Building smells

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Has anyone ever noticed how each and every building has a unique smell to it? I'm not talking about places with strong food smells (such as McDonald's for instance), but just your normal everyday buildings such as houses, schools, office buildings, etc.

It's a source of comfort for me sometimes, for me to walk into a building and have it smell "right."

Edit: is this an AS trait as a result of hypersensitivity to smell, or does everyone notice this?

I'm not sure if everyone notices it, but I always have. Every school I ever attended had a different smell. They all had that scholastic smell (books, papers, etc) but every building had a different smell as well. So while there were some similarities, they were still different. I remember being inside a 100-year-old elementary school in the early 80s when my older brother had to go there for a short time. His school (which would later be my school) was destroyed by a tornado and the kids had to be sent across town to this other school while it was rebuilt. That building was creepy and not only did it have a smell ... it had a very eerie smell and I didn't like that. To me, creepy buildings also have their own unique, often eerie, smells.

Every friend I had growing up had a different smelling house. I had one female friend whose older brother committed suicide in their house, and while I never went inside that house after that incident, I never forgot the way their house always smelled before and I always think of her and her brother's tragic death whenever I smell something similar.

Smells always invoke memories in me. Whenever I smell something familiar, I am usually taken back to a time in my past and I will relive that memory for a short period of time. There are smells that remind me of when I was a kid and I'd ride my bike for hours and hours around my neighborhood, and so forth. There are even smells that remind me of bad things such as a perfume a certain girl was wearing in middle school when she totally snubbed me in front of everyone.

Last edited by sbcmetroguy on 12 May 2009, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This might sound weird, but I can only smell places that I like. The abandoned building I used to hang out in all had an extremely distinctive smell (dry wood, dust, and a hint of grain), and the other abandoned building smelled like oil. The smells were extremely strong. But I can't smell anything most of the time, I can't smell perfume, ambient smells, and most foods. But I can smell some things very clearly. Weird

you don't wanna smell my house right now. there's a backup under the crawlspace.

i know what you mean though, when i used to travel out east there was a certain hotel in philly where i would stay. i loved this place and for some reason it had a smell like elevator shaft oil or something. not a nice smell per se, but i always found it comforting and familiar when i got there, like "ah, there it is." and they used to use dial almond soap (which they don't make anymore), so i had to buy myself some to remind me of trips.

i like the smell when you walk into a hotel room, too - the kind of cold mix of cleaning products, soap, and cigarette smoke.

i absolutely abhor the smell of hospitals, though. i don't know what causes that particular smell, but it's usually in the soiled linen rooms.

"i like dat smell. it's a smelly smell."

Last edited by subliculous on 12 May 2009, 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yes. my new place smells like wood because of all the wood floors

Yes I have noticed this in private homes but not in public houses.
The guest appartment of mine which was my home for many years have a special smell that is not to be found anywhere else. Its a nice and unique smell....

where i lived before, the entire wooden stairway was soaked in decades of catpiss

mmmmmmmmmmmm

Yes. This is often the first thing that I notice when I walk into a new (or old, familiar) building

KINDRED SPIRIT! *huggles fiercely*

I was only thinking of this LAST NIGHT as I walked through Sanford after sunset, past the local post office...

But yes, there are 3 types of building smells not related to food which I can strongly identify with: Post offices, libraries, and my absolute favorite...hardware stores! I guess the smells of ANY wood products (paper included) make me feel calm and at ease. ^_^

I can't expalin it , but somehow, walking into HQ...makes me feel happy...

Absolutely. I can always remember the smell of a place, even if I can't remember what it looks like. And if I return to a place that I haven't been to for years the smell immediately makes me remember.
I can remember what my junior school smelt like, and my high school but I am fuzzy on the layout of the places, even though I spent a huge amount of time there!

all buildings have character and personalities that are directly corellated with my sensory perception of them.
Smells are a big part of their personality.
Building Odour.

Totally man. Not just public buildings, but people's homes that is. Must admit I haven't thought about this for a long time. But I couldn't help but notice as a kid, that people's homes had their own smell.

In fact it was obvious that people's smells (their clothes) were the same as the smell of their home. These often strong smells were transported from their home.

I was walking past our main post office (not in it, but right up close to it), and I suddenly realized that it smelled exactly like the buildings I remember from when I was in the Air Force. Maybe all these government entities use the same cleaning products or something.