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js2

Pump stations disguised as homes:

https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-house-pumping-stations-...

https://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/pump-station-dis...

https://triblive.com/local/new-pump-station-in-hampton-strat...

Of course, cell towers are often disguised.

What other things are hidden in plain sight in urban environments?

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I don't think it quite counts because they aren't disguised per se, but they are in plane sight: Backyard approaching lighting at Adelaide Airport [1].

https://wongm.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Adelaide-Approa...

[1] https://wongm.com/2022/04/backyard-approaching-lighting-adel...

> they are in plane sight

I see what you did there.

> What other things are hidden in plain sight in urban environments?

The internet.

https://gizmodo.com/how-to-see-the-internet-hiding-in-plain-...

"The book is a delightful guide to the many facets of the internet that are hidden in plain view—from the the small graffiti like utility markings sprayed on to asphalt, to the gigantic “Carrier Hotel” skyscrapers that house telecom switches. Some of the symbols and objects are easier to spot than others, but once you know they’re there, you can’t stop seeing them."

Trevor Paglen has some interesting work about surveillance and showing the internet as a physical entity rather than some abstract tube full of 1s and 0s that you might see in a newspaper article.

The fake houses used to hide London Underground cuttings are pretty interesting: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7533383/Behind-fa-a...

Similarly, NY’s MTA and their fake brownstone https://untappedcities.com/2013/04/05/fake-brownstone-brookl...

Ventilation shafts for the Paris metro https://matadornetwork.com/read/paris-fake-buildings/

Electricity substations disguised as houses in Toronto

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/neighborhood-transfor...

Very interesting examples - though I’m really not a fan of this kind of practice. Just feels kind of dishonest… Sometimes (such as cell towers poorly disguised as fake trees and the like) I think it can actually look ridiculous and worse than just raw infrastructure!

I think it’s possible to put these kind of things in buildings that look good but that don’t “lie” about their purpose… But maybe that’s just me - I know I’m definitely am much more interested in seeing and understanding the infrastructure that makes the world work than the vast majority of people probably are!

Okay, you have residences with water supplied to them, I guess you need pumping stations, you don't like an ugly industrial building, so you make them blend in, got it. Somehow the oil wells seem a lot more nefarious, since they aren't needed to be there, and it's a surprising zoning decision (to me) for them to be there. So, do we all think they're at the same level as the pumping stations? Were they just trying to blend in, but otherwise well-understood to be there? Or were these covert operations? I have so many questions, I guess :-)

Many if not all of the oil wells were there long before the people were - so it's more of a "hide existing infrastructure" than "random oil well out of freaking nowhere" being hidden.

As people move in and out of the area that knowledge is lost; so new inhabitants may be surprised to find that they're right next to a rig.

Old telco central offices were often designed to blend-in, architecturally: http://www.co-buildings.com/oh/513/

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