Atlas Obscura's list of the world's weird and wonderful water towers

Originally published at: Atlas Obscura's list of the world's weird and wonderful water towers | Boing Boing

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I enjoy this one:

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No love for South Carolina’s “Peachoid”?

image

There was a whole storyline about it in a House of Cards episode.

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The Cochituate Standpipe in Boston, although not a working water tower for at least a century. Some residents don’t even know what it is.

Not really all that weird, but I love the architecture.

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I found this one quite intriguing:

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or the giant catsup bottle in Collinsville, IL?

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Barcelona has quite a lot of modernist-era water towers and they are gorgeous brickwork works of art :slight_smile:

Poble Sec

Eixample

Tibidabo

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One of my favourites is in Lüneburg.

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This doesn’t look like much, these days (as seen on Google Maps - I haven’t been this way in many years)

It’s next to the airport in Grand Prairie, TX. Back in the 1980s, this was painted red-and-white (in horizontal layers; not in a checkerboard pattern that one might otherwise see near an airport). At night, lights around its “equator” flashed in a rotating pattern, as though the lights were spinning around its perimeter. The effect was like a big flying saucer.

Further up that same highway, closer to DFW Airport, was another water tower that had a similar spinning effect, but faster (and the reservoir wasn’t painted red-and-white).

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Owner of that website has been photographing Finnish water towers since 2005.

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These kinds of really common water towers I had a fascination with when I was a kid. On family trips I would always marvel at them, since we didn’t have any near my hometown.

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I’ve always liked this water tower…

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ATAB (All Towers Are Beautiful)


(Old water tower for the Isabel II Channel, now converted to exposition center)

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Our city has one of these. It’s a mostly beloved local icon. It reminds me of a friendly War of the Worlds invader.

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That’s a nice photo too.

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It’s a crime that the Leaning Tower of Niles wasn’t in this list.

I am so sad The World’s Most Phallic Building didn’t make the list. :frowning:


AKA - Tower of Power, or more commonly The Brick Dick

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Also of note to water tower enthusiasts, the Compton Hill reservoir and tower in St. Louis.

The tower is open for visits several times a year, but alas, I’ve never made it.

Edit: better photo

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So I went out and bought me a leisure suit
I jingle my change but I’m still kinda cute
Got a job doing radio promo
And none of the jocks can even tell I’m a homo
Eventually me and a friend
Sorta drifted along into S&M
I can take about an hour on the tower of power
As long as I get a little golden shower

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My name is Bobby Brown, watch me now I’m going down

Was Zappa homophobic? He ridiculed a lot of people in his lyrics.