For much of history, urban planning as we know it didn’t exist. Sure, there were cities with zoning ordinances and building codes, but ones thoroughly planned from scratch with heavily controlled development are largely a recent phenomenon. So a few years ago, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (known as SPUR) assembled ten key illustrations to summarize the twists and turns planners took to get where we are today.

Illustrations like this one of the Garden City from the early 1900s are powerful things, able to distill complex ideas down into compelling graphics. The idea in this case was to create greenbelts for urban dwellers and keep urban centers limited to populations of just over 30,000 people. Along similar lines, Le Corbusier’s “Towers in the Park” vision incorporated vast open spaces, but instead of spreading out, it pushed up, proposing people live in towers. This idea heavily shaped urban design in America, and public housing projects in particular.

More known for his architecture than his urban planning ideas, Frank Lloyd Wright had a lot of thoughts on how people should live and work outside of the actual houses and offices he built. His ideas for things like Broadacre City were more rural than urban, taking large plots of land and turning them into family housing in which each person would live on an acre of land. If implemented, this idea would have turned the entire country effectively into a giant mega-suburb.

The street grid was not a modern invention as such, but it was deployed much more rigorously and often starting from scratch in American cities like Philadelphia that were essentially working from a blank slate. In many cities, grids were laid out regardless of complex topography, creating problems down the road. Linked together, some of America’s gridded cities have started to become something bigger — megaregions, alluded to by science fiction authors like William Gibson decades ago and increasingly a reality today.

On a more closeup scale, transects have been used to show spectrums of possibility for urban planners ranging, for example, from highly paved urban spaces to lush green areas, rendering visible different hybrid typologies in between. As cities grew up, they also employed setback principles to guide growth and maintain light access, which fundamentally shaped the skylines and on-the-ground experiences of major metropolitan areas.

A classic in any list of historical city maps, the Nolli Map drawn in the 18th century was incredibly ambitious for its time, detailing every last little aspect of Rome and providing a basis for comparing old and new forms of this famous city. Notably, it is a straight-on view — maps of its time often tilted things at angles, which distorted the geography, but this one became a precursor for what we think of as typical plan-type maps today.

At the other end of the spectrum are the psychogeographical maps developed by Situationists in the mid-1900s, which aimed not to depict the shapes of buildings and spaces in between but to instead document the subject experience of the city. It was in many ways a reaction against a Nolli-type approach as well as the rigorously rectilinear plans of people like Le Corbusier. Maps were drawn from memory and then used to understand the “psychogeography” of cities.

Finally, the most unusual selection of all: the so-called “hockey stick” chart. This captures an aspect of the history of cities, specifically: the effects of the industrial revolution on global temperatures. It’s a diagram not so much about how to physically build a city but the big-picture impacts to think about while designing one.

Any one of these bizarrely named churches could be in your hometown though they appear to hale from an altered state… pray we do not “altar” them further.

Prayer House Rock

Elvis may have left the building but he left a half-eaten peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich on the collection plate. Welcome to the 24-hour Church of Elvis, a Portlandia attraction that isn’t really a church and has no known affiliation with The King’s estate. On the other hand, the eclectic storefront at 408 NW Couch is the self-stated “Worlds first 24-hour coin-operated Art Gallery” so at least it’s a profitable enterprise… like most churches. (images via brx0 and Steve Schroeder)

Let the Spirit Move You

Here’s the Palm Bible Church in Soweto, South Africa, whose sign out front bears the perplexing slogan “The Move of God”. Somehow we doubt that refers to Sunday being a popular moving day but hey, we’ve been wrong before. Let’s move on. (image via Paul Birnie)

Sin In Stranger

“Sin will find you out”? Hoo boy, that ship sailed a LONG time ago! Perhaps a better – or at least, more enticing – slogan might read “Salvation lies within”. We get it, though: neon signs don’t come cheap and like The Godfather says, fear can be a potent motivator. (image via Sam Lavy)

Pews ‘R Us

When they say “Find It Here”, they don’t mean sin… OK, depends on what type of used furniture you’re buying and what purpose it’s to be used for. Wait, you may be asking, what does used furniture have to do with a church? We can only shrug our shoulders and refer you to “Bill”… if you can find him. (image via Julia TortoiseHugger)

Fertile Pastors

The New Dimensions Worship Center might be “A Place of New Beginnings” but if their sign’s any indication, it’s also the scene of many happy endings. Gotta give ’em credit, though: while other churches advise that laying in bed on Sunday morning shouting “OH GOD!” doesn’t constitute going to church, New Dimensions replies “Why not both?” (image via David Smith)

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Non Saints 10 More Bizarrely Named Churches

From gold and dusted to old and busted: this abandoned gold mine in northeastern Australia is returning its vital elements to the ground from which they came.

