I went to Coney Island in February to see the New York Aquarium. To get down there, I took the D train from Downtown Brooklyn to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station. When I arrived, I saw a beautiful terminal. Artwork of hot dogs and children playing adorned the windows around me, giving the place the feeling of entering a theme park. The place felt grand yet easy to navigate at the same time.
The outside of the station is simple yet gorgeous. The terracotta facade features several Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit signs, paying homage to the original private subway line that operated there. The brownstone design, combined with dark green, made the station feel right at home in Brooklyn. At night, the lights covering this station and its signal tower make it an iconic addition to Surf Avenue.
Seeing this station made me think of the boring, sterile buildings that I see on my commute to school most days. Many buildings on Hempstead Turnpike are now modernized to look “clean.” Instead of interesting colors and unique designs, many buildings now opt for different shades of gray and black for their exteriors, with maybe even a wooden facade. The McDonald’s and Chipotle nearby have nearly identical color schemes on their exterior despite being completely different restaurants. While those two companies would argue the look is sleeker and more modern, it just turns out boring.
One reason so many restaurants and buildings look like this now is to cut costs. It is expensive to make a restaurant or public place look unique, so developers now opt for a simpler look.
The other major reason boils down to resale value. If a business sets up shop in a building and wants to make it look unique, what happens if the business goes bankrupt and is forced to move out? It would be much harder to sell a property that was clearly meant for something specific. Pizza Hut, for example, used to have many buildings with a roof meant to resemble their logo. Since those buildings, with distinguishable roofs, are hard to resell, it is difficult to find a Pizza Hut now with that iconic roof.
This tactic, while cost-effective, takes away the ability to inject charm or character into an ordinary place. Since the Stillwell Avenue station is a public building, they do not need to worry about this happening. Private businesses, however, do need to consider the resale value of their building when designing the exterior and interior.
This new modern style of architecture and color is not focused on the artistry of the building itself or making it look unique, instead, it focuses on maximizing the profit the property can make in case a business goes belly-up.
We can see this happening in Glen Cove, New York, right now. The local Taco Bell provides a look into a different time for architecture. The inside has orange and red walls, complete with the white, pink, red and teal color combination on the tables that Taco Bell used to be known for rocking. The outside has arched windows and a Spanish tile roof.
The architecture of this Taco Bell gives the restaurant a strong identity, but it will not stay this way for long. The building is going to undergo renovations soon, potentially destroying the charm of this old fast-food restaurant.
Instead of focusing on maximizing profit, architects need to go back to giving each building its own identity. Each ordinary building doesn’t have to look like Grand Central Terminal, but maybe they should look more like Stillwell Avenue station or old Taco Bells. Architecture can tell you so much about a place and its history, but modern, black and gray buildings tell you little to nothing. Buildings that we pass by every day should not all look the same.
