I heard of this years ago, but was unable to learn anything more. The official story then was that the navy brass was unaware of it.

Have you ever heard of a government building anywhere that didn't have its floor plan posted publicly on the walls in a number of spots? Obviously they knew, they knew back when the plans were just plans, and they went ahead anyway.

Now they got caught.

Posted by: CRM-114 | September 27, 2007 4:50 PM

If I'm reading the image correctly, it's four "L" shaped buildings. So, things like the fire escape plans would not have shown the swastika nature of the group. Still, I'm sure thousands of people have passed through and figured it out over the years. Any idea when these were built?

Posted by: John McKay | September 27, 2007 5:19 PM

Could it just be that certain design decisions necessitated this design. Military architects love radial symmetry, maybe something required these rays to be bent. Yeah they knew what it would look like but before google earth how many people would have noticed?

Posted by: Troy | September 27, 2007 6:48 PM

Seriously, does anyone really think they did this on purpose?

Well, perhaps they were hindu. Or Buddhist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

I once met this awesome girl from india, but one day I saw her sketching out a swastika, and I had a large knee-jerk reaction. Now, I don't. It's just a fucking symbol. If people want to use it in the hitlerian context, piss them off by refering to it in the eastern religion context.

Yeah, nazi's are so superior they can't even come up with their own unique symbol.

Posted by: Josh Charles | September 28, 2007 9:24 AM

I am amused.
It is my pleasure to direct a brief viewing of the Wikipedia entry regarding the multicultural existence of the swastika symbol. As provocative as this architectural design is, there may well be more to consider than its significance as a crude hand gesture to modern history.

Posted by: simpletwist | September 28, 2007 10:19 AM

What is the big deal here?

okay, some buildings in a navy base are arranged in the shape of a swastika.... so what? is everything that resembles something "evil" in certain contexts going to be banned?

too much fuss over something that the architect probably did not even realize, that his buildings were going to be interpreted as a subliminal message pro-nazism.....

please...

Posted by: 410n50 | September 29, 2007 2:12 PM

read "The Nazi Connection with Shambhala and Tibet" by Alexander Berzin; there is no random 'coincidence' and no, it wasn't because Hitler's graphics artists couldn't make up their own logo, it was because they believed themselves to be the mythical "master race" who originated the symbol, the expropriation was entirely intentional on their part, and the lack of objections by the Buddhists were, apparently, equally as intentional as they truly felt (at the time) that their best chances for themselves (facing China) were to align with the wacky Germans and hope for their support.

They were both wrong, of course, but nonetheless, there was no mere coincidence of their ensigns.

Posted by: mrG | September 30, 2007 10:57 PM

I'd say "what a waste of $600,000" (to alter a perfectly structurally fine building because, from the sky and in a way you can only see if you click a certain webpage or fly over it), it looks like a symbol), but then again the military wastes that every few seconds, so how can I even bother?

Posted by: - | May 17, 2008 9:47 PM

If anyone had bothered to follow up, and even look at the lower left part of the pic, it was done on purpose - and there are buildings shaped like bombers headed towards the swastika!

Posted by: sjs | June 23, 2008 11:53 AM

Hey guys. Last year I moved away from that base after working there for 6 years. Not only did I work on the base, but I lived in that building, and I also worked at that building. The whole time I was there, the building was the joke of the base. Nobody really knows why everyone is freaking out. You may hear stories of german POW's building them, but all the stories are just that. The only fact that's being told is that it was originally designed to allow all the rooms to have windows and also have some landscaping for people to enjoy. There are no SEALs in that building, nor do they have anything to do with it. It was also not designed to offend anybody.

Posted by: CM Seabee | April 30, 2009 9:15 PM