There's a certain type of old office with the yellow windows, cielings, walls and blinds. Strange stains everywhere and visible ducting all over the place. It feels homely to me. Modern offices feel cold and without soul, lighting is too bright and lacks natural sunlight. The offices of old you get the yellowed softened sunlight showing all the dust particles in the air.

The one i went to was basically empty. Areas cordoned off with a handful of staff left. A random bucket in the middle of the room to catch a leak. Dark corridors and flickery tube lights. I sat in a room with the window open listening to the breeze rustle the tobacco stained blinds.

Anyone else got this absurd feeling or just me?

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 months ago

    allowing people to smoke indoors and cultivating a culture of chain-smoking will do that after a few years to just about any indoor space.

    imagine that smell casinos have, but without 30' high ceilings, state of the art industrial capacity HVAC systems and constantly replaced MERV rated filters.

    those places smelled very different when they were actively occupied with bodies churning up and adding to the particulates, but lacking the charm of nostalgia and abandonment.

    I love old libraries, but I worked for about a decade (2014-2024) in a 1960s constructed building that had never been gutted, only periodic resurfacing of floors and walls. indoor smoking wasn't banned until the 90s and continued to be a "problem" for another 20 years in some areas. the drop ceilings in low level employee offices were a kaleidoscope of greys, browns and yellows and above them was a nightmare of tar stains and signs of unidentified, incomplete combustion events that would scare anyone not on a self-contained air system from poking.

    pretty sure everybody who worked there is gonna get the same wack respiratory thing in our 70s.