Archinect - News

List of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places for 2024 shows expanded 'collective idea of American history'

2024-05-01T18:31:00-04:00

The newly released list of the country’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2024 has been announced to include LA’s Little Tokyo district and the Walden Pond Reservation area in Massachusetts. The pair was joined by nine other sites in eight states, Morocco, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The full list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, includes:

Cindy Walker House, Mexia, Texas
Eatonville, Florida
Estate Whim Museum, Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, Athens, New York
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California
Minute Man National Historical Park, Walden, and nearby landmarks, Massachusetts
New Salem Baptist Church, Tams, West Virginia
Roosevelt High School, Gary, Indiana
Sitka Tlingit Clan Houses, Sitka, Alaska
Tangier American Legation, Tangier, Morocco
Wilderness Battlefield Area, Orange County, Virginia

Christopher Hawthorne previews the restoration of Philip Johnson's Brick House ahead of May reopening

2024-04-29T11:49:00-04:00

The reopening returns a certain architectural equilibrium to Johnson’s estate. The original paired structures, said Kirsten Reoch, who was named executive director of the Glass House campus last summer, “are two parts of a whole. Neither was conceived without the other. So the idea that we’ve been showing and interpreting half the story, it kind of blows your mind.”

The Glass House is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with a special Paper Log House installation from Shigeru Ban and other public programs through the end of December. Yale’s senior critic Christopher Hawthorne visits the New Canaan, Connecticut, campus for a preview and says, “Bringing visitors back to the Brick House, with its resolute insistence on privacy, is an opportunity to explore the relationship of its architecture to Johnson’s homosexuality,” as well as an opportunity to reexamine its designer’s fraught politics.

The restored Brick House (whose work was overseen by the National Trust’s Mark Stoner) reopens to the public this Thursday, May 2nd.

Shigeru Ban and the Cooper Union to exhibit Paper Log House at The Glass House's 75th anniversary

2024-02-05T19:37:00-05:00

Shigeru Ban Architects have announced a special project that will help commemorate the 75th anniversary of the realization of Philip Johnson’s soon-to-be restored Brick House, the smaller outbuilding included at the site of the landmarked Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The firm made public its plans for a collaborative design-build with students from The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, via LinkedIn.

The project will be enacted on the Glass House grounds beginning April 15 and extending to the 15th of December of this year for public exhibition. On display will be the same Paper Log House prototype Ban and his Voluntary Architects’ Network have deployed recently in Turkey, Morocco, Japan, and Ukraine. Ban says his team will work with a group of 36 students to realize the prototype, marking its first North American installation in six years.

Johnson of cou...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund: Another $4 million will go toward preserving Black churches

2024-02-02T12:20:00-05:00

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced another round of funding totaling $4 million that will be put towards preserving Black churches in 22 states across the country.

The program’s second round of funding for the two-year-old Preserving Black Churches initiative will help maintain the legacies of 31 churches.

Black churches in the United States are at the center of the country's lifelong fight for democratic reforms and are a key character in the story of African American's survival and resilience in America. As the historian and advisor to the Action Fund, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., explained, “Black churches have been at the forefront of meaningful democratic reform since this nation’s founding. They’re a living testament to the resilience of our ancestors in the face of unimaginably daunting challenges.”

“The heart of our spiritual world is the Black church. These places of worship, these sacred cultural ...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announces $3.8 million in 2023 grants to preserve 40 historic sites

2023-06-13T17:43:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced $3.8 million in 2023 grant funding to protect and preserve 40 sites representing African American history. Established in 2017, the Action Fund, which has raised more than $95 million, is the largest U.S. fund dedicated to preserving historic African American sites.

Since its inception, the Action Fund has received a total of 5,638 funding proposals requesting $655 million. The program has been able to support 242 grantee projects through its investment of $20 million.

