Sunday, August 8, 2010

Art & Architecture


I went to my favorite museum while up in New England - MASS MoCA, in North Adams, Mass. I have done posts about this place before, and I will do more in the next few days. But I thought I would start with this. One of the attractions to me, besides the amazing exhibits, is the architecture - a series of buildings which were once the Sprague Electrical Company, where capacitors were made for electronics assemblies. When I am here, I find there are so many things to photograph - so many that I have trouble picking between art and architecture. So I will start with this photograph from an abandoned former powerhouse. This was once a huge boiler for heating the factory - there are three in this building. The walls and insulation have been removed, and only the boiler tubes remain. What a cool looking room, don't you think?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The boiler tubes look like art. Amazing!
Joan

Anonymous said...

i find the history very interesting... for a very long time i worked for a public power organization and one of the coolest things was when i took a tour of the original power producing facility, where they brought in coal to create power...the assembly lines..the furnaces... all of the old technology (however environmentally unstable) was fascinating..
and one of the things still in use was a jet engine to augment power requirements during peak periods.. like now....
the sound of the engines starting up was unmistakable....

Ken Spencer said...

Thank you for the fascinating comments. I would love to see a big. older power plant like you describe. I love the outsized scale of this kind of machinery. When I was in the Air Force Reserve, I refuled both F-100 Super Sabres and C-119 Flying Boxcars, and and many times got to hear them both start up and come up to speed. Still gives me goosebumps!