Imagine...
You are a rich person with a tract of land. You hire a noted architect and create a small planned community. You do what EVERYONE does: build the reception centre and public spaces (including the gate house where you enter the community), then build a show home. Your famous architect even lives in a building adjoining the space. You sit back in the hopes that your noted architect and the concept brings in the crowds, and your planned community sells well.
But it doesn't.
Ten years go by and only one lot sells, and only one house is built. Bah, you say, and call it a day, abandoning the project. Eventually, you donate the space to the City, and they use the undeveloped lots as a garden to raise plants to put elsewhere in the City.
But a hundred years later, it's a tourist attraction. Because the noted architect was Gaudi, and his fanciful, colourful, modernistic, avant garde public spaces and two buildings are the talk of the town.
Such is Park Guell. You can just imagine the sales pitch when they built the place. I think it would have sounded like this:
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Announcing... PARK GUELL!
Live in a community that will remind you of Whoville and Dr. Seuss! Your guests will arrive in whimsical style to a the gingerbread cottage Gatehouse!
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| The gatehouses |
Next, they will be awed by the Grand Staircase!
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| The Grand Staircase from the main entrance |
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| The upper plaza sits on a set of columns, with market space under it |
Rising above the staircase, the community features the Grand Plaza!
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| And that plaza... |
Yes, the Plaza! Magnificent city views (even on cloudy days). Lined with seats (all with wicked lumbar supports) and decorated in fanciful mosaics.
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| Popular with residents! |
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| Beautifully decorated! |
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| Magnificent mosaics! |
And the space under the plaza was built with style -- and commerce -- in mind! Dozens of Doric columns shaded under a deck, perfect for hosting that Saturday market -- and ingeniously designed to collect water to feed down through the columns to a cistern!
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| The fabulous plaza will be the community's focal point! |
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| "Doric" columns abound! |
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| The great colonade! |
And the Fountains! The water collected will feed whimsical fountains that cascade down the Grand Staircase! And the fountains feature... Creatures!!!
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| Everyone will want their photo with the salamander we call "Bob" |
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| He drools while your guests take selfies! |
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| And there's a goat-thing, too! |
In the evening, you and your guests can go for walks along the Aqueducts and fancifully decorated Rock Walls!
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| Did we mention the helicoloid columns? |
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| Angled, too! |
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| With decorative towers ON the columns! |
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| A washerwoman! |
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| Your guests will LOVE knowing those rocks PROBABLY won't fall on them! |
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| These probably won't fall, either! |
And the Showhomes feature the latest in design, from the Catenary Arches and Ribbed Ceilings...
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| In blue! |
...to Concrete Columns in your house...
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| Beautiful! |
...to the Stairs. And the stairs are... everywhere!
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| Narrow straight ones! |
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| Narrow curved ones! |
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| Stairs on the roof! |
Houses will feature awesome design elements such as iron balconies and decorative detailing, all designed by our architect!
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| This balcony COULD BE YOURS! |
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| The chimney is MOVE IN READY! |
Yes, all this could be yours! Live in a Gaudi-designed community, with pie-shaped lots (only 6% of which can be covered by a house). Engage your child-like side. Buy now! Lots are available!
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No wonder it didn't sell.
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