One of the limestone benches put in place on West Main Street as part of the EDAW-designed streetscape plan in the 1990s has been partially destroyed. The inset pictured above shows the before and the main image shows the after. The benches were designed to be architecturally didactic, tectonically demonstrating construction methods and materials used in adjacent buildings. The limestone joint holding two bench blocks together shattered when hit by some piece of heavy machinery (quite a bit of construction on this block, but hey… watch where you’re driving on the sidewalk!).
Engraved on the broken bench is the inscription “when the trees are three, the building is masonry.” This bench happened to be sitting in a cluster of three lacebark elm trees denoting that the buildings behind it (now facades for Museum Plaza) had a structure of bricks. A dead bird was laying on the sidewalk several feet away. Dead buildings, dead benches, and dead birds… oh the humanity! We’ll see how long it takes to clean up this mess and make a new bench… any bets?
