Stockyard at DeQuincy
I think a lot about architecture as I drive around Louisiana. The fields and trees are abundant. Nature is definitely the overlord in this state. The towns and even small cities pale in comparison to the rivers and forests. Sometimes I think of the buildings as being accessories to the land because here unlike other places I do not feel that people try to dominate the land but live in harmoniously with it.
There are monumental buildings, not just the brick courthouses or the plantation houses but beautiful old barns and stockyards and especially the beautiful modernist looking structures built for storing and drying rice and other crops. They unite man and nature in a way that the churches do not.
In the south of Louisisna the incredible industrial design of the refineries and oil containers
does sometimes appear to dominate the land. The industrial complex near Lake Charles is one that feels at odds with the surrounding environment. Even so, at night and in certain light these huge structures covering acres of land are beautiful and look like an odd metal plant that snakes around in very interesting way. They unite man and nature in a different way. I have a friend who specializes in drilling holes for natural gas wells. The way that he talks about drilling the righ sized opening, at the right angles and dealing with all of the inconsistencies that mother nature might put in his way is spiritual. Man and earth. Man trying to glean what nature has in abundance.
I cannot forget the boats and barges. They are architecture on the water. In Louisiana and in America the Mississippi and the Ouachita and other rivers have been of great importance. In Baton Rouge and further down the river going out into the gulf the stately tankers and solemn barges interspersed with tugboats, that sometimes remind me of puppies, glide through the water or sit and wait for their loads.
The bridges. The incredible suspension bridges and others crossing the Mississippi. I appreciate them as much as gothic cathedrals, sometimes more. They serve their purpose while being elegant and spiritual at the same time. Every time I go across one and see the water below and the sky above I amazed at their magic. I cannot leave the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge out of this category. These two amazing structures running side by side across the basin are 18.2 miles in length. The second longest bridges in the US. I marvel that they could be built through that area and that the 20,000+ cars that drive across them everyday drive through the tree tops and floating over the expanses of water.
Water brings me back to the houses that are in these low areas, in the woods, in the fields, by the rivers and lakes. Wonderful houses of brick and wood. Mostly simple and functional but not without beauty. Country churches and little stores that have served generations of people are in every town and along the highways. Some of these are now of metal construction. The ubiquitous dollar stores are in every little tiny town and stop in the road. These I do not like. It seems like these are the first sign that Louisiana might someday be more like most of America, strip malls and shopping centers. I have seen signs of that already in Houma and to some extent Lafayette, Shreveport and Alexandria. Other cities have been able to keep a balance of old and new. Brick buildings and display windows from the late 1800's and early 1900's are as abundant or more so than the new strip centers in most places. I hope that it stays this way.
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