Big Duck

The Big Duck is a 20-foot (6.1 m) tall ferrocement building shaped like a duck. It is a classic example of novelty architecture. Built in 1931 in Riverhead, New York, United States, this unique structure has been moved several times to different spots on eastern Long Island. It finally settled in Flanders in 2007.

Originally, the Big Duck was created by duck farmer Martin Maurer as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. This happened during a time when duck farming was becoming more popular on Long Island, and people loved buildings that looked like everyday objects because cars made travel easier. The Big Duck became very famous and was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places in 1997. Today, it is a main building at the Big Duck Ranch, which was also listed as historic in 2008.

Background

The Big Duck is a building shaped like a duck in Flanders, New York. It is 20 feet tall and was built in 1931 by a duck farmer named Martin Maurer. He created it as a fun shop and to catch the eye of drivers passing by. At the time, many buildings were designed to look like everyday objects to stand out, like a giant milk bottle or a tea kettle.

Duck farming was popular on Long Island, especially after a special breed of duck arrived in 1873. By 1915, there were many farms producing lots of ducks. Over time, many farms closed, but a few remained. Maurer got the idea for the Big Duck after seeing a coffee shop in Los Angeles with a giant coffee pot on top.

Construction

The Big Duck was built in 1931 by a carpenter named George Reeve and two brothers, William and Samuel Collins, who worked with theatre sets and props. They used a real duck as a model and studied a cooked chicken to make sure the shape was just right. After creating a wooden frame, they added wire mesh and covered it with a special building material called ferrocement. The duck’s eyes were made from old car tail lights and glowed red at night.

The Big Duck opened in June 1931 as a shop selling ducks and duck eggs. It was later featured in a magazine called Popular Mechanics and even had a tiny version shown at the 1939 World's Fair. Over the years, the building was moved several times, finally ending up back in Flanders in 2007. Today, you can visit it by train from the Riverhead station.

Popular reaction

Buildings like the Big Duck are known as novelty architecture. The term "duck" is used to describe buildings shaped like everyday objects. In 1997, the Big Duck was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places. Later, in 2008, the Big Duck Ranch, where the duck is located, was also added to the National Register.

A drawing of the Big Duck by Saul Steinberg appeared on the cover of The New Yorker in 1987. Historian Marilyn Weigold called it an "impressive piece of folk art" in her 2015 book. Each year since 1988, the Big Duck has been lit up for Christmas, and local people attend the lighting ceremony. A writer from Newsday compared this event to the annual lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan.

There was a plan in 1997 to turn the Big Duck into a museum with fifteen buildings typical of early 20th-century Long Island roadsides. This idea was suggested by the Suffolk County Department of Parks and had support from the New York Council on the Arts. However, the plan couldn't move forward because of not enough money and legal problems. These problems included land-use regulations to protect the nearby pine barren and a lawsuit that stopped a planned donation of a diner.

Academic commentary

Architecture

Architect Peter Blake wrote about the Big Duck in his 1964 book, calling it an example of commercialism. He showed pictures of the Duck along with happy families and ducks at a pond.

Later, architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown used the word "duck" to describe buildings that are shaped like everyday objects. They praised the Big Duck as a building that is also a sign, unlike smaller buildings that only have signs outside.

Other writers have had different views. Some thought the Big Duck was a great example of road architecture, even if it seemed too small for a store and too big for just a duck. Others believed its fame came from being near famous people or from being featured in important architecture books.

Information design

Information scientist Edward Tufte used the term "duck" to describe unnecessary decorations in graphs and charts. He named this after the Big Duck, saying that just like the building itself is all decoration, some graphs are filled with style instead of clear information. He called these decorations "flamboyant" and not very helpful, grouping them with other unhelpful chart designs.