That rock hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the offices of architecture firm BNIM in the old Weldon Cafeteria building on Main St. is “most definitely real,†Norhill Realty leasing agent Vincent Biondillo tells Swamplot. It came from San Jacinto Stone. What’s it for? Well, Wichita St. ends across the street, shooting all sorts of negative T-junction Feng Shui energy straight at the building. And the availability of large stocks of chi-fortifying Red Bull and Chester Fried Chicken at the Chevron food mart on the corner probably doesn’t help. Biondillo, who’s still trying to lease a few vacant spaces in the building at 4916 Main, explains the rock was placed recently by a Feng Shui Master hired by BNIM to solve the problem.
A chi POV shot and closeups of the Museum District’s fiercest Sha Chi assassin:
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Minit Man car wash is on the corner to the left of the frame, the Chevron station to the right:
- Museum Plaza Building [LoopNet]
Photos: Norhill Realty
LOL!!! Feng Shui: The made up concept designers pounced on to charge a lot more to design spaces.
If you let people and places around you determine how you feel and act, you have much bigger problems.
It’s just plain ugly, while I’ve studied somewhat zen concept I would never go to the lengths of sticking a rock in front of my building, and I’m as forward thinking as the next person..
Stick a few more in a line, and you could get away with calling em bollards.
So when your Feng Shui rock gets hit with graffiti, does it mess up the zen?
Or if a skateboarder or city maintenance work hits it and sues, does it mess up the zen? LOL
Suckers!It’s a dinosaur turd!
I’m sure that whom ever sold them on that rock is laughing all the way to the bank. Ditch the rock. It is distracting from the lines of the building.
I like it. At least it breaks up the monotony of the 50 year old sidewalk pavement and isn’t a tagged newspaper machine. Will last loads longer than some plants and will raise fewer hackles than some absurd sculpture.
Good fortunes are in the future for all the tenants!
Wonder if the Feng Shui master misunderstood “big rock” for “bagua” which is the mirror used over the door when the door faces the “T” and draws negative chi into the building. The mirror reflects it away from the entrance.
I listed a house in Sugar Land once on a cul-de-sac and the house at the center of the cul-de-sac had a bagua as did the house directly opposite it and I often wondered what happened to the chi – I guess it just bounces back and forth for eternity. Or until someone removes their bagua.
They have employed the mirrors at this location, as well. They are adhered to the glass and too small to see in the photos.
From kjb434:
LOL!!! Feng Shui: The made up concept designers pounced on to charge a lot more to design spaces.
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It has gotten a little, well, out of hand but then it’s also gotten, well, you know, chi-chi. “My Feng Shui master…”
Some of whom don’t know their big rocks from their baguas.
Designers really took a little recognized spiritual practice derived from Taoism and turned it into a commercial success by duping people.
The original Feng Shui practitioners were a small sect in China that few Chinese even recognized as valid (and that was prior to the Communist Revolution which rooted out took down religious practices in the country). Since most were VERY rural farmers, they were left alone since they wouldn’t hurt anybody.
From Benjy Compson:
They have employed the mirrors at this location, as well. They are adhered to the glass and too small to see in the photos.
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There is supposed to be only one. Over the door. Not beside it. I do wonder about this Feng Shui master.
From kjb434:
The original Feng Shui practitioners were a small sect in China that few Chinese even recognized as valid (and that was prior to the Communist Revolution which rooted out took down religious practices in the country). Since most were VERY rural farmers, they were left alone since they wouldn’t hurt anybody.
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Some of us avoid walking under ladders. Some of us toss salt over our shoulders when we spill it. Some of us hang baguas over the front door depending on what the front door faces. Some of us are silly and irrational creatures. Who nonetheless believe in Feng Shui. Some of us just don’t believe in Feng Shui masters. Not the chi-chi designer ones anyway.
I have no problem with believing in the concept of Feng Shui. I have a problem with Designers thinking they can impose a positive Feng Shui on your house or office. It’s kind of like selling indulgences.
I’ve always found Feng Shui recommendations to be harmonious and common-sensical, really.
But yes! Matt Mystery: what happens when the neighbor is just as fengshui’d as you are?
“I see your bagua and raise you one red chrysanthemum and two north-facing frogs?”
About a million years ago I met someone who was “well-versed” in Feng Shui who told me it isn’t about changing chi as it is merely understanding the chi. Go with the flow and then accept the flow you chose I suppose. Most people who simply put their rooms together and then “analyze” them find out all sorts of things about themselves and about their lives at the moment.
About a million years later a Feng Shui master, regarded as such, told me that there is no such thing, really, as bad chi. It is merely challenge.
Still you want to ensure that the flow is good. But you really don’t have to spend a fortune. Copper pennies work just as well placed inside the front door as that $100 “Ancient Chinese Coin” windchime from Master Wong Lee Paypal.
I would guess Mr. Kamrath is not pleased.
That looks stupid.
I just want to know how much the Feng Shui master was paid, and how much the rock (plus shipping) cost. I may have found my next career…
I thought those mirrors were to ward off ghosts and evil spirits?
It looks like a baby rhino died in the desert.
From rh:
I thought those mirrors were to ward off ghosts and evil spirits?
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Ghosts, evil spirits, and drivers who’ve consumed too many spirits and don’t see the house at the end of the street.
Wtf..
A little birdie told me that BNIM recieved a citation for the rock.
Yet, the rock is still there.
kjb, if by “VERY rural farmers”, you mean imperial occupiers, real estate dynasties and major global corporations and banks then you have it right. The position of the original business center of Hong Kong was changed following the protests of the residents. Since then the position and features of a large percentage of the largest buildings on Hong Kong Island have been steered by Feng Shui. Rumor has it that the aspect and position of even the British Governors mansion was chosen with the help of a Feng Shui master. More recently the headquarters of HSBC and the Bank of China have been guided by Feng Shui. The Bank of China building currently radiates bad energy at both the Governor’s mansion and the US Consulate …. coincidence?
Just because your a business leader or an elected official doesn’t mean won’t pay a large amount of money for someone to applied “Feng Shui”.
I bet it’s more of a publicity stunt than belief.
I think it’s more of a superstition than a belief but in HK it’s pretty deeply rooted. It’s would also be a very expensive publicity stunt. Hang Seng bank added a pair of footbridges to their building at a cost of $HK20M after a last minute bad feng shui report and they say HSBC paid the government to guarantee it’s water view would never be obstructed. Of course on top of a $1B building (in 1985 US dollars) that may have been a pretty small drop in the ocean.