If “Touch My Building” didn’t make you curious, alternative titles for this post were “The Fish Smells Fine” and “The Ghost of the 7th Street Station”.
In Charlotte there is an interactive work of art that lights up and plays music when you touch it. This enormous artwork is nine-stories tall and stretches a full city block. And oh yeah, it’s a parking garage. Although it’s all one and the same (a ying and yang thing) the building is known as the 7th Street Station and the artwork is titled Touch My Building, created in 1998 by artist Christopher Janney. The interactive part of this building is 36 thirty-foot tall “light fins” located around the structure with touch sensitive pads at the base of each one. (Click here to see a better photo.) When you touch a pad, it and the fin light up and plays one of a wide variety of notes or sounds. Plus the parking garage also doubles as a clock, as every hour all of the fins play a synchronized melody for serveral minutes. Very cool.
By now you may have noticed that I’ve already explained the title of this post but not my two alternate titles. Well there’s a small plaque located on the east side of the building next to Reid’s Fine Foods with a riddle inscribed on it.
The fish smells fine
Go E I, III, V, VII, IX
1000, 0110, 0100, 0010
And see what she tells you
If you solve the riddle and play the pattern of fins in the correct order “the ghost of the 7th Street Station” is supposed to respond with a visual and musical display of appreciation.
Several years ago a friend and I thought we had solved the riddle but the ghost failed to sing for us. Did we get it wrong? I don’t actually know because one of the fins was broken! Now several years later, a recent lunch visit to Reid’s reminded me that I never did figure out whether or not we were right.
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Spoiler Warning: Don’t read below this line unless you’re okay with learning The Mystery of the 7th Street Station. If you do want to see the spoiler, just highlight everything from HERE…..
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Below is how I decyphered the riddle, but remember that I never got it to work because of a broken fin. Hence I can’t actually prove I’m right. If you have successfully heard the ghost sing from the riddle pattern and can confirm my instructions, please add a comment to this post.
The fish smells fine
The first line is the most essential clue because it establishes your initial location, on which all other steps are dependent. I assume you should start at the southeast corner of the 7th Street Station, nearest to where 6th Street on the side that runs along the light rail. I assume this because there is are two fish sculptures way up near on that corner. I would think that the one fin between the two fish is the right starting point.
Go E I, III, V, VII, IX
Go East from the starting point and touch the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth fins. (Technically you can’t go due east along the building but going northeast towards 7th Street is the closest to going east.)
1000, 0110, 0100, 0010
Just like the second line was roman numberals, this line is binary numerals. That would make this line translate to 8, 6, 4, 2. So walking back towards 6th Street, touch the eighth, sixth, fourth, and second fins (in respect to the southeast corner being zero).
And see what she tells you
Well this line isn’t actually a clue so there’s nothing to figure out. But since one of the fins were broken last time I tried, she never told me anything. 
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TO HERE…..
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All the fins appeared to be working and my daughter’s fiance and I tried it. We had also come up with the same conclusion to the riddle last year and just got to try it Sunday night. If it worked it was not as impressive as I thought it would be. It did respond with a very short musical interlude using all the fins. I really expected more so maybe there is more to the puzzle!?
Sharon Hansen
shansen1@twcny.rr.com
Rome, NY
Okay I will try this again. I walked around that building for an hour. I asked some locals and they were like, ” I’ve never even noticed that!”
I will report back later.
Yeah I got nothin’ the 7th one is broken and everybody keeps hitting them any way.
I’ve been trying to figure out this riddle for years! But the 7th fin is still (always?) broken…
I’ve taken a series of ex-boyfriends and shown them the building, tried to figure it out. Came up with the same answers, yet, never the building nor the beau seemed to work. Hmmmmm, like a bad romantic comedy.
I tried it just recently with my family and also came to like your interpretation of the riddle’s solution better (my sister thought we should move ahead one fin first then move ahead three fins next). We pressed every fin on the building first to test to see if they all worked and they did, then tried your solution, it didn’t do anything. I was too tired to try my sisters so that may be it.
After considering this my friends and I would like to attempt begin at the fish restaurant and press pillar 1, then move 3, then move 5, then move 7, then move nine. From there we would reverse an move 8, then 6, the 4, and then 2. This would return us to the inscription and the “broken” pillar. We assume that the “broken” pillar will activate once the correct sequence is entered.
there are 36 pillers so there is part of the clue too you use them all.
If you do this you start and when you get to number 9 your back at the corner you started with.
I haven’t figured it out either…and I’ve lived here for five years! One day my husband and I will figure that out.
My dad, his girlfriend, her gf’s daughter and their grandmother came to visit, and I told them about the building. I had everyone touching the building…it was great!