Inhabitat (November 28, 2008)
"Enterprising young artists in the London scene are usually presented with the dilemma of having to rent extremely expensive studio space in order to be able to work. This led furniture designer Auro Foxcroft to a rather ingenious and environmentally conscious solution. What was it? Take old subway cars, mount them on a rooftop, and use them for office space! A bit sparse? Sure! But these recycled subway cars are sure to inspire other green-minded, socially conscious artistic efforts...."Never mind the "socially conscious" stuff. This looks like it actually works. And, is a smart use for subway cars that aren't in use any more.
If you think you've seen something like this before, you probably have. American diners were, originally, working railroad cars that had outlived their usefulness. Somebody had the bright idea of using these relatively transportable, prefab, structures as instant buildings to house small urban eateries.
"The end of the line for Andy's Diner in Seattle"
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (January 22, 2008)
"Andy's Diner, a South Seattle landmark for more than 50 years, has closed its doors -- again...."
(from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, used w/o permission)
To say all diners were at one time railroad cars is incorrect. Diners were built in a factory to be a restaurant. They were transported to site either as a single unit or in modules and then reassembled.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty rare that a discarded rail car was converted into a diner.
-Diner News and History
I like the diner-conversion idea. I miss diners -- real diners.
ReplyDeleteBobbie
_, I didn't say that all diners were at one time railroad cars. In their heyday, quite a few structures were made to resemble them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, though. Maybe I should revisit this topic.
BNS,
ReplyDeleteThanks: looks like I'll want to do more research - - - some other time.