Round House; Square House

Round House; Square House, originally uploaded by Bearded Jon.

Intrinsically I think most true Alaskans have a bit of McGuyver in them. Take what you've got and make it work. My next door neighbor at the office, for example, started with a quonset hut that has grown into a ciropractic clinic. It probably has been a dozen other things in its life but it certainly started as a quonset and has grown.

Alaskan architecture is a lot like that. It starts as something and morphs into something else until somebody, often times the government, comes along and says enough is enough and the whole thing comes crashing down with the assistance of heavy machinery.

So I'm looking out the window this afternoon, just looking for something my camera will take to, and the arched portion of my neighbor's structure caught my eye. By gosh there's a quonset next door and until my camera pointed it out I hadn't noticed. And like most Alaskan quonsets it had a series of growths; a room added here, another added there, an arctic entry slapped on for good measure, you get the picture. And I wonder what its like to live in an arched structure. I can't see it being easy to hang a picture. I can't see it being easy to hang anything.

Someday I will have to spend some time in a quonset. Someday I have to know.