the building
There is this building I see out my window. The building has been under construction a long time. One floor going up slowly after the next, gray concrete walls growing up tall rebar outlines of a building that is not solid yet, not complete. I have had these windows a year and the building is still under construction. No one is in a hurry to finish this building I guess. And the upper stories seem to have stalled in the rebar outline stage. Just waiting.
At night, on the seventh floor, there is light. It is real pretty. It looks like a glassed in loft shining out from this tall building.
It is during the day that is weird. That is not a pretty glassed in loft. That is an unfinished story with mostly rebar for walls.
I wonder who is on the seventh floor nights after all the construction workers go home. I wonder if no walls bothers them, or if they just like looking out over the city with some walls even if they are rebar and a place to stay far above predators and questions?
where the art work came from :
that is fossil by donna watson
15 Responses to the building
It’s funny, I’ve never really thought of who might be in a construction site currently, but I always wonder what it would be like to be there myself. I wonder why that is? I guess I just think of construction sites as pretty pieces of art, not living spaces. More like a stage, and I might be performing on it someday (night).
Max, off topic, but I tagged you. this one’s important.
After the Nisqually Quake hit Seattle in 2001 I started to make some late night ‘visits’ to some of the damged buildings in Pioneer Square armed with…I kid you not a little first aid kit, a flaslight and a hammer.
No I’m not kidding…I’m just surprised I didn’t take a bowl of Lucky Charms Cereal to make myself REALLY SAFE AND LUCKY.
Actually I thought I’d be okay because I’d ‘liberated’ a safety helmet, a safety vest and some other cool things from my building’s construction workers.
Anyway, I went into some of the buildings that were hit hard because I wanted to…you know I wanted to face the beast that scared the heck out of me.
So I’m crawling through holes in the floors over piles of rubble under ‘DO NOT ENTER TAPE’
Then this thought comes from nowhere,as I went over the tags, the red and black crayon marks on the walls and floors as I scoped out the braces and the ‘injuries’ the buildings suffered that the construction workers were doing what I use to do as a Mortician.
They were repairing mortal injuries in order to make the buildings ‘presentable’ for the living.
just a thought from a night visitor to construction sites
Anita Marie
Wow–that’s cool, Anita!
I was in Seattle for that quake. That was a solid quake. Seattle is earie, nobody codes for quakes, nobody checks geology charts, in Seattle people do not even act like quakes happen or are a possiblity. And there Seattle is sitting right on the Pacific rim which is, hello, quake central. That creeped me out some.
It’s hard to explain to a bunch of coffee addicts that shaking is a bad, bad thing…they don’t get it.
Plus…if you talk quakes in Seattle you have to talk about the fact Seattle is built on a land fill full of garbage.
Yikes.
Anita Marie
That and the sea wall is going steadily to hell and last time I was there no one was fixing it AND the fun bridge that is an exact duplicate contruction of the bridge that collapsed in San Francisco and no one has thought maybe they should go check it or reinforce it. Seattle is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever lived in. And, scariest because it is so at risk and no one is doing anything about that.
By the fun bridge do you mean the famous Alaska Way Viaduct?! Ha, some of us DARE each other to go stand under it at rush hour.
I used to say it creaks when the wind blows and no one laughs anymore.
But you know Max I think the thing is no one is doing squat because with a crumbling Sea Wall, the Bridge-O-Death and the other problems because people are STILL willing to pay some major bucks for Real Estate in Seattle.
Frustrating Situation all around.
Anita Marie
The viaduct is that thing that turns into an underground tunnel at one spot? That thing was creepy. Or the bridge I am talking about?
I do not know this bridge’s name, it is this big double decker bridge that approaches Seattle from the South before turning into a feeder highway running along the backside of the Pike market. The first time I was on that thing my hair stood straight up and I avoided it ever after.
That’s the one Max…it goes from the Bridge O Death to the Tunnel From Hell.
My Husband quit using it ( with me in the Car anyway ) because everytime we’d use it I’d start telling buried alive stories.
The power of the story teller doesn’t have to be limited to the page.
Anita Marie
Good job. Now if I could talk you out of crawling through structurally damaged buildings after quakes hit….
I’m way ahead of you Max…I’ve decided you can only kick fate in the spuds so many times before it kicks you back.
anita marie
Just reading about that bridge gives me heart palpitations, and that’s before you mentioned the TUNNEL.
Yikes. I just marked Seattle off my list of places I might consider living.
Seattle is truly and shockingly beautiful. The most beautiful city I have ever lived in. One of the most beautiful I have ever been to in my life. This does not alter the “I am creeped out don’t you people know you are on the Pacific Rim?” factor for a California kid. Which escalates geometrically the longer you live there. But. There are parts of Seattle I really miss.
half built buildings are why i likewhat i do. Things unfinished are an undeniable draw to me.