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SearchResearch Challenge (10/26/22): A missing building in the park?

Dan Russell • October 26, 2022
 SearchReSearch
Republished with permission from SearchReSearch
SearchResearch Challenge (10/26/22): A missing building in the park? Dan Russell

Blank spaces on maps intrigue me,

What was once here?


.. as do blank spaces on the land. More than a few SRS Challenges have centered on attempting to find out what happened here--this week's is in that category--what happened here?

In this case, I was walking through a local park and happened upon an area (see the image above) at 37.885832, -122.261408 that was fairly blank. Since it was on an otherwise hilly area, it looked very much as if a building had been there at one time. There were a few pieces of flat concrete that looked suspiciously like former building foundations, and even more mysteriously, there's a flagpole on the western edge of the flat spot.

Well... huh. What's up? After a bit of SRS I found the answer AND another interesting story about the place. This leads to today's Challenges:

1. What was once at 37.885832, -122.261408? Can you figure out the story given just that lat/long and a keen desire to figure out the past? Was there a building there? If so, who built it and why?

2. The architect that that building is also the architect of a few other pieces nearby. Can you figure one that's closest to this spot?

As I mentioned last time, I'm deep in the middle of running my class at Stanford, so I'm going to keep the SRS Challenges on the interesting/fun but not-difficult side for the next 2 months. Hope you enjoy these just as much!


Search on!



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About the Author

Dan RussellDan Russell

I study the way people search and research. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. While I work at Google, my blog and G+ posts reflects my own thoughts and not those of my employer. I am FIA's Future-ist in Residence. More »

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