Architecture
Shannon Story
Site History:
1906 Perception and Discovery of Place:
A flash from the past and its 1906, as one gazes upon the Boy's Industrial School. A place for the disturbed young known as the Wailee Home for Wayward Boys. As one walks by one hears the sound of children around, yet the viewer is silent. Peering and wondering about the boys within. One spins around taking in the huge complex. The feel of the breeze and view of the ocean. How could a place with such beauty be a place of fear, punishment, and scorn? A sense of sympathy begins to arise. What drove these little ones into a life of burglary, disobedience, and assault? You wonder about their future. How they would adapt back into society? Is there a way to help?
1950 Formation of Place:
The mind comes forward to 1950. From a place of distraught and punishment transformed to a place of wellness and mending. One walks past and sees the adorning nurse home. The respected elderly look through the clear glass windows with smiles on their faces looking towards the sea. You think of what a warming place to grow old and be taken care of. The healing of nature within the peaceful surroundings. One sees a nurse sitting beside a patron on the side patio. The mind contemplates the beautiful notion of the young caring for the old. Oh, the transformation of such a building within a couple of decades.
2020 Discovery of a New Place:
A building transformed through the ages and is now abandoned. One walks past the gate and around the roofless structure peering up to the mountain ranges behind, feeling so small. The mind imagines the fire that caused this catastrophe. The building invokes immediate curiosity towards destruction, yet a sense of beauty. The envelope is completely penetrated by nature. Vines grow up to the beams. There are no windows, One thinks of its perfect example of structure and void. The wind comes through the openings causing all the leaves to rustle. One feels a sense of isolation, yet doesn't feel alone due to the comfort of the vegetation within. You feel a sense of yearning for an understanding of the place and a desire for knowledge of its future. As you walk out of the concrete shell you look towards the sea, and how the landscape has changed and overgrown. You peer down the long endless highway with cars rushing by. With each pass, they see the clearing for this structure and even for a second begin to dwell on all that it was and all that it could be. Never forgotten.