What Do You Think You're Looking At? #27

An illustrated series on the unexpected lives of commercial buildings

Oct 14

We’re in Old Town Alexandria today, which is really lovely and a great example of mid-rise, relatively low-intensity classic urbanism. I’d say it beats Georgetown any day. If you’ve never been there and/or aren’t from the D.C. area, here are couple of general pictures from the commercial area near the waterfront.

But here’s our specific building for this week. It’s currently an art center, opened in 1974, that is “home to the nation’s largest collection of working-artists’ open studios under one roof.”

Here’s the other main entrance:

What does it look like to you?

Well, it’s called Torpedo Factory. And it was, in fact, a torpedo factory! The former munitions plant and then federal warehouse was completely remodeled and turned into artists’ studios. It’s anchored the Old Town Alexandria waterfront for decades now, which has turned from an industrial district to one of the region’s great places.

According to their website, “The Torpedo Factory Art Center is home to the largest number of publicly accessible working artist studios in the U.S. With three floors of working artists’ studios to explore, the Torpedo Factory Art Center seeks to foster connections between artists and the public that ignite the creative spirit.”

The nature of the production is, of course, very different—but it’s cool that things are still made here, and that such a large, hulking building got a new life.

Final photo, credit robposse/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

What Do You Think You’re Looking At? #22

Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekend subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive of nearly 200 posts and growing. And you’ll help ensure more material like this!

Share