As I anticipate visiting Montréal again sometime this summer, I was looking back over my old photos from visiting it before, and it made me realize something. I think cities are sleeping on the benefits of a big ole round thing as a tourist destination. Hear me out!
1. Round Things Are Cheerful
Look at this big round buddy! It's just a place to buy corndogs (pogos in local vernacular) but doesn't it just look cheerful? It makes me smile to look at it.
Also, it makes the city skyline nearby look more distinctive(ly cheerful) and breaks up the monotony of modern boxy buildings and designs.
Note also that there are a lot of people at it (there were more at other times; I tend to prefer to take photos with fewer rather than more people but that does make it harder to make these kinds of points so perhaps I should alter my habits). People are drawn to the cheer of the ball!
2. Round Things Are Photogenic
I'll go back to the US for this. Technically this is called Cloud Gate, but Anish Kapoor can be annoying so let's call it the Bean. And let's go further and admit: yes, there are cool non-spherical properties of it, but at it's heart, and from a distance, it's a big round hunk of metal.
That polished, reflective, sphere-ish outside is appealing. And as you can see even in this relatively less-peopled photo, people like taking photos of it. I did, for sure! And so do thousands every day.
3. Round Things Are Flexible
Besides not having to be truly spherical, cool round things in cities don't even need to be solid to be awesome. Back to Montréal here (which is what inspired this post):
The Biosphere is hollow, but oh so cool.
I haven't here even touched on such icons as the Knoxville Sunsphere, the Vegas Sphere, or of course Davenport's own St. Ambrose Dome.
Big Round Things make a city cool, OK? We should have more of them. And I'm gonna take a bunch more almost-spherical pics when I visit Montréal and Chicago this summer.
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