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Category: Architecture

Hot dog stand
By The Generalist Posted on September 6, 2020April 28, 2021

Pentagon hot dogs

The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world, but what lies at its centre? Until 2006, it was a hot dog stand.

Categories: Architecture, Military, North & Central America, Places
Acros Fukuoka
By The Generalist Posted on July 18, 2020April 28, 2021

City ziggurat garden

Fukuoka, Japan, is home to an iconic ziggurat-like building topped by a dozen roof garden steps.

Categories: Architecture, East Asia, Places, Plants, Sciences
Tenement
By The Generalist Posted on July 11, 2020April 28, 2021

Law vs. tenement

The latter half of the 19th century saw an arms race between New York City legislators and the builders of slum-like tenements. The battleground: windows and fresh air.

Categories: 19th century history, Architecture, History, North & Central America, Places, Politics & law
Qullqa
By The Generalist Posted on June 19, 2020April 28, 2021

Walking the Imperial Andes

The 40,000km-long Incan road system connected 12 million people, but it also supplied the Incan army with food from thousands of storage depots spread across the whole network.

Categories: Architecture, History, Medieval history, Places, South America
Wall Street
By The Generalist Posted on June 15, 2020April 28, 2021

Wall Street’s wall

Wall Street in New York City is named after one of two things: the Walloons, early Dutch settlers… or a literal wall to defend against the Algonquian peoples angry over the slaughter of 120 local Weckquaesgeek.

Categories: Architecture, Early modern history, Economics & business, History, North & Central America, Places
Marina Bay Sands
By The Generalist Posted on June 10, 2020April 28, 2021

High pool

In Singapore there is a cantilevered platform resting on top of three skyscrapers. And on top of that platform is an infinity pool.

Categories: Architecture, Places, Southeast Asia
By The Generalist Posted on May 1, 2020April 28, 2021

Baroque perspective

There is a courtyard gallery in the Palazzo Spada in Rome that is designed to fool the eye. It looks like it should be 37 metres long, but in fact it’s only 8 metres in total.

Categories: Architecture, Art, Arts, Europe, Mathematics & statistics, Places, Sciences
Centro Financiero Confinanzas
By The Generalist Posted on April 29, 2020April 28, 2021

Skyscraper squatting

The Centro Financiero Confinanzas skyscraper was unfinished at the time of the 1994 Venezuelan banking crisis. In 2007, squatters moved in.

Categories: Architecture, Economics & business, Places, South America
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
By The Generalist Posted on April 7, 2020April 28, 2021

Moving bridges

How many ways can you move a bridge to let boat traffic through? Well, you can lift it, fold it, curl it, retract it, tilt it, swing it, or submerge it.

Categories: Architecture, Europe, Middle East, North & Central America, Places, Sciences, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on April 4, 2020April 28, 2021

Jail trees

In the United States, prisoners used to be chained to trees. In Australia, prisoners used to be put inside trees.

Categories: 19th century history, Architecture, History, North & Central America, Oceania, Places, Plants, Politics & law, Sciences
Coober Pedy
By The Generalist Posted on March 12, 2020April 28, 2021

Underground town

Many of the world’s opals come from a town where the houses are underground and the umbrellas are upside down.

Categories: Architecture, Earth science, Oceania, Places, Sciences
Sosrobahu
By The Generalist Posted on March 7, 2020April 28, 2021

Thousand shoulders

How do you build a highway flyover without closing the road directly below it? In Indonesia, you build the pylons sideways and then rotate them into position.

Categories: Architecture, Places, Sciences, Southeast Asia, Technology
Haskell Library
By The Generalist Posted on January 23, 2020April 28, 2021

Borderline houses

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was built across the border between the United States and Canada. Yes, there is a thick black line on the floor between the two countries.

Categories: Architecture, North & Central America, Places, Politics & law
Immovable ladder
By The Generalist Posted on December 21, 2019April 28, 2021

Immovable ladder

Certain holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem cannot be changed without agreement from the many local denominations. As a result, a ladder has been propped against a window ledge on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre since 1728.

Categories: Architecture, Middle East, Places, Religion & belief
Bricks
By The Generalist Posted on December 11, 2019April 28, 2021

Creative taxes

Early modern England had some creative property taxes: window, chimney, brick, and wallpaper tax. Early modern England also had some creative methods of tax avoidance: sealed windows, stolen chimneys, larger bricks, and plainer wallpaper.

Categories: Architecture, Early modern history, Economics & business, Europe, History, Places, Politics & law
Shoe
By The Generalist Posted on November 19, 2019August 12, 2021

Oldest winery and shoe

The Areni-1 cave in southern Armenia is the site of the oldest shoe, and also the oldest winery, in the world.

Categories: Architecture, Arts, Fashion & design, Food & agriculture, History, North & Central Asia, Places, Prehistory, Sciences, Technology

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