Big Duck

Infobox_nrhp | name = The Big Duck


caption = The Big Duck was constructed in the 1930s to help its owner's duck farming business.
locator_x =
locator_y =
location = Flanders, New York, Suffolk County, New York, USA
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 31
lat_seconds = 11.4
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 73
long_minutes = 2
long_seconds = 23.9
long_direction = W
built = 1930-31
added = April 28, 1997 [ [http://www.nr.nps.gov/nrloc1.htm NRIS Database] , National Register of Historic Places, retrieved Oct. 2006.]
governing_body = Suffolk County, NY [ [http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/webtemp1.cfm?dept=10&id=837] , Suffolk County website, retrieved April 17 2007.]

The Big Duck is a ferrocement building in the shape of a duck located in Flanders, New York, on Long Island. It was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer in nearby Riverhead, and used as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs.

Description

The Big Duck is a prime example of literalism in advertising. The building measures convert|18|ft|m wide, convert|30|ft|m long and convert|20|ft|m tall to the top of the head. The duck's eyes are made from Ford Model T tail lights and the interior floor space is confined to convert|11|ft|m by convert|15|ft|m. The wood frame, wire mesh/concrete surface building was designed in the shape of a Pekin duck in order to house a retail poultry store.

History

Owner Martin Maurer had The Big Duck building constructed in 1930 and 1931 on a prime spot on the busy Main Street in the town of Riverhead on Long Island, New York. The builders Smith and Yeager completed the concrete finish work on the Big Duck which was featured in Atlas Cement's 1931 calendar. Merlin Yeager noted that most of the duck is actually finished with Portland Cement, but they ran out and finished with Atlas Cement. The Big Duck was also featured in Popular Mechanics magazine.

In 1937, Martin Maurer moved the building four miles (6 km) southeast to Flanders, where it occupied a prominent location near the duck barns and marshes of Maurer's new duck ranch. The entire area, including Flanders and Riverhead, was the center of Long Island's well-known duck-farming industry. By 1939 there were about 90 duck farms in Suffolk County. [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/6roadside/6facts1.htm Determining the Facts Reading 1: Representational Architecture] , Roadside Attractions, National Park Service.]

The Big Duck's unusual building and prime location helped garner much customer attention until it closed in 1984. In 1988, Suffolk County acquired The Big Duck and moved it to Route 24 on the edge of Sears-Bellows Pond County Park between Flanders and Hampton Bays on the eastern part of Long Island. The building houses a gift shop operated by the Friends for Long Island Heritage. The duck was returned to its original location in on October 6, 2007; nonetheless it is still called the "Flanders duck" for the intermediate location. Suffolk County continues to own it, maintains its interior and pays for staffing; Southampton Town maintains the exterior. The original 27 acre duck farm was purchased by the town in 2006. [ [http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue21_2007/3.html Duck on the Move - Dan's Papers - August 17, 2007] ] [Porpora, Kenny. " [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liduck1007,0,6699792.story LI Duck moved without a hitch] ," "Newsday", 6 October 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2007.]

Legacy

Buildings such as this are classified as follies. However, in architecture the term "duck" is used more specifically to describe buildings that are in the shape of an everyday object they relate to. According the Long Island newspaper "Newsday", "The Big Duck has influenced the world of architecture; any building that is shaped like its product is called a 'duck'." ["Newsday" (Feb. 21, 2007): "It Happened on Long Island" (column): "1988: Suffolk County Adopts the Big Duck", by Cynthia Blair] Edward Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" uses the term "duck", explicitly named after this building, to describe irrelevant decorative elements in charts.

The Big Duck was the target of widespread criticism during the 1960s and early 1970s but the building did have its architectural defenders. Robert Venturi said that since the building combined functional and symbolic aspects of architecture it was noteworthy. It was Venturi who coined the term "duck" to describe a building in which the architecture is subordinate to the overall symbolic form. However, he preferred the "decorated shed" as a model. [http://www.amst.umd.edu/Research/cultland/annotations/Venturi1.html] On November 13, 2006, radio station WBLI rated the Flanders Duck first amongst the 7 wonders of Long Island, [ [http://wbli.com/morningshow/7wonders.html WBLI Morning Show] ] [ A.J. Carter, [http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-bzajmain4983998nov20,0,3603513.column?coll=ny-news-columnists Inside Stories] , "Newsday", November 20, 2006 ] just ahead of the Commack Motor Inn

ee also

*Big Chicken

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NYFLAduck.html Roadside America]
* [http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/01/10/the-big-duck/ The Big Duck on Google Sightseeing]

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/6roadside/6roadside.htm "“Roadside Attractions”", a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]
* [http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/Home/departments/parks/History%20of%20the%20Big%20Duck.aspx Nassau County Parks]

Further reading

*McShane, William. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E3D6123EF93AA1575BC0A9629C8B63 Make way for the Big Duck] ", "The New York Times", August 29, 2004, accessed April 29, 2008.