2023 grant site: Morgan State University’s Jenkins Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Troy Pumphrey Jr., image courtesy National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“The Action Fund’s investment in and celebration of 40 historic African American places illustrates our belief that historic preservation plays an important role in American society,” said Brent Leggs, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund exe...

National Trust for Historic Preservation names America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023

2023-05-09T18:07:00-04:00

One significant theme of the 2023 list is how multicultural communities that grew in parallel with a specific place now face cultural erasure—the gradual disappearance of community landmarks that help tell the story of those who’ve called a place home, along with the loss of treasured local businesses, restaurants, customs, and traditions.

The 2023 list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, includes:

Osterman Gas Station, Peach Springs, Arizona
Little Santo Domingo, Miami, Florida
Pierce Chapel African Cemetery, Midland, Georgia
Century and Consumers Buildings, Chicago, Illinois
West Bank of St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
Holy Aid and Comfort Spiritual Church, New Orleans, Louisiana
L.V. Hull Home and Studio, Kosciusko, Mississippi
Henry Ossawa Tanner House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Chinatown, Pennsylvania
Charleston’s Historic Neighborhoods, South Carolina
Seattle Chinatown-International District, Washington

New $3.1 million Conserving Black Modernism grant program announced by the Getty Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation

2022-09-19T14:37:00-04:00

The Getty Foundation together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced the commitment of $3.1 million in the form of institutional grants to individuals and organizations that are working to preserve the legacy of historic modern architecture designed by Black architects nationwide.

Under the title Conserving Black Modernism, the two-year grant program, part of a larger $80 million effort overseen by the Action Fund, will support the documentation of 16 overlooked sites across the country while providing useful preservation training and storytelling resources to their future stewards.

The Getty says they are remiss at not including any works by one of America’s many underappreciated Black designers in its otherwise successful Keeping It Modern initiative and will look to address this absence with a new program that helps enshrine their contributions to what became the most defining architectural movement of the ...

Heatherwick Studio's new kinetic Glasshouse opens its petals to the English countryside

2022-06-28T12:14:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has unveiled a new small greenhouse project for the National Trust’s historic Woolbeding Gardens estate in West Sussex, England.

Taking the form of a sheltering flower bud, the structure comprises ten steel ‘sepals’ operated by a hydraulic mechanism that takes about four minutes to open. Its 141-square-meter (1,517-square-foot) interior contains a variety of subtropical Chinese flora and is surrounded by a new Silk Route Garden, which invites visitors on a 12-step journey through each of the trade corridor’s different geographic regions.

Image © Hufton+Crow

The studio says it was inspired by Victorian-era terrariums, and the structure took a total of six years to develop. The project was commissioned by the estate’s longtime owner, Stewart Grimshaw, who, along with his partner, Sainsbury’s heir Simon Sainsbury, had previously inaugurated sculptural interventions by William Pye and Philip Jebb into their sprawling 1,100-acre gardens, which former British Prime Mini...

The 2022 list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places showcases the country's diverse yet troubled cultural tapestry

2022-05-04T12:57:00-04:00

The eleven sites on the 2022 list represent a powerful illustration of expansive American history. The wide range of cultures, histories, and geographies highlighted through the 2022 list help illustrate how telling the full story can help each person see themselves reflected in our country’s multi-layered past.

The 2022 list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, includes:

Brown Chapel AME Church, Selma, Alabama
Camp Naco, Naco, Arizona
Chicano/a/x Community Murals of Colorado
The Deborah Chapel, Hartford, Connecticut
Francisco Q. Sanchez Elementary School, Humåtak, Guam
Minidoka National Historic Site, Jerome, Idaho
Picture Cave, Warren County, Missouri
Brooks-Park Home and Studios, East Hampton, New York
Palmer Memorial Institute, Sedalia, North Carolina
Olivewood Cemetery, Houston, Texas
Jamestown, Virginia

Edith Farnsworth House: Name change emphasizes Farnsworth’s role in creating an American masterpiece

2021-10-19T12:38:00-04:00

As part of the house’s 70th-anniversary celebration next month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced that the iconic Farnsworth House will be renamed the Edith Farnsworth House in order to better recognize the cultural and architectural contributions of its namesake, Dr. Edith Farnsworth.

