We like to walk around town and take pictures of surfaces that are weathered or aged or decaying or distressed or whatever you want to call it. And we want to archive some of those pictures here on our blog. So I thought it would be appropriate for the first post to feature one of Ann Arbor’s most recognizable exterior walls:
Sorry, it’s not the greatest picture. I was operating under bad light conditions with a preservationist mentality. We were walking by the other day and I saw the proprietor of the business outside painting the front. I got scared and asked him, “You’re not painting over the Vernors wall, are you?”
“No way,” he replied. “My landlord would kill me.”
So apparently this wall - a familiar, welcoming landmark to all southbound, incoming traffic from M-14 to Ann Arbor -is safe, as long as its ownership doesn’t change. Which brings me to a point…
Yes, we know Ann Arbor is not the greatest place to document the kind of weathering and urban decay we’re calling “patina”. But that’s why we do it. Because it’s rare and disappearing around here - and too beautiful to be dismissed as conceptual/photographic cliche and forgotten.
1 response so far ↓
1 TeacherPatti // Nov 2, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Love the picture. There is also a “drink Coke” ad on a wall somewhere…maybe at one of the party stores at Packard and State? Or is that another ad on the wall there?
Patti
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