I don't remember exactly how long ago it was that I broached the subject of touring the Bullitt Center with Alexia, but it would have to have been sometime next month—I had only noticed that they were doing post-pandemic tours once again while waiting to go visit Claudia at her office on the fifth floor back on April 4. That was just shy of two months ago.

Alexia and I had a movie night just last night, for our next title in our Harrison Ford-athon: Regarding Henry, a 1991 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer who loses his memory after getting shot in the head. His performance of the character is excellent, but the way the people around him treat him, in the supposed guise of loving support, is increasingly bonkers. Alexia seemed to agree.

Anyway, getting together last night was the first time Alexia and I hung out in about five weeks, since my Birth Week—an unusually long stretch for us. I can't remember if it was then that we established we would take this tour together, or if it was before. I just know we chose this date because there was a conflict on other dates before today. —Oh, wait! I just checked my email confirmation from when I bought the tickets: April 6. Okay well I guess that answers that question. Alexia and I have had this as part of our plan for about seven weeks.

This was my second paid tour of the Bullitt Center, the second tour of any sort in the past two months, and the third overall. My first was fully ten years ago, just before the building even opened—yielding some unique photos of empty floor spaces before any tenants even moved in—back in 2013. I've never stopped being incredibly fascinated by this building, and I was really interested in getting a tour a full decade into the building's operation.

The most significant difference is their 2020 switch from "foam flush toilets" that were part of a process producing compost, to their new system of vacuum flush toilets. They made the switch because, for the building's first seven years, a truck would come and haul the compost away, and the use of the trucks were, in the end, thought to be not quite in line with the building's values of sustainability. Now they use the vacuum toilets and greywater system, which involves a basement room full of vacuum pipes where a series of eight compost processing containers used to be.

This was a pretty significant change from my 2013 tour (which I really wish I had taken more photos of), so I've decided that alone made taking the tour worth it. I mean, tickets only came to like $12.50 each with online fees and such, which is quite affordable.

The tour took about ninety minutes, and took us from the ground floor, outside the building through a "garage" with no space for cars in it (I should have taken a photo in there, damn!), back inside and down to the basement, and then up to the top, sixth floor—my favorite part. When I visited Claudia to see her fifth-floor offices in April, that was high as I was able to go, but today, the tour took us inside the office space of an architecture firm on the sixth floor, and even into that floor's conference room, with west-facing windows. This level is just above the tree line, so I was able to get far better photos of the views than I had been able to from the Farmland Trust level where Claudia works on the one day or so per week that she doesn't work from home.

We were all also still required to wear masks, a somewhat surprising requirement this long after the pandemic—albeit still soon enough after that I had brought a mask to wear regardless. If it weren't for the rule, I'd have been the only person in the entire group (of five, counting the tour guide) in a mask. Or maybe one of two; it's possible the tour guide might still have worn hers. She had to provide a mask both for Alexia and the woman among the other two tour-goers who, I am guessing, was a caretaker of sorts for the other.

The other person was a young man who seemed pretty clearly to be on the spectrum, neurodivergent, certainly socially inept in a lot of ways. He would ask a lot of questions, a lot of them very learned and intelligent, but spoken a little too loudly, somewhat like a small child might. The middle-aged woman with him had to tell him more than once to put his mask back on, a requirement that clearly had him annoyed when we all first went into the building. It seemed at first that the young man might be a problem, but then he sort of settled in and was fine. Also, the tour guide, who said she is a teacher and very much encouraged all of his questions (and I asked several myself), was really patient with him.

So, in spite of a little bit of worry about that guy at the start, the tour was super cool and I had a great time. I was really happy to have Alexia join me for it, and she seemed to rather enjoy it too, although I don't think she likely would ever have done it without my suggesting it.

Anyway, my photo album on Flickr dedicated to this tour (now the last of three tours total) contains 35 shots. I even managed to get all of these ones captioned, so there's a little bit more detail in there if you want to click through for any further exploring.

[posted 4:22 pm]