The name change coincides with the trust’s “Where Women Made History” campaign, which now recognizes Farnsworth for her rightful place as a doyenne of American high culture.

Edith Farnsworth (left) and Beth Dunlap, 1951. Image © William Dunlap

According to a press release: “Ahead of her time in the post-World War II era, Edith Farnsworth lived an independent life of cultural and intellectual exploration and discovery. For decades, her story, as well as her pivotal role in the creation of this landmark, has not received the prominence it deserves.”

Image © Edith Farnsworth Papers, The Newberry Library

Ever the bon vivant, Farnsworth’s eye for artistic talent lead her to Mies van ...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund: More than $3 million in grants to sites and organizations announced

2021-08-24T19:29:00-04:00

On July 15, 2021, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced more than $3 million in grants to 40 sites and organizations through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Over the past four years, the National Trust has funded 105 historic places connected to Black history and invested more than $7.3 million to help preserve landscapes and buildings imbued with Black life, humanity, and cultural heritage.

Grants were awarded across four categories: capacity building, project planning, capital, and programming and interpretation. Grantees include the Oakland Public Library, City of Sacramento, Indiana Landmarks, African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, Save Harlem Now!, and Huston-Tillotson University.

Since the inception of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in 2016, the effort has accumulated $50 million in funding, making it the largest preservation effort ever undertaken to support African American historic sites. This year’s announcement marks the largest single disbursement in the fund’s four-year history, made possible by a $20 million grant to the Action Fund by philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

The full list of African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund grantees can be seen here.

Previously on Archinect: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund receives $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott as part of a $2.7 billion over...

Architect and academic Sara Bronin announced as Biden's nominee for Advisory Council on Historic Preservation chair

2021-06-29T13:40:00-04:00

A new nominee for chairman of the White House’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation has been named this week, placing a community activist and architect into a position of influence that had been only a part-time role until 2016.

The Hartford Courant is reporting that Sara Bronin has been nominated by President Biden as the next chair of the 55-year-old council. Bronin is already an advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and has been featured recently in Archinect for her ongoing efforts surrounding housing segregation in Connecticut. If confirmed, she will join Wayne Donaldson and Trump appointee Aimee Jorjani on a list of others to helm the council in the past decade.

A White House press release cited Bronin’s academic background and public service record as the reasons behind her nomination, stating that her work “focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places.”

Related on Archinect: Biden admini...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund receives $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott as part of a $2.7 billion overall gift

2021-06-21T17:25:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has been awarded a $20 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in an unprecedented move that will nearly double the amount of funding the organization has received since its inception in 2017.

Scott’s grant was announced in a Medium post she authored, which outlines some of her motivations for supporting causes with a progressive social agenda.

The donation is part of a larger $2.7 billion gift Scott and husband Dan Jewett gave to a variety of arts organizations with a focus on African diasporic cultural concerns, including the Souls Grow Deep Foundation and the Studio Museum in Harlem, which is currently undergoing a radical transformation at the hands of Adjaye Associates.

Holmes Hall at Morgan State University. Image courtesy Baltimore Heritage.

The money will allow the fund to pursue its stated goals of promoting a “national identity that reflects the nation’s true diversity...

National Trust for Historic Preservation: "Removal of Confederate monuments from public places is justified"

2020-06-18T17:32:00-04:00

In the weeks since nationwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have erupted, dozens of monuments and statues celebrating the confederacy, Christopher Columbus, and other anti-Black and anti-Indigenous individuals and groups have been toppled across the country and around the world.

Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has issued a statement in support of these removal efforts, highlighting the fact that these monuments were originally erected "to glorify, promote, and reinforce white supremacy, overtly or implicitly."

