Friday, September 6, 2013

UFO Building


This fab piece of commercial architecture was built in the 1960s or early 1970s. I have wanted to draw it for years but never got the opportunity until now. When I came to the suburbs of Washington 25 years ago, it was part of a fancy Lord and Taylor department store. The round top with the arched windows was a cafe and restaurant for the ladies who shopped there. Later on, Lord and Taylor left the site and it became a Sears store, which it still is now. Last time I looked, the round top room was abandoned, but I'm not sure whether it is used now. I am amazed that this is still standing, as most of the architecture from earlier times in that area is gone. Some architectural snobs would think this was cheesy and ugly but I see it as a relic of an era where design was more adventurous. The round top does kind of look like a cooking pan turned upside down, or maybe a 1960s style UFO alien spacecraft.

Brown technical pen ink on sketchbook page, 4" x 6", September 5, 2013.

No comments: