What is a Thomasson?
A friend drew my attention to this peculiar urbanism feature. It’s probably something that doesn’t even register as you meander past, but sometimes you might notice a window that’s been bricked up, a staircase that leads to nowhere or a strangely and precariously positioned doorway that can no longer be accessed as the building has changed so much from its original iteration.
What are these features — and what might they be called?
Most of the time, these architectural leftovers are removed — but at other times, they’re lovingly maintained.
In 1985, Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei coined a term for these kinds of urban leftovers. He called them “Thomassons.”
But why? The term references Gary Thomasson, an American baseball player who was traded to a team in Tokyo. Thomasson was paid a huge amount of money for a two year contract.
But then Thomasson lost his game. He actually set the all-time strikeout record in Japan in 1981, and was benched for much of his contract.
For Akasegawa, Gary Thomasson was “useless” and also “maintained.”
See a blog where people submit images of Thomassons from around the world here.
