Monday, October 21, 2013

Zen Monday #264



Zen Monday is the day you tell us what the photo's about, rather than me telling you.

34 comments:

Book Dragon said...

The sky turned up first and I thought it was going to be on the the quirky trail pictures that I love. scroll down...scroll down... Is that a fence? Looks like a really tall picket fence. Of course it may be just because my eyes are tired

Kalei's Best Friend said...

"Build it and they will come"... I will never understand why someone would want to live near a freeway- no matter how good the price could be.

Trish said...

One of these things is not like the other. My eye immediately went to the very left. Am guessing they turned one building to squeeze one more piece in rightupnext to the freeway. I agree about living ON the freeway, why? And with most properties, you are living nearly on the freeway, but cannot access it easily.

LOVE the shadows vs brightness, the freeway blight in contrast and the mountains behind.

LOLfromPasa said...

At first, I thought is was a 'prison'. Can't be :).

Unknown said...


Little boxes, by the freeway,
little boxes made of ticky tacky,
little boxes by the freeway,
little boxes all the same.
There's a yellow one and a yellow one
and a yellow one and a yellow one
and they're all made out of ticky tacky
and they all look just the same.

(for those old enough to remember)

LOLfromPasa said...

Had another look...love that blue sky and those beautiful mountains!! Of course, it is raining here :(.

Petrea Burchard said...

Your eyes are fine, BD, the view makes them tired.

KBF: someone sold them on the belief that they were leveraging themselves into the real estate market.

Why, Trish? I guess sometimes it's what you can afford.

Ought to be a prison, LOL.

Drummond, I sang it to John. Thanks for the good laugh.

TheChieftess said...

My first thought was a prison too!! We have a small condo project here that was built awhile back...very narrow buildings...I think 3 stories...the locals call them the bird cage condos...not very many have sold...they're not this bad...but someone's losing a lot of money over the project!

Bellis said...

Drummond made me sing and laugh, thank you! I've seen these houses from the freeway but the way you've caught the shadows is brilliant. I hope only the toilet has a window overlooking the freeway. What an ugly development - too many, too close, not Socal style at all. What about a few trees to soften the blow?

Petrea Burchard said...

These are along the 134 just east of Pass Avenue in Burbank, Chieftess. I don't know what the other side looks like.

I don't ever notice them from the freeway, Bellis. But I was visiting an office on Pass Ave. and caught sight of it from there.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

@Petrea: (your comment)... isn't that usually the case? lol...then again, the ones building it aren't living there.. :-)

LONDONLULU said...

It makes me think of a still from some sci-fi dystopian movie...even though it looks a fine sunny day!

Unknown said...

I think that's Qbert's house.

Petrea Burchard said...

http://www.classicgamesarcade.com/game/21652/q*bert.html

Pasadena Adjacent said...

I ran a similar question past Mike Antonovitchs' people. The reason they built these mass housing units next to the highway (rather then deeper into the landscape) has to do with access to the water infrastructure...at least on the 14

I love this photo. I find it mysterious and am drawn to the drama made by the repetition of shapes. Interesting and wise that they kept most of the windows facing the freeway to a minimum. And those that do appear to be bathroom windows

Ms M said...

Fascinating photo; unsettling with the chain link fence in the foreground. I thought about the "boxes made of ticky tacky" song, too. Although these look nicer than ticky tacky with their tile roofs.

Petrea Burchard said...

These could very well be lovely condos, for all I know. I ought to drive around to the other side and see. I was attracted to the "repetition of shapes," to use PA's phrase.

LOLfromPasa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LOLfromPasa said...

I can't believe that I can say that this place is called Kenwood Mews Apartments :). (But it took me two attempts to do it!)

Unknown said...

It's like google. I type in an obscure reference and Petrea responds with a url.

Petrea Burchard said...

I can't help it, Cliff. When you guys talk about things I don't know, I have to find out.

So here's LOL's:
http://bit.ly/1h6lpjt

dive said...

I weep for my profession.

Petrea Burchard said...

It can't always be Notre Dame, Dive.

Petrea Burchard said...

Hey! I was just looking at my stats and this is my 2000th post. We should have a party.

dive said...

Woohoo! Many congratulations, Petrea. Awesome achievement.

Trish said...

many, maaaany years ago, there used to be single-unit houses where these apts are. A friend of my father's godparents used to live there and we'd visit. Noise in the backyard sounded, if you "squinted" with your ears, like running water. *not* the same as the creek near our mountain cabin, but close enough for gov't work. Which, is how the friends bought that house. He was a WWII vet, got money from serving and a GI loan and bingo, house! Worked for them for a while, they moved to a bigger house and they rented it out. Must have sold it somewhere along the way for the Apts to tear everything down. Sad, I remember them having a basement I could go and play with all of his WWII stuff--soldier gear, including unloaded rifle, pistol, dummy grenade and uniforms. As scary as that sounds these days, I was one of those uber responsible kids who, at age 4 knew never to point at anything you didn't intend to shoot and to make sure there were no rounds in a weapon before messing with it. Somewhere, my father may have a photo or slide of me standing there in all of that gear, saluting.

As to affordability, I would think further out into the Valley would be more affordable, if you're worried about $ (my nephew pays next to nothing for a crappy little place out further). But I guess if you're working at one of the Studios and need a place to plunk during the week while working, or during a project, looks like it isn't terrible.

Petrea Burchard said...

Either that or an awesome time drain, Dive.

Memories, Trish!
It's a choice: a long commute or whatever you can afford that's close to work.

sonia a. mascaro said...

The shadows on the buildings are amazing!

Trish said...

Yes, paaaaarrrty on! 2000!!! Pretty amazing in this day and age of "gimme now".

lol on the commute. This is LA, everything is a LONG commute! It easily took me 30-45mins to get to E Pasadena some mornings many years ago. Short of double-decking all the freeways (oh, let's not get started on my SoPas history), I don't think it will improve any time soon.

Petrea Burchard said...

Sometimes, Sonia, there's nothing to block the sun but a wall.

Trish, we now have sigalert.com. It helps somewhat.

Trish said...

when I was commuting, the only people using the internet, were gov't folks. We did have helicopters up in the air reporting traffic conditions for us.

30-45mins was not a backup situation, just how long it took on whatever roads I took, side streets or highways. That was even before they started the "timed signals" on Orange Grove etc.

My commute in later years to/from the west side was much, much worse, whether I was going past the location of these apartments, or off the 10.

Margaret said...

Oh, that is just depressing.

Book Dragon said...

The place looks nice from the front. There are four floorplans, Monroe or Hepburn anyone? There is a pool and a fitness center.

Two bedrooms/two baths so if you're friends you can share the rest of the apartment.

Petrea Burchard said...

Excellent. I'm especially glad, because now Margaret doesn't have to be depressed!