Roadside Architecture

March 16, 2021 10:42 AM

2700 pages containing 60,000 images, still updated regularly, and all in glorious circa 2000 web design.
posted by COD (17 comments total)

Reminds me very much of this Roadside America collection by John Margolies, now owned by the Library of Congress.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:00 AM on March 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

To be picky, that's more like 1997 design. Circa 2000 was the dawn of the golden age of Flash, but you don't see that aesthetic any more, because it's effectively been wiped from the web. Sorry for the derail. Carry on.
posted by pipeski at 11:04 AM on March 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

glorious circa 2000 web design.

Aaah, it’s like rubbing my eyeballs in aloe vera.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:15 AM on March 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

Home of the Muffler Men!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:48 AM on March 16, 2021

This is a fun site. Couldn't find my onetime home-away-from home, the gloriously Googie "Biff's Coffee" in Oakland, sadly gone now, but there's plenty else to see.
posted by chavenet at 11:49 AM on March 16, 2021

I've talked to the person behind the website before in the past and she's like some kind of crazy dynamo of endless energy. She'd take off on a Friday afternoon with her dogs in her van, drive all weekend sometimes pushing 2000 miles, exploring every corner of towns looking for vintage things to photograph.
posted by drstrangelove at 11:57 AM on March 16, 2021 [9 favorites]

If we are being picky, and I encountered this when I was doing an internship and had to accession archival records, then circa is appropriate in this instance. I think? Between that and "Respect des fonds" I have exhausted my weak plea to authority, happy to hear from a real archivist.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:04 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

From Giant Body Parts:

These Toe Trucks, representing a right foot and a left foot, were built for Lincoln Towing. The left foot was built in 1980 from a 1959 Volkswagen Microbus. The right foot was built in 1996 from a Chevy van.

Well played.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:30 PM on March 16, 2021

@drstrangeglove - I heard her on a podcast last week - she gets five weeks off from her job every year, and she takes in one chunk and spends it all on the road living in a van with 4 small dogs and only checking into a hotel about 1X a week. She shoots hundreds of pictures a day.
posted by COD at 12:57 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

This one time, over 20 years ago, I walked into Chief's Cafe right past a guy, our eyes met, and I thought that guy's wearing makeup and he looks just like John Cusack. It was John Cusack in makeup. They were filming a movie across the street at Luna, where I had originally intended to go. No idea which movie. I left him alone.
posted by hypnogogue at 2:52 PM on March 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

I hope she makes it to Australia some day so she can meet Larry the Lobster and friends.
posted by nickzoic at 4:43 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am disappointed that the dinosaur sculptures in Wisconsin section has only one entry, but absolutely thrilled that that entry comprises these anonymous painted-metal skeletons on Hwy 11. We've driven past them dozens of times, and we look for them every time. They're a bit of a challenge to spot, since they're just tucked away in a pasture beside a little stream.

The grouping, inexplicably, also includes a UFO that you can see if you follow the link to the Google Streetview.

From time to time a new dino appears.
posted by BrashTech at 5:00 PM on March 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

The National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, WI hosts this impressive specimen:

The muskie is the largest fiberglass structure in the world (4 1/2 stories tall, 140 feet long, and 10 feet wide). It was created in 1978 by Creative Display. There is a half-block long museum inside and an observation deck in the fish's open mouth. The mouth will hold 20 people at one time.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:14 PM on March 16, 2021

All in glorious circa 2000 web design

I'll tell you what, I instantly found what I was looking for and it was one of the best UI experiences this user has had since, oh I dunno, Mtafilter.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:41 AM on March 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

The Livingston Theatre opened in 1946 and closed in the 1970s. The building was later converted to medical offices. The building was at least partially occupied by Flex Baths, a gay bath house, when these photos were taken in 2009. Since 2015, the building has housed Central Ohio Sober Living.

Ain't that America?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:50 AM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

COD, that's amazing she does that. I wonder if she still does those insanely long road trips on the weekends the way she did back in the aughties.
posted by drstrangelove at 3:53 AM on March 17, 2021

What a cool site, and there's some good Tiki photos to those interested in South Pacific kitsch, and who wouldn't be.
posted by Beholder at 9:19 AM on March 17, 2021