The strange second life of Ohio’s ‘Big Basket’ building

An ode to everyday Soviet architecture, redwood trees in Spain, and more. Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. November 07, 2019 Ohio’s ‘Big Basket’ Building When Big Basket opened its doors for a tour in October, people were so happy they wept. The seven-story, basket-shaped building in east Newark, Ohio, was once the main office of the now-defunct Longaberger Company, but sat vacant since it closed in 2016. The current interior of the Big Basket also has a limited amount of time on Earth, but luckily the building is scheduled to reopen in 2020 as a luxury hotel. Read More → An Ode to Everyday Soviet Architecture Concrete, once believed to be vital to Soviet buildings, is abundantly present in the contemporary cityscapes of Russian photographer Areniy Kotov. Images from his upcoming book, Soviet Cities: Labour, Life & Leisure, often depict rows and rows of high-rises, marching endlessly across the horizon. Yet within the cold-looking concrete blocks, he also manages to capture the warm glow of life in apartment windows. Read more → CABEZÓN DE LA SAL, SPAIN Bosque De Secuoyas The Cantabrian Redwood Forest in Cabezón de la Sal is a rare sight in Spain–it’s full of the conifer trees you’d typically find in places like California. Read more → Community Astonishing Theaters and Opera Houses Just off the shores of the Oslofjord inlet in Oslo, Norway, and inspired by the glaciers that populate the region, The Oslo Opera House appears to be floating in the water. This is just one of the many gorgeous theaters and opera houses you can find around the world. Tell us about your favorites. Share now → Found: A Prehistoric Bead-Making Town When two graduate students landed on Raleigh Island, an uninhabited piece of Florida’s western coast, they expected to study the environmental damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They didn’t find oil, but amid the dense stands of palmettos and cedars there were dozens of large ring structures, where pre-Columbian people lived and ran a factory for making beads out of shells. Read more → ROTHSAY, MINNESOTA World’s Largest Prairie Chicken Prairie chickens were once abundant in North America, but were almost driven to extinction by the 1930s. So when the tiny town of Rothsay was designated the “Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota,” the local community decided to put up a statue. Read more → SIGIRIYA, SRI LANKA Sigiriya Situated in the central Matale District of Sri Lanka, this ancient stone fortress is surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of reservoirs and gardens and is often considered the eight wonder of the world. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222