The Silo that Inspired Oxygen House

 

Silo, Liberty State Park, New Jersey, photo by Douglas Darden

On the edge of Liberty State Park in New Jersey is an industrial area of warehouses and various industrial machinery and facilities. One of these structures is a little silo that Darden was infatuated with. I believe somewhere in his various notes he called it "cute" (I'm having a hard time finding that note, and am starting to wonder if it was dream incubation revelations).

Update: I have now found where he wrote this: it was found with a photocopy of the self-portrait of Condemned Building. It might be useful to quote the whole handwritten note, which I have transcribed here:

In 1987 I took a photograph of a little industrial building cast out on an open field in the country, just north of Oxford, Mississippi. I don’t usually use the word, but I have to say that the building nearly looked “cute.” It was very appealing to me.

I started thinking about this little building and what it was that had prompted me to photograph it. I wanted to use the building; to graft it; to turn it into something which could reveal why I was attracted to it in the first place.

As I said, the building sat alone on an open field. Even so, when I began to think about going inside, I became claustrophobic. This sensation haunted me as the opposite of my initial attraction. From the outside I felt free, open, and light. Inside, I felt a deep dull pressure. The sensations were like there I imagined I might feel if I had trouble, on occasion breathing.

I began to wonder what would happen if a house no longer just only simply accomodate [sic] a person’s life, but was actually crucial for life’s sustenance. It seemed to me then that the idea of house would not only have to anticipate the longevity of a the person living there, but the house but it would without also have to accounting for the inhabitants death. The house would be a sort of contest which could literally be described literally as the capacity to hold one’s breath.

Update cont.: obviously, Darden is already thinking of Oxygen House and given the timeframe of 1987, this is around the time he was beginning to hash out some ideas for Oxygen House while he was working on Clinic for Sleep Disorders.

I was initially informed and led to believe that this silo was outside of Baton Rouge and given most of the photos Darden took of this silo, it looks like it could be in Louisiana [see update above]. However, I was recently looking at Darden's photos and noticed something I had not previously noticed. It seems obvious now — like, how could you miss this? But in one photo it is abundantly clear that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are in the background. I've looked at these photos dozens of times and never noticed them in that one photos. But alas, there they are. And in front of them is clearly a few buildings in Battery Park City, so this photo is definitely taken from the New Jersey side of the river in Liberty State Park.

I am willing to bet that this photo was taken while Darden was developing Clinic for Sleep Disorders circa 1988, as it is sited in Liberty State Park. If I recall correctly from the notes, Darden noticed the silo across a field and was drawn to it. Looking at the photo, I suppose one could notice it all the way across Liberty State Park, as there do not appear to be a lot of trees at the time, so he may have noticed it all the way across the park from the marina (Morris Canal).

It took me a minute to find it, but I did, and it is still kind of cute. Everything has grown up around it. A great deal of tall weeds surround it and mature trees separate it from the rest of the park now. I believe the powerlines and poles have been replaced, and it has been repainted with a mural, and of course the Twin Towers are now gone. But that is the silo. I actually got super excited when I found it and told my wife that we have to go to New Jersey.

Ultimately this little silo would inspire Oxygen House. One of the the most important works of visionary and theoretical architecture was inspired by this little silo, and one can still visit it today.

The silo today

Location: 40°42'12.0"N 74°03'45.4"W