can also be drawn as a traditional swastika, but with a second 90° bend in each arm.

Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period. An ancient symbol, it occurs mainly in the cultures that are in modern day India and the surrounding area, sometimes as a geometrical motif and sometimes as a religious symbol. It has long been widely used in major world religions such as Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism and Jainism.

The swastika was appropriated as a Nazi symbol and gained further association with the Third Reich as the Reich gained influence. Though once commonly used over much of the world without stigma, over time the symbol has become a controversial motif, especially in the Western world.

[bishop]

i can't see how you couldn't notice the design... unless, of course, they didn't use ANY blueprints when designing and planning the building/construction... apparently, it isn't the only structure of its kind either..

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/09/google_earth_reveals_nazi_swastika.html

can't find any info about who the architect was, although it would definitely be interesting to learn more... or, is there any background into the company's leadership that could shed some insight... call me a cynic, but i'm not one to believe that with a project of this scale, that you would "accidentally" end up with a building shaped exactly like a swastika.[hr]
The story refers to the fact that it wasn't made quite as designed.

And the Swastika has been around for a lot longer than the Nazis, and it used to mean something good. I can't recall exactly, but it was a positive symbol.


the swastika originated in ancient india from what i was taught, and it only meant good things (same with the word "aryan" - another sanskrit word).. the indians later kept it and used the symbol in hinduism.

http://images.exoticindiaart.com/jcjewelry/ganesha_pendant_with_hindu_swastika_symbol_jkg62sm .jpg

[DANG]

It doesnt really matter what the swastika USED to mean. Nazi Germany changed the meaning of it forever.
Right this minute, at the church on the corner,
two blocks away, theres a tilt-a-whirl with Maltese Crosses http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5830/maltesepr2.jpg
on all of the cups/cars.
We have skin heads and neo-nazis in this area....and a large Black population.... this could turn ugly.

There was an article (http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/773758.html)in the Sacramento Bee this week, about renaming C.W. Goethe Park because he was working in Eugenics.
A lot of people thought it was a waste of money. I think it is mandatory.
I brought up the fact that the Coronado Naval Building needs to be razed as well....
How can they put it off for even a single day?
I will tell you why. The bush dynasty was built on Prescott Bush financially backing Adolph Hitler during the war. When it was illegal.... junior bush will not undo this symbol of racist hate during his watch. Not gonna happen.

See the US Navy Swastika:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPYyVAXHQXQ

[lily]

http://f3.yahoofs.com/ymg/null__7/null-432670236-1190926864_thumb.jpg?ymR4aM.Ch37a_K7p

Like this guy said.........some people just have too much time on their hands. (http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/46586?)
US Navy to Alter "Swastika" Building Due to Web Maps
Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:13PM EDT


Your tax dollars at work: The US Navy will be spending about $600,000 to
redesign or camouflage a 1960s barracks building in San Diego because of
complaints that it looks like a swastika when viewed from the air. In the
past this might have been a problem only for the occasional air traveler who
happened over Coronado island, but with the advent of aerial mapping and
visualization tools like Google Earth, everyone can see anything from the
sky. In fact, many people have made a game out of finding oddities in
satellite photos.

Now it's one thing to see landmarks like this and snicker over a designer's
missteps 40 years ago (the Navy says it noticed the shape but that it didn't
think anyone would see it from above), but it's another thing altogether to
complain to the Navy about the shape of a building when viewed from space.
But people really seem to have the time on their hands: The Navy says it's
been inundated with complaints; enough, I suppose, to justify spending that
much money on new structures and extra bushes. It's the first known case of
its kind.

So what will the building look like when the job is done, I wonder? A set of
four connected squares? A pinwheel formed from triangles? Post your ideas
for what the Navy ought to do out of the wayward swastika here and we'll see
if we can't pass them along to the powers that be.