Wikipedia

Fake building

This article is about concealing infrastructure in residential areas. For the use of camouflage in urban warfare, see Urban camouflage. For the use of façades as decorations, see Folly. For the use of structure built solely to deceive others, see Potemkin village.

A fake building (also known as a fake house, false-front house, fake façade, or transformer house in specific situations) is a usually governmental building, structure, or public utility housing that uses urban and/or suburban camouflage to disguise equipment and city infrastructure facilities that are aesthetically unpleasing in non-industrial neighborhoods.[1][2] These buildings are commonly found in residential towns and cities, where they blend in with the surrounding architecture and hide the presence of manufactured equipment.

History edit

Post-industrial revolution edit

 
Foundational waterworks style of Springhead Pumping Station
 
Sacred atmosphere imposed by the design of Abbey Mills Pumping Station

After the industrial revolution, cities in industrialized countries were required to construct and maintain infrastructure facilities to support city growth. The modern water industry was one of the early types of city infrastructure that was born in the early 19th century out of that necessity. There were three types of structures that were unique to the water industry: pumping stations, water towers, and dams. In particular, the pumping stations that housed large steam engines in the 19th and early 20th centuries were built intentionally to be symbolic. The building architectures were to communicate a message to the public of safety and reliability, and express their functions. Building designs inherited from beam engine buildings required strong rigid walls and raised floor to support the engines, large arched and multi-story windows to let the light in without compromising wall strength, and roof ventilation such as decorative dormers. These functional features formed the principal of "waterworks style." An example of simple waterworks architectural style is Springhead Pumping Station. More elaborated designs were also used to communicate sacred atmosphere to highlight the importance of critical tasks of the facilities such as in sewage pumping stations. An example is Abbey Mills Pumping Station that employed baroque eclecticism in its design.[3]

Other types of infrastructure facilities had their unique architectural expressions as well. Those include gas supply, electrical supply, and communication buildings.[4]

The city infrastructure buildings in this period were more communicative and expressive with their own designs without having to conceal from the public. Other examples are Radialsystem (Berlin, Germany sewage pumping station), Kempton Park engine house, Chestnut Hill Waterworks in Massachusetts, United States, Spotswood Pumping Station in Melbourne, Australia, Palacio de Aguas Corrientes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sewage Plant in Bubeneč, in Prague, Czech Republic, and R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in Toronto, Canada. These buildings are considered to be part of the world heritage in the water industry.[5]

Twentieth century edit

Unurbanized substations
 
An image of the front of a hydro substation in Toronto, Canada
 
An unconcealed electrical substation in Warren, Minnesota

One of the earliest known examples of fake houses was 58 Joralemon Street in New York when it was acquired by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1907 and gutted for the use of ventilating underground transportation.[6] As a historic building, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission had jurisdiction over the building. Local community wanted the façade to be historically appropriate and compatible with the neighborhood.[7]

The urban and suburban camouflage at a large scale dates back to early 1911 when substations were first introduced in Toronto, Canada. During this period, electronic converters were housed within grandiose abodes rather than being unenclosed or disguised. Many of those fake building designs were to imitate civic buildings such as museums and city halls.[8][9] After the tribulation of World War II, suburbia began to flourish internationally.[10] Due to this eminent boom in society, the electricity demand expanded exponentially, and architects were called to find openings for wanted substations. During this, Harold Alphonso Bodwell, a utility employee appointed to the situation as the lead designer, introduced the idea of disemboweling unused housing for these substations to the directors.[11] Eventually, Toronto Hydro built house-shape substations with slight variations from half-dozen base models ranging from ranch-style houses to Georgian mansions. Throughout the 20th century, the company built hundreds of such fake houses.[9]

In 1963, a property owner in Prairie Village, Kansas, United States gave $300,000 in capital improvements to Johnson County Wastewater, a wastewater management authority, to build a fake house for a sewage pumping station in a nearby location so that it blended in to the neighborhood. Not everyone in the neighborhood knew about the existence of the facility as they did not experience any smell of sewage in the area. The authority also built another fake house for a pumping station.[12]

Usage and placement edit

 
Combined sewer overflow screening facility disguised as townhouses, built in 2009[13]

Although Toronto uses fake buildings to cloak residential substations, there is a multitude of applications for the designation elsewhere. In Los Angeles, California, many of these structures conceal oil rigs.[14] Other assignments include pump stations,[15] and subway ventilation shafts. Ultimately, these mirages are not inherently installed to prevent vandalism or burglary but rather for the ambiance of its area. Fake buildings not only maintain property value of the neighborhoods due to their blending appearances,[citation needed] but camouflaging also holds the location's layout. These façades can be discovered internationally from the United States' New York City, New York[16] and Los Angeles, California[17] to Paris, France[18] and London, United Kingdom.[19]

In another context, fake buildings may be used beyond hiding city infrastructure or industrial equipment for aesthetic reasons. Some are used for concealing the locations of secret facilities such as chalets in Switzerland that are used to hide military installations.[20]

Known locations edit

Main article: List of fake buildings

The following are some examples of fake buildings.

