The Tuileries Palace was a royal and imperial palace in Paris, and served as the Parisian residence of the French monarchs. It was built in 1564 and extended until it enclosed the Louvre courtyard. It was destroyed in a fire in 1871, during the suppression of the Paris Commune, and the ruins were removed in 1883.
What a terrible loss, right? Nah. The Louvre courtyard has been open since, and it’s much more awesome this way. No one in their right minds would build anything on the site now. Screw the Tuileries palace, no one needs it.
An even better example:
After Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted from a church to a mosque. After a while, four minarets were added to it. What? Minarets? How dare you deface the greatest church in Christendom with… hey, wait, that actually looks much better.
Seriously, the Hagia Sophia without minarets looks really silly, like something is missing. So, yeah, good job with those. The building looks so much more imposing now, and much more architecturally balanced. It’s like those minarets were supposed to be there all along. Hard to imagine that it sat for 900 years without them.
Any other examples?
Don’t limit yourself to historically significant stuff, BTW. If someone did a similar number on your local Pizza Hut, feel free to share that, too.
The thread title immediately brought to mind the “Hey! You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” ad campaign (1970s?) for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
In 1986, residents of San Francisco voted against tearing down the Embarcadero Freeway fearing gridlock. But after it was badly damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and had to be demolished, the waterfront opened up and was transformed into a beautiful, thriving pedestrian walkway.
During the 1980’s I took a walk along the Embarcadero almost every day, passing under the unsightly and oppressive freeway. It was wonderful to be able to take that same walk once the freeway was gone and have it be so much nicer. My workplace has moved, but I still walk the Embarcadero on special occasions and remember and appreciate the change.
This one absolutely. I used to be able to sail into North Beach on that freeway, but I am so glad it’s gone.
I don’t agree with the Hagia Sophia however. Without the minarets it looks massive and grand, and everything flows up to the main dome. The minarets look stuck on to me, and they take away from the grandeur of the whole.
Herb Caen lived to see the monster destroyed - his going-away party was held on the Plaza.
For those not familiar: Remember the pancaked double deck freeway? That design was what CalTrans decided should go though San Francisco to connect US 101 to the Golden Gate Bridge.
It got as far as some run-down old piers and then the rich folks on Telegraph, Russian, and Nob hills decide they didn’t want their views blocked.
The Broadway off-ramp was as far as it got, Unfortunately, that dumped traffic right into Chinatown, and the merchants there LIKED the traffic.
The Loma Preita was what it took to get that hideous structures out of the city. There was another section, an off-ramp to the Central Freeway, which also failed and we now have a pretty little plaza there.
Now, if only the Central would fall down…
Charles “Dazzy” Vance was a professional baseball pitcher back in the early years of the twentieth century. He started out well but in his first season in the majors, he injured his pitching arm. The injury threw off his pitching ability and he ended up back in the minors as a pitcher of average talents.
Five years later, he was in an argument during which he slammed his arm down hard on a table. And somehow hitting the table undid his old injury. Vance found he could now pitch as well as he ever had. Vance went back into the majors and played for thirteen more seasons.
Getting onto I-290 westbound (“the Eisenhower”) to the western suburbs of Chicago from the Dan Ryan is so much better right now, with the whole area messed up with construction. I almost don’t want them to finish it.
Bonnie Tyler was a Welsh singer with a typically nice, but non-distinctive voice, as in her first hit song Lost in France.
However, she developed nodules on her vocal cords and, post-surgery, ignored her doctor’s advice to not sing for a minimum of 6 weeks, thereby developing a raspy quality that became her trademark.
I’ve seen artists’ conceptions of what the Winged Nike of Samothrace might have looked like when whole, and, while the ruins we have now are the less for having been vandalized, there is, still, a strange pathos in the headless and armless version. It puts more focus on the wings, and produces a more ethereal effect, as well as instilling pathos, as ruins often do.
I don’t know if an injury or some catastrophe caused Babe Ruth to give up pitching, but if he’d not done so, he probably wouldn’t have become the legendary batter we remember his as now. One of the reasons pitchers don’t hit well is that pitching is exhausting. Outfielders (Johnny Bench notwithstanding-- actually, one of the things that made his batting legendary was that it was done by a catcher) make the best batters, because they work less when their team is in the field than the infielders do.
Also, my mother thought is was sacrilege to make the family challah recipe with oil and Crisco instead of shmaltz, and to use quick-rise, dry yeast, instead of cake yeast that required hours of rising and kneading, so the bread had to be started in the early morning. I can start making it as late as 3pm and have it ready for Shabbes dinner. My mother was reluctant to try it, like I’d made it with lard, or something, but now she loves it, and thinks it’s the best challah she’s ever had. Whenever we’re together for a holiday or Shabbes, I always have to make the challah, even though I’m not normally allowed in her kitchen, except to help clear dishes. (It’s not just me-- no one is allowed in her kitchen, except my stepfather to make coffee or mix drinks.)
I suppose I could get shmaltz from a kosher butcher, but I’m a vegetarian. I have no idea where to go for cake yeast; I don’t think you can even get it anymore.
Oh, yeah. I thought the producers of Monk made a huge mistake by not paying Bitty Schram whatever she wanted and letting her leave the show. I didn’t think anyone else could possibly work as Tony Shaloub’s foil. I ended up liking Natalie better.
I am of a similar opinion. I was hesitant to post a negative opinion on the thread; relieved to know that there are others who think the same way. The minarets do look great for me; I also like the whole structure with or without the minarets. At the same time, I can’t help feel that they are photoshopped into the picture. I am wondering if I am seeing the picture that way because I know the history.
