Progress

I’ve always been intrigued by the layered patinas of weathered materials and the obscure origins of obsolete objects. So, when I first visited Schiller’s Architectural & Design Salvage, it was like walking into a colorful and richly textured menagerie of extinct tools and untold stories. I was soon drawn to the stubborn spirit of an old industrial cart. It's rusty wheels, gnarled wooden flatbed, and corroded copper pumping mechanism were battered and worn, but still worked. One of the ironies of contemporary consumer society is that many so-called “durable goods,” are not durable at all. And while the constant consumption cycle of planned obsolescence may be good for the economy, it’s clearly bad for the environment and, perhaps less clearly, bad for the soul. When a tool is built with enough care and craft to span across generations, they become heirlooms linking us to our past and future--helping us to better understand both our selves and our place in the world.