Anvil Aurous

We may be in the “Land of Oz” but not all yellow brick roads lead to fame and fortune – Elton John excluded. In fact, about the only thing L. Frank Baum’s well-loved classic and this long-deserted gold mine near Brisbane have in common is rust… ain’t that right, Tin Man?

Cart Blanched

While gold mining is as old as the hills, so to speak, mining the prized heavy metal has become more sophisticated as the easy plays are cleaned out. We’ll assume whomever mined this nameless claim applied the available technology (such as the above ore cart straight outta Temple of Doom) so effectively, modern miners haven’t given the site a second glance.

Boss Moss

To say this old gold mine has been out of commission for a while would be an understatement. If the pervasive rust on any exposed metal doesn’t date it, how ’bout the moss growing on the rust? Think about that for a moment: moss growing on rusted metal gears. Now that’s some badass moss!

Just Ducky

This quartet of rusty rock-crushing heads were duck-faced before it was cool. They still sport the much-maligned selfie pose now, when it’s anything BUT cool. At least they’re not quacked up, which is more than we can say about the gold-bearing rocks they once smashed to gold-bearing sand.

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Gilt Trip An Abandoned Australian Gold Mine

The Chee Guan Chiang House at 25 Grange Rd in Singapore occupies land worth millions yet stubborn owners and protective authorities ensure it remains abandoned.

Home On The Grange

The so-called Chee Guan Chiang House at 25 Grange Rd (corner of Grange and Devonshire) in central Singapore dates back to the late 1930s. It was commissioned by the eponymous Chee Guan Chiang, the first son of Malacca-based banking tycoon Chee Swee Cheng.

Rich Man, Singapore Man

After demolishing an earlier home occupying the plot, the younger Chee hired well-known Singapore architect Ho Kwong Yew to build him a distinctive mansion in the then-current Art Deco style. Ho, recognized today as a leader of the “Modern Movement” in Singapore, incorporated earlier architectural flourishes such as a Roaring Twenties-style grand staircase into the home’s otherwise cutting-edge design.

Leonie Toons

The home was completed in 1938 but Chee Guan Chiang didn’t stay there long – following the end of WW2, the building was renamed the Leonie House and catered to mainly foreign boarders and tourists. New management took over the business in 1964, changing the name to the New Leonie Guest House.

The Other WH

If this isn’t confusing enough, in October of 2013 Yvonne Lee-Khoo (a grand-daughter of Chee Guan Chiang) posted an article at the Singapore URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) online forum. Ms Lee-Khoo explained that the house was originally named “Wellington House”: the word “well” meaning “good” and sounding like “wealthy”. To this day, wrought iron balustrades both inside and outside of the house prominently feature the “WH” motif.

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Grange Grunge Abandoned Art Deco Mansion In Singapore

The closed and abandoned Arne’s Royal Hawaiian Motel was a welcome oasis for overheated travelers passing through the Gateway to Death Valley in Baker, CA.

Hold the Pineapple

Arne’s Royal Hawaiian Motel opened in 1957, at the height of the post-war South Seas boom. The motel is located in the tiny town of Baker (pop. 835), conveniently close to the intersection of I-15 and State Route 127 (Death Valley Road).

Reasonable Bates er, Rates

At roughly the halfway point between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the 43-room motel hoped to lure road-going travelers in need of an overnight sleep stop. As well, tourists visiting infamously hot & dry Death Valley just to the north no doubt appreciated a dip in the motel’s refreshingly cool, guests-only, outdoor swimming pool.

Baking In Baker

Baker wasn’t just a well-placed rest stop, however. The so-called “Gateway to Death Valley” also boasted The World’s Tallest Thermometer. Standing 134 feet tall, the electrically-powered monument commemorates the world’s record highest temperature of 134°F (56.7°C), recorded at nearby Furnace Creek on July 10th, 1913.

Uncool Cooler

On the downside, Baker is also home to a shuttered, 223-bed, for-profit prison formerly operated by Cornell Corrections. The prison’s checkered history includes occasional escapes by inmates (twice in 1995 and another two in 1997) and a major riot in December of 2003 that forced a temporary closure. The leaky slammer closed for good in late 2009, allowing nervous Bakerites (and motel room-renters) to breathe a bit easier.

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Creepy Tiki Abandoned Arnes Royal Hawaiian Motel