Previously on Archinect: "AIA, NOMA, and other organizations issue statements of solidarity with Black community." Image credit and courtesy of Wikimedia user Rosa Pineda.

The statement, one of several issued by the organization since the protests got underway, argues that the appropriateness of these monuments is no longer in question and that they should be removed to allow for their proper study and understanding in contexts outs...

AIA, NOMA, and other organizations issue statements of solidarity with Black community

2020-06-01T15:02:00-04:00

Over the weekend as courthouses, monuments, business districts, and public spaces around the country became backdrops to fierce protests seeking justice for the killings of Minneapolis resident George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police, a collection of architecture, design, and built environment groups issued memos commenting on the volatile situation.

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) published a statement from AIA 2020 President Jane Frederick calling for "universal respect and human dignity" in the face of racial injustice.

Frederick wrote:

"As Americans, we are mindful of this nation’s dark history of racial inequality. We are appalled by any actions that further threaten the universal respect and human dignity that everyone deserves. As architects, we remain committed to advancing civil rights protections, fair housing policies, and accessibility in the built world to help achieve the more perfect union we all see...

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, NOMA, and ASLA officially oppose Trump's efforts to "censor" modern architecture

2020-02-06T13:14:00-05:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), Docomomo US, and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) have joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in voicing deep opposition to a proposed executive order under consideration by President Donald Trump that would mandate classical architectural styles for federal buildings.

Major architecture groups align against Trump's Executive Order

The cascading statements come as the draft text of the statement is published by major media outlets.

In a statement posted to the National Trust website, for example, the group writes: "While the National Trust values -- and protects -- traditional and classical buildings throughout the country, to censor and stifle the full record of American architecture by requiring federal buildings to be designed, and even altered, to comply with a narrow list of styles determined by...

Efforts to recognize African American historic sites are taking flight across the country

2020-01-28T12:30:00-05:00

Since its founding, the National Register of Historic Places has helped to generate an estimated two million jobs and more than a hundred billion dollars in private investments. But, because many biases were written into the criteria that determine how sites are selected, those benefits have gone mostly to white Americans. One of the criteria for preservation is architectural significance, meaning that modest buildings like slave cabins and tenement houses were long excluded from consideration.

Writing in The New Yorker, Casey Cep profiles Brent Leggs, director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The lengthy, eye-opening report delves into the work of preservationists like Leggs who are fighting to uncover, highlight, and preserve a vast but under-acknowledged collection of vital African American sites, structures, and spaces across the United States. That includes growing rosters of African American burial grounds, Historic Black Colleges and Universities, and collections of private homes and other sites once occupied by African American communities.

Expanded federal grants seek to preserve a more inclusive selection of built heritage

2019-11-07T20:13:00-05:00

The National Trust and its partners have led advocacy efforts to increase funding for five competitive grant programs: the African American Civil Rights Grant Program, the Underrepresented Community Grant Program, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Grant Program, Save America’s Treasures, and the Historic Revitalization Subgrant Program. In total, these competitive grant programs received $41 million in FY 2019.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation breaks down some of the recently expanded funding opportunities that have taken shape at the federal level earmarked for the preservation of diverse and inclusive built heritage.

Highlighted programs include the African American Civil Rights Grant Program, Underrepresented Community Grant Program, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Grant Program, Save America’s Treasures program, and the Historic Revitalization Subgrant Program.

Applications for these funds are available through the federal government via the above links.

Fight to save one of the few remaining, intact, and occupied “Freedman's Town” in the nation picks up steam in Dallas

2019-08-19T14:00:00-04:00

On August 14, 2019, the Dallas City Council unanimously approved a resolution that temporarily halts the use of public funds on any further demolitions in Tenth Street—an important move given that to date, at least 70 of the district’s 260 homes have been demolished. Thanks to a broad-based coalition effort bolstered by the media attention of the 11 Most listing, this vote removes the immediate threat to the neighborhood and helps advance the cause.

