Naming insignificant buildings after significant people

[Saras]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
And there used to be an "Ibsen Kebab" around the corner from it but I think that place is a Sushi bar now.

Sushi > kebab

[Winston]

Bit OT, but too crazy not to tell..

Some 15 years ago, an eccentric billionaire by the name of Alex Brask-Thomsen offered the city of Copenhagen (which is chronically in financial trouble) the nice sum of DKK 250 million, which is > $50 million, if they would name the street Nørrebrogade, where he was born, after him. It's one of the main streets in that part of the city but by no means more prominent than dozens of others in the capital. The city, after some deliberation, refused, since only deceased people can have streets and places named after them.

He died early last year in Switzerland, but before he died, he made clear that he wished to be buried in Copenhagen on his father's birthday which as I recall it was in June. So his body was kept at a Swiss morgue for six months at huge cost, and then transported to Copenhagen. But his final wish was that on the morning of his funeral, the hearse, with his body in it, should make a tour of all the places that had been significant to him during his life, along with the entire funeral procession. So this bizarre caravan spent hours driving around the city and making brief stops at his childhood home, various schools, and the banks, hotels and buildings he'd owned, before some time in the afternoon, they could finally lay the guy to rest at the cemetery. God knows what other provisions he made in his final will as to the distribution of his fortune, I guess that's best kept confidential among the heirs. Jeez..

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
IIRC, in Warsaw, there's a roundabout named after Charles de Gaulle. It's fairly big, but still it's a goddamn roundabout!

Here in the UK, the most we'd name after him is a urinal

[Sikander]

This has been a problem recently in the U.S. :

Rosa Parks Not Really Honored By New Bus Depot

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43973

[Datajack Franit]

I thought I saw a Nørrebrogade when I was in Copenhagen last year?

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by Saras


Sushi > kebab

hmmmm how about a compromise, a kebab with raw fish instead of cat meat or whatever it is they use

[:) Smiley]

The "Yitshak Rabin" Powerplant. Or the Interchange.

Most university buildings are named, however, one building type I've never seen a name on is the central heating plant. Does anyone know of one that has a name?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
The Margaret Thatcher Household Waste Landfill Site. There isn't one, but it's all she deserves

There is already a noticeable London Docklands building referred to as Thatcher's *Cheney*. Its also Europe's tallest building if you ignore anything not English.

[snoopy369]

I think that Copenhagen was insane not to take the money. $50m to name a road? Just go the Chicago route and "name" it "The Honorable Whatever Way" in little brown signs, while keeping the official name whatever it was before. We have all sorts of roads ... "The Honorable Mike Ditka Way", etc. Heck, a part of michigan avenue (our main tourist-part-of-downtown street) is named for a doorman who worked for like 50 years at one of the major hotels ... (and is still alive)

What's the point of naming streets after dead people, anyway. They can't come to the naming ceremony

[Zkribbler]

Doesn't the naming of the Jimmy "My God, Don't Look Under the Blacktop!" Hoffa Highway make you just a bit suspecious?

[Provost Harrison]

Isn't he part of the structural support of it?

[:) Smiley]

I thought he was somewhere inside Giants Stadium.