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 special building 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. 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 made it as a fun shop to catch the eye of drivers passing by. At that 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 stayed open. 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. They used a real duck as a model and looked at a cooked chicken to get the shape right. They made a wooden frame, added wire mesh, and covered it with a special 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 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 called novelty architecture. The word “duck” means buildings shaped like everyday things. In 1997, the Big Duck was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places. In 2008, the Big Duck Ranch, where the duck is, was also added to the National Register.

A drawing of the Big Duck by Saul Steinberg was on the cover of The New Yorker in 1987. Each year since 1988, the Big Duck has been lit up for Christmas, and local people come to the lighting ceremony. A writer from Newsday said this was like 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 from 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. But the plan couldn’t happen 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. He called it an example of commercialism. He showed pictures of the Duck with happy families and ducks at a pond.

Later, architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown used the word "duck" for buildings shaped like everyday objects. They liked the Big Duck because it is a building and a sign, unlike smaller buildings that only have signs outside.

Other writers had different ideas. 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 in important architecture books.

Information design

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