Nov. 25, 2002 - 16:01 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Durable ?

There are buildings that were built around the time the 'Pilgrims' hit this continent that still exist in usable form today. Then there are ruins of old ghost towns decaying after the gold was all gone. Along our highways occasionally we see a farmhouse and outbuildings slowly going to earth. All those things are of a relatively recent date in comparison to how things went in the world long ago.

On our anniversary cruise in 1993 one of the treats for me was to visit the ruins of where our Olympic games began, another, the Pyramids, the Parthenon, Hadrian's wall. All things from our ancient history.

In our country I have seen petroglyphs in Utah, sites where arrowheads were chipped out, Mesa Verde such an architectural impossibility built in a cleft down the face of a mesa. We were at the ruins in Aztec, New Mexico. All these things mostly constructed and done before the Pilgrims ever thought of coming over here, still they stand, gradually returning to the earth - their mother.

Are we building future ruins here, now in this age of rush ? In the short span of my life I have seen brand spanking new buildings built and destroyed before they could stand a chance of becoming ruins. Maybe some of our churches, state capitol buildings will last long enough to be seen by people who are many generations downstream of the folks of today. Houses and shopping malls, built, razed, ground scraped off to make room for new building. Most of which seems to me to be of shoddy construction, poor design (effort to make a place look different seems to be the criteria) and the materials seem to me to be of less durable material. Brick houses aren't built as they once were. Nowadays there is a match stick frame skeleton covered with fiberboard, chipboard or whatever and then a brick facing on the outside. A bit more durable probably than a double wide trailer home but not much, it seems to me.

In our town there are places where new structures are built, later scraped off and something else built there and on and on, while old structures, built in pioneer days stand strong even yet.

Occasionally an effort will be made to restore a building to how it was when built. Capitol Hill here in Denver has seen some of the old mansions restored and used as lawyer's and doctor's establishments. But, in the minority they seem to be.

Some of the new public buildings almost look as if they were designed by a child with building blocks or legos. They do look different but certainly not pleasing to the eye.

In applicances and machinery 'Planned Obsolescense' seems to be the way things are made now. Five years is a long time and then the new is 'in' if only the paint is different (anybody remember the Avocado kitchens of a few years ago ?) the old stuff is obsolete. Electronic stuff will once in a while, outlast the five year mark. But, you know, what the heck, equipment usually goes obsolete before five years have passed. Are we building huge landfills of cast off, obsolete materiel ? If things were built to last longer couldn't others use it ? Others who can't afford to buy the new pricey stuff ?

Fairly rapid senescense of shoes and clothing is to be expected, curtains, drapes and rugs also. Are people so easily bored that they have to have something new every five or so years ? I guess, that seems to be the flow nowadays.

Of course I think if well planned using common sense, urban renewal accomplishes miracles, clearing out rubbish buildings. But often also are removed good, sturdy, well built and handsome buildings too. It takes great effort and money to get a great place named as a historical site, the money to maintain it and the guarantee that it will be kept as it was when built comes hard.

A cantankerous old coot like me hates to see good usable buildings torn down just to build something new, for new's sake and heh, for the sake of the money expected to flow like water as a consequence.

Will we end up another Tokyo here ? I see in our morning paper that Denver is trying to limit the size of houses. Cynical me, the smaller the house the more of them can be put on a city block. It also seems to me that they are now being built so close together that one could reach out their window and wash the window of their neighbor. It appears to me that the wide open west is getting hemmed in here in Denver.

In the scramble to make more of the whatevers, what in all the world has happened to Durable ? . . . . . . . . . .

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