How to Hide a Big Brown Refrigerator
Society Hill residents still haven't accommodated themselves to the huge brown signal boxes that began appearing on street corners last year
How to Hide a Big Brown Refrigerator
Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Society Hill residents still haven't accommodated themselves to the huge brown signal boxes that began appearing on street corners last year. The boxes, which I chronicled in a December column and blog post, are almost six feet and have been jammed against some of the city's oldest, most historic houses. But one resident I wrote about, Marjorie Amrom, is trying to make the signal box next to her house fade into the woodwork. She painted it to match her house's lovely cerulean blue paint, and topped it off with what appears to be a trompe l'oeil painting of vines and flowers. The Philly Design Blog thinks residents ought to get the Mural Arts folks to paint all of them. But that may be going a little too far.
Meanwhile, those boxes, which are used to control traffic lights and will eventually be fitted with camera equipment, aren't the only big brown boxes bugging the neighborhood. Some Society Hill residents are equally appalled at the new big belly trash compactors that the city is installing as a replacement to old-fashion trash cans, according to an article in the July/August issue of the Society Hill Reporter. I can't say these bother me as much. They're almost always near the curb, rather than adjacent to the houses. And they replace an existing street furnishing, the trash bin. Plus they're much neater and better for the environment, since they include a recycling bin.
Comments (5)
Thanks for the post. I think if we painted all the signal boxes like this one, it would be a little much. But a softer, less busy pattern or scene might work very well. And perhaps not ALL the boxes, but definitely the ones in smaller scale, historic neighborhoods.— danya
Danya...I like your idea on this...agreeing on a particular design for a neighborhood could take as long as fixing the city budget, but where there's a will...— Rosie1020- they should be outfitted with old pictures or history of the corner. Tune each one to its location but have them provide some information or intrigue— extra velvet
- ...or, they could be made functional for visitors as "wayfinding" platforms for painted-on maps.— FMT
- Is this the only post on the new blog so far?— Scrapple
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About this blog
Inga Saffron believes there is architecture and there are places, and you can’t write about one without writing about the other. Since becoming the Inquirer’s architecture critic in 1999, she has been just as likely to turn her eye toward Philadelphia’s waterfronts and sidewalks as to the latest glittering skyscraper. She is drawn to projects of all sizes and shapes, but especially those that form the backdrop of our daily lives.
Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
Inga Saffron came to architecture criticism after five years as a foreign correspondent in Russia and Yugoslavia, where she covered two wars and was a witness to the destruction of two great cities, Sarajevo and Grozny. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2004, 2008 and 2009.
Read previous entries on her Skyline Online blog. Reach Inga at isaffron@phillynews.com.
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