Selfridges, Birmingham, England
Yesterday, a 1930 image of an unknown person’s impression of what Houston would look like 50 years later circulated on Twitter. 1930’s idea of 1980 is incredibly cooler than what 1980 ended up actually being, and is filled with a sort of Gothic art deco reminiscent of Metropolis.
It’s always fun to see what one period’s idea of the future was and then see how the future actually turned out. These space-age houses, for example, were probably cutting-edge and futuristic when they were first built; ironically, they are now recognizably vintage, as embedded in the past as beehives and Bobby Darin.
With the final space shuttle mission fully underway, we thought it would be nice to revisit these buildings and to remember what we once thought (or still think) the future would look like.
Mexico City
Pensacola Beach, Florida
Carlisle, Ohio
Sanzhi, China
29 Palms, California
We’re not sure where this is, but it sure is cool.
Habitat ’67, Montreal, Canada
Novato, California
El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts), Valencia, Spain
Museum of Vancouver and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Planetarium, Vancouver, Canada
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2011.