There's an artist named Christo who used to be rather avant-garde, but now he's rather mainstream. Anyway, Christo's shtick was wrapping stuff up: buildings, mountains, piles of cash. Which is why Christo comes to mind when looking at the old Territorial Office Building. No plastic wrap-up
at Territorial OfficeThose mighty Greco-Roman columns holding up the building's face have been wrapped in plastic for some time, like a gigantic Christmas present. So long that the plastic is becoming tattered.
And so long that when you ask folks at the building why, they can't remember.
Don't look for answers here, but we can guess wildly and speculate bizarrely and wax flatulent with the best of them. Such wrappings are generally tied in with construction work -- if Christo isn't involved -- and indeed, there's a major-league, ADA-mandated wheelchair ramp being installed directly underneath the columns. It's hidden behind a temporary fence.
One worker vaguely remembered some cleaning or concrete patching or some sort of fiddling about up there a while ago. It's possible that the work was completed and someone simply forgot to take the plastic down.
Or maybe they're masking it off and painting the columns like barber poles. After all, Christmas is coming up.
Burl Burlingame
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