National Trust for Historic Preservation forwards the preservation of African American cultural sites

2019-07-08T20:00:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has unveiled $1.6 million in grant funding dedicated to preserving historical sites that demonstrate significance with relation to Black history and African American cultural heritage from around the country.

The funding, part of a larger, multi-year $25 million effort, is being awarded to 22 organizations with the goal of "uplifting the largely overlooked contributions of African Americans by protecting and restoring African American historic sites and uncovering hidden stories of African Americans connected to historic sites across the nation," according to a press release.

The list includes, for example, the Museum of African American History in Boston, an organization that is housed within a building designed by British architect Richard Upjohn in 1835. The building exists today as the oldest extant Black church in the United States and, when originally built, made up the first public educational facility for free Black children in B...

Eight Frank Lloyd Wright works recognized by UNESCO

2019-07-08T10:45:00-04:00

Eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Prairie style masterpiece of the Robie House in Chicago and the bold concrete structure of Unity Temple in Oak Park, were named Sunday to the United Nations’ list of the world’s most significant cultural and natural sites.

As architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune Blair Kamin writes, American Modernism is finally getting its due, at least, in the eyes of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has named a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures to its World Heritage Sites list.

According to Kamin, “the Wright structures are the first works of U.S. modern architecture to make the prestigious list.”

The highlighted works include:

Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois (1909).
The Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago (1910).
The Taliesin complex in Spring Green, Wisconsin (begun in 1911).
The Hollyhock House in Los Angeles (1921).
Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1939).
The Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin (1937)
The Taliesin West complex in Scottsdale, Arizona (begun in 1938).
The Guggenheim Museum in New York City (1959).

As Historically Black Colleges and Universities shutter, America loses its history

2019-07-03T09:48:00-04:00

For nearly 200 years, since the opening of Pennsylvania’s Cheyney University in 1837, H.B.C.U.s have educated thousands of students, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Thurgood Marshall, Toni Morrison, Representative Elijah Cummings and Senator Kamala Harris. But from a high of 120 such schools to about 101 in 2019, many have faced an uncertain future. In the last 20 years, six have closed, and several others remain open in name only after losing accreditation.

A recent New York Times report chronicles the increasing pace of financial woes and accreditation hurdles facing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the United States.

The report states that in the last 20 years, six HBCUs have shuttered, leaving only 101 of these culturally and historically significant institutions in operation.

At their height, at least 120 HBCUs were in operation across the United States, providing a vital source of educational opportunity for Black Americans, including in architecture.

According to The New York Times, a variety of leading political and cultural figures graduated from HBCUs, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, author Toni Morrison, Representative Elijah Cummings, and Senator Kamala Harris, among many others.

The remnants of Morristown College, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and shuttered in 1994. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Bravidos.

At leas...

National Trust for Historic Preservation names new CEO

2019-06-24T19:51:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has named preservation lawyer and National Trust chief legal officer Paul Edmondson as its new CEO.

In a statement announcing Edmondson's selection, Timothy Whalen, chair of the National Trust Board of Trustees, writes, "Through the search, the Trust’s Board identified Paul as the person who, owing to his experience, his lifelong commitment to preservation, and his integrity, is perfectly suited to lead the National Trust. The Board embraces him with great enthusiasm and complete unanimity."

Edmondson's experience with the National Trust includes fighting to strengthen the enforcement and interpretation of preservation law, including a campaign to remove a large power transmission line from the James River near Jamestown, Virginia. Edmondson has also advocated for protecting archeological and cultural resources on public lands, like those located at the Bears Ears National Monument. Over the years, Edmondson has worked to improve the Nat...

Postmodern building named to "11 most endangered" list for the first time

2019-05-30T13:59:00-04:00

In a sign of the rising concern over the future of postmodern architecture in the American preservation community, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the 34-year-old Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to its annual “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” list.

