The cities of the world have a lot to hide, and while some of those things might be top secret government operations, others are as unremarkable as an ugly ventilation shaft, an electrical substation, a failing and vacant downtown area or just a sad, blank wall that needs some fake windows to improve its looks. Our urban surroundings are full of faux details, from facades and doors to massive hyperrealistic architectural murals, all trying to convince us that these structures are nicer, newer, livelier or more innocent than they really are.

NSA Building Hiding in Plain Sight

In retrospect, maybe New Yorkers should have known that this vaguely evil-looking, almost entirely windowless monolith of a building was secretly owned by the National Security Administration. It was apparently disguised as an AT&T building for over a decade, and it’s built like that to withstand a nuclear blast. Located at 33 Thomas Street, the 1974 Brutalist structure functions (surprise!) as a surveillance hub.

False Facades in Leinster Gardens, London Hiding Train Tracks

There are no real telltale signs that the houses at 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens in London are anything other than ordinary – until you take a walk along the street behind them to see the back of the faux facade and the hollow space it hides, as captured in these images by Urban 75. The actual houses that once stood in this spot were demolished to build a tunnel connection two London Underground stations; this void is actually the top of a ventilation shaft.

Parisian Ventilation Tower with Trompe L’oeil Facade

Casual passersby might not look up to examine the windows of this structure on Rue Quincampoix in Paris. If they did, it probably wouldn’t take them too long to notice that they’re actually painted on, some permanently open to billowing curtains and dimly-lit rooms beyond. The mural helps disguise yet another urban ventilation shaft.

Toronto’s Camouflaged Substations

Many a seemingly elegant building in Toronto is not what it seems. Disguised among the city’s historic structures are a number of electrical substations, designed to blend in with their environments. While expanding the power grid in the early 20th century, Toronto Hydro, established in 1911, hired a team of architects whose sole purpose was to hide what would otherwise be unsightly metal structures. You can spot them by their ‘Keep Out!’ ‘Danger!’ signs posted to the doors. The Glengrove substation at 2833 Yonge Street is a prime example.

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Acquiring a KFC franchise doesn’t appear to be that difficult. Appearances may deceive, however, as do these dozen absolutely unauthorized KFC wannabes.

OFC: Change We Can’t Believe In

(images via: The China Times, CoCoas.net and ViralSlam)

Tea Party types might have stuck with KFC (Kenya Fried Chicken) but the Chinese student-entrepreneurs behind OFC were less concerned with birth certificates, not to mention other legalities. Located near Beijing Aerospace City College, OFC sought to trump a mere Kentucky Colonel by evoking the head honcho, the Commander in Chief, the Big O himself. Speaking of legal issues, it seems KFC won a small victory by forcing the shop to change its name to UFO. Yeah, that really helped.

Kennedy Fried Chicken: KFC + JFK

(images via: Jessica Port, Deephouse Page and Jason Klamm)

From one president to another, it’s a coop d’etat! Kennedy Fried Chicken was founded in 1975 by Afghan immigrant Taeb Zia, who named his restaurant after JFK “because Afghans are fond of the former president.” The first store opened in New York City’s Flatbush neighborhood and these days most of the roughly 1,000 outlets are owned by Afghan-Americans. Kennedy Fried Chicken‘s unusually loose control over its franchisees has occasionally brought the chain into conflict with KFC, usually when the owners paint their stores with red & white paint and employ “KFC” on their signage.

FCK’n Good Chicken!

Located in Haiyuan, north-central China’s Ningxia province, FCK “Tea and Hamburger” means no offense in their ongoing effort to serve Fried Chicken Kentucky-style, along with tea and hamburgers (also presumably Kentucky-style). Full props to English teacher Alison Lentz for discovering the joy of FCK and photo-documenting its graffiti-scarred existence on her blog.

SFC: “Exclusive To Iceland”

(image via: MaltaSupermarket)

“I gave my love a bucket, that had no bones…” There ain’t nowhere you can hide when a peeved Colonel’s on your tail, and that includes Iceland (the nation or the British supermarket). SFC‘s Take Home Boneless Bucket above doesn’t display a Viking-ized version of Harlan Sanders, which is unfortunate, because that would be awesome! It does allude to KFC via the branding copy, however, offering buyers “Original pieces of Tasty reformed Succulent Crispy Chicken… coated with a Southern Fried style coating made to Our Secret Recipe of Herbs & Spices”. Tasty reformed chicken, huh? Sounds scrumptious.

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