Things were simpler in the age before Google Maps. Architectural plans did not require a bird’s-eye approval when the ground-level view was fine and a structure served its purpose. While the practical advantages of having a swastika-shaped building complex are up for debate, it seems even more impractical to coerce the U.S. Navy into altering the aerial appearance of barracks built in the late 1960s — long before Google Earth users with too much time began looking for sinister shapes from above — at a cost of more than half a million dollars.
Unhappy coincidence brought about an aggregate aerial view of six buildings at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, Calif., resembling one of the most-hated symbols of the 20th Century. Architect John Mock and Navy officials were said to have recognized the swastika resemblance after a changing design resulted in four, rather than the originally planned one, L-shaped buildings set at 90-degree angles. While the buildings remain unconnected at the center and do not form an actual swastika, planners perhaps should have more thoroughly considered the offensive and culturally insensitive implications of buildings resembling Nazi symbols. Still, in 1967, no man had yet walked on the moon. The high-quality satellite imaging technology that has made Google Earth possible was not even on the map. In hindsight, mistakes were made.
Since at least 2005, the ominous aerial image spread across the Internet, causing bemusement for some and deep indignation for others. At the insistence of the Anti-Defamation League and U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) the Navy allocated $600,000 from the financial year beginning Oct. 1 to cover costs for landscaping changes and solar panels to disguise the buildings’ aerial appearance, according to a Los Angeles Times article yesterday. With the country at war and the Congressional Budget Office estimating a $158 billion deficit for the financial year ending next week, spending for rock gardens and optical illusions to appease the Google Earth crowd seems obscene.
Architects working today will need to consider the view of every design they create from every angle, including above. This episode serves as a recap of the changing times, of advancing technology and increased social sensitivity. The addition of roof-top solar panels to the Coronado buildings could be a positive investment. The planning of the alterations should be practical and not only a move to please those disproportionately outraged about an accidental 1960s architectural snafu.
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