For ventilation edit

For power conversion edit

For water and wastewater management edit

Design edit

Design commonalities
 
Blacked out windows in 58 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn, New York
 
Printed images of windows rather than real glass panes, curtains or framing[23]

Most examples of fake buildings are similar to the design of their surrounding buildings, but this is not always the case. Some instances, however, are less convincing due to design flaws caused by the contained equipment or other difficulties. These flaws include blacked-out windows;[24][25][26] the lack of a roof,[27][25][28] doorway, window panes,[27] or some enclosed walls;[27] gated extrusions; warning signs; and some 3D components printed on rather than replicated with actual materials.[18]

Other design elements that may reveal the existence of fake buildings include doors and windows that are too industrial for a house, landscaping that is too perfect, or buildings that are heavily fenced with many security cameras.[9]

In municipalities that require having public consultation for constructions of public facilities, the general public may have a great influence in the designs of fake buildings. It is not always the case that the people would want the designs to be like residential homes. For example, when City of Hoboken presented an initial design of a structure to house a new flood pump station, there was a public outcry because the building looked more like a colonial townhouse, with some feeling it dishonored the industrial heritage of the city. The final design was completely changed into a modern building with architectural connection to the nearby transportation building.[29]

Some fake buildings have designs that imitate other types of buildings to match their surrounding areas. An electrical substation in an urban neighborhood of Washington, DC is disguised as an old train station. Another substation in a mixed commercial and residential area of Washington, DC imitates an office building. In a more rural area of Gaithersburg, Maryland, a substation is designed to look like a large barn with a metal silo on the side to make it similar to a nearby farmland.[30]

References edit

  1. ^ Collyer, Robin. "ARTIST PROJECT / TRANSFORMER HOUSES". Cabinet Magazine. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  2. ^ Pyzyk, Katie. "Fake buildings shrouding transit infrastructure are hiding in plain sight". Smart Cities Dive. Industry Dive. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  3. ^ Douet, James (1 January 1992). Temples of Steam Waterworks Architecture in the Steam Age. Bristol Polytechnic. ISBN 1871056659. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  4. ^ Infrastructure: Utilities and Communication. Historic England. December 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  5. ^ Douet, James (25 January 2018). The Water Industry as World Heritage (PDF). The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Fresh Air for Tunnel: Plant Site Purchased". New-York Tribune. 1907-03-23. p. 4. Retrieved 21 December 2022 – via newspapers.com  .
  7. ^ Gill, John Freeman (26 December 2004). "A Puzzle Tucked Amid the Brownstones". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  8. ^ "Turning on Toronto: A History of Toronto Hydro". Toronto. City of Toronto. 23 November 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Mars, Roman (5 October 2020). "See the secret buildings that make cities run". Fast Company. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  10. ^ Nicolaides, Becky; Wiese, Andrew (2017). "Suburbanization in the United States after 1945". Oxford Research Encyclopedias. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.64. ISBN 978-0-19-932917-5. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  11. ^ "Power Houses: Toronto Hydro's Camouflaged Substations". Web Urbanist. Webist Media. 5 February 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  12. ^ McDowell, Sean (21 January 2014). "Wastewater pump center concealed within Prairie Village house". FOX4KC WDAF-TV. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  13. ^ a b Combined Sewer System Characterization Report for the River Road Wastewater Treatment Plant (PDF). North Hudson Sewerage Authority. 1 July 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  14. ^ Kholstedt, Kurt (23 July 2018). "Hollywood-Worthy Camouflage: Uncovering the Urban Oil Derricks of Los Angeles". 99% Invisible. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  15. ^ Chan, Casey (21 January 2014). "This normal looking house is fake and actually hides a pump station". Gizmodo. G/O Media Inc. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  16. ^ Tedesco, Lianna (12 October 2021). "NYC Is Full Of Fake Facades, And This Is What To Know About Finding Them". The Travel. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  17. ^ Matthew, Zoie (5 February 2018). "4 Oil Wells Hidden in Plain Sight in L.A." Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  18. ^ a b Moggia, Silvia (17 January 2017). "Did you know about the fake painted buildings in Paris?". Silvia's Trips. Silvia Moggia. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  19. ^ "23-24 Leinster Gardens, London's False-Front House". Britain Express. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  20. ^ "Fake Chalets: Unmasking the Bunkers disguised as Quaint Swiss Villas". Messy Nessy. 13 THINGS LTD. 26 June 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  21. ^ Hortillosa, Summer Dawn (17 October 2011). "Wet weather pump station in Hoboken now ready to alleviate city's flooding woes". The Jersey Journal. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  22. ^ a b Living the Pipe Dream (PDF). Johnson County Wastewater. p. 13.
  23. ^ "20 unusual places to see in Paris". Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  24. ^ Batemen, Chris (18 February 2015). "The transformer next door". Spacing Toronto. Spacing. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  25. ^ a b Nguyen, Clinton (21 June 2015). "8 fake buildings that are actually secret portals". Business Insider. Insider Inc. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  26. ^ Carlson, Jen (8 February 2022). "It's a historic townhouse, but 58 Joralemon is also a secret subway exit and shaft house owned by the MTA". Gothamist. New York Public Radio. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  27. ^ a b c "No, say it ain't faux! M.T.A. plant hits the fan". amNY. Schneps Media. October 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  28. ^ "145 Rue Lafayette". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  29. ^ Colaneri, Katie (23 August 2010). "Hoboken reveals new wet weather pump station design". The Jersey Journal. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  30. ^ Basch, Michelle (13 December 2017). "Is it a house? Is it a barn? What Pepco's hiding in plain sight in your neighborhood". WTOP News. Retrieved 8 February 2024.

External links edit

 
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