That's So Wilmington

Guess where I took this photo? Chicago? New York? DC?

Nope Wilmington, Delaware. This building used to serve as the city's court house. Several years ago the city opened a new court house with a suitably modern architectural style, but basically the glass and brick job that everyone is building these days. So, what to do with the old court house?

Wilmington, unlike Chicago, is a wasteland of boring architecture. I guess the city has decided on function over form. But this is why the status of the building in the photo to the left is so tragic. Yes, it looks like anything you might see in the Nation's Capital, or your run-of-the-mill old school court house. But besides the Hotel DuPont and that big green building down near the Brandywine, it's the only slightly interesting building in the city. It takes up an entire city block, right on the city's centerpiece park, Rodney Square. And it's vacant.

MBNA owned it until the recent merger with Bank of America. They have lately sold the building, but I don't know if there are any plans by the buyer to use it. It still sits idle.

In typical Wilmington fashion, something that could take a little of the "boring" out of downtown is going completely going to waste. Sigh.