LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The US Navy is to spend 600,000 dollars remodelling a set of barracks in Southern California that resemble a swastika when viewed from above, officials said Thursday.
From ground level the layout of the four L-shaped buildings at the US Navy base outside San Diego is unremarkable.
But with the increasing popularity of satellite imagery websites such as Google Earth, the barracks' swastika formation have attracted wide attention, with Anti-Defamation League campaigners requesting alterations be made.
Now the Navy has agreed to remodelling that will "camouflage" the aerial appearance of the barracks, officials said.
"The Navy has budgeted 600,000 dollars for work that will effectively camouflage the appearance of the barracks from above," US Navy spokeswoman Angelic Dolan told AFP. "Exactly what shape that work will take has not yet been decided. It could be landscaping, it could be adding solar panels."
Dolan said the controversial design of the building had been drawn up in the 1960s. "It was an oversight," she said. "We certainly did not want to offend anyone, nor be associated with such a symbol."
Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, welcomed plans to remodel. "We told the Navy this was an incredibly inappropriate shape for a structure on a military installation," Casuto told The New York Times.
"I don't ascribe any intentionally evil motives to this," he said.
"It just happened. The Navy has been very good about recognizing the problem. The issue is over."
It is not known who first spotted the buildings' controversial shape on Google Earth, but a Missouri-based radio talk-show host, Dave vonKleist, had lobbied the Pentagon in early 2006 seeking alterations.
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