In making the cut, the 17-story Illinois state government building becomes the first work of postmodern architecture named to the influential list.

Exterior view of the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago, Photo courtesy Landmarks Illinois

The orange and blue-tinted glass and steel building opened in 1985 as a rebuke to a then-dominant modernist architecture ideology that called for austere and aseptic expanses of curtain walled glass for office buildings. Designed with sloped exterior glazing and a base marked by a perimeter arcade accented with alternating colored panels, the building presents a degree of consideration for the public that challenged the conventional notions of...

List of America's Most Endangered Historic Places for 2018 includes Route 66, civil rights monuments, and hurricane-damaged heritage

2018-06-26T20:26:00-04:00

America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is an annual list that spotlights important examples of our nation’s architectural and cultural heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. [...] The National Trust’s 31st annual list includes a diverse mix of historic places across America facing a range of challenges and threats, from deferred maintenance to inappropriate development proposals to devastation wrought by natural disasters.

The 2018 List of America's Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, comprises:

Annapolis’ City Dock Area, Annapolis, Maryland
Ashley River Historic District, Charleston, South Carolina
Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte Memorial Hospital, Omaha Indian Reservation, Nebraska
Hurricane-Damaged Historic Resources, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
Isaiah T. Montgomery House, Mound Bayou, Mississippi
Larimer Square, Denver, Colorado
Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Mount Vernon and Piscataway National Park, Mount Vernon, Virginia, and Accokeek, Maryland
Route 66, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California
Ship on the Desert, Salt Flat, Texas
Walkout Schools of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Watch Status Site: Four Towns of Vermont's Upper Valley
Royalton, Sharon, Trafford, and Tunbridge, Vermont

National Trust to show the beauty of Croydon

2016-07-08T03:27:00-04:00

Bowie hated it. Peep Show besmirched it. The London suburb may get a bad rap in popular culture, but now there is the chance to see a different side. [...] Watson is helping to organise tours of Croydon taking in architectural highlights such as NLA House (now No 1 Croydon), sometimes known as the ‘threepenny bit’; [...] The National Trust is turning to Croydon after its successful tours of London’s brutalist concrete buildings, places it argues should be cherished as much as Croydon’s towers.

New list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places keeps fragile memories alive

2015-06-25T19:15:00-04:00

This year’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is our most diverse list ever. Several of the places on the 2015 list focus on chapters in our history that have sometimes been overlooked, reinforcing the message that preserving the full American experience means everyone has a seat at the table and that all voices are heard.

The 2015 List of America's Most Endangered Historic Places, compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, comprises:

A.G. Gaston Motel, Alabama
Carrollton Courthouse, Louisiana
Chautauqua Amphitheater, New York
East Point Historic Civic Block, Georgia
Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Little Havana, Florida
Oak Flat, Arizona
Old U.S. Mint, California
South Street Seaport, New York
The Factory, California

View from the Farnsworth House may soon be a lot drier

2015-06-19T20:13:00-04:00

"The river was part of its immediate environment. To move it to higher ground where it never floods would be ridiculous. You would ask: 'Why is it on stilts?' It makes no sense to me."

All along, Mies van der Rohe's iconic design for the retreat of Dr. Edith Farnsworth was intended to withstand floodwaters, but in the past 19 years, the house has flooded three times, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. These incidents were partially blamed on rapid suburban development nearby, for bringing more water into the Fox River.

So as a protective measure, the house's owner, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is considering a few drastic alternatives for how to proceed – most notably moving the house entirely to another, higher spot on Farnsworth's 62-acre property. The other options include lifting the house on hydraulic stilts, or reorienting it on top of a "9-foot mound at its original site". An advisory committee, including Chicago architect and grandson of Mies, Dirk Lohan (quoted above), is discussing the options with the Trust today.

The Trust alone can't make the final call – Landmarks Illinois, a group of historic preservation advocates, ...