Archinect - News

What to do about Italy’s fascist monuments? Contextualize them.

2023-02-27T18:01:00-05:00

After World War II, prompted by the Allies, Germany underwent an intense de-Nazification program. Not so Italy — there was no equivalent de-fascistization. The country is still filled with buildings and street names that evoke its 20-year dictatorship. By not challenging the history of these monuments, the memory of fascism has been smoothly integrated into the Italian present.

There are at least 1,400 monuments to the Fascist Mussolini regime spread throughout the country. The era's architectural legacy will, in lieu of full-blown removal, be placed in context according to the hopes of local historians and preservationists who say they want to fight back against the notion that fascism also ushered modern architecture into Italy.

This comes at a time when far-right politics are on the rise nationally. Many see parallels to the struggle of U.S. activists to remove Confederate Civil War monuments, which, unlike in Italy, were mostly the product of a bitter 30-year memory war between North and South.

Previously on Archinect: This small Italian town could be the answer to the debate surrounding monuments removal

A 2017 New Yorker essay from historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat outlined the contemporary causes succinctly:

“[W]hen Berlusconi brought the right-wing Italian Social Movement Party to power, his rehabilitation of Fascism was aided by an existing network of pilgr...

Rome's Colosseum is worth a cool $79 billion, according to Deloitte

2022-07-28T12:23:00-04:00

The real value of one of the world’s most well-recognized historic sites is now officially set after the global financial consultancy Deloitte published their assessment of Rome’s ancient Colosseum on Monday.

According to Deloitte, the nearly 2,000-year-old Flavian amphitheater is worth exactly $79 billion. Its estimate is derived principally from responses to a survey that begged Italians a variety of questions pertaining to the perception of the Colosseum, of which the overwhelming majority — $75 billion — was ascribed to “social value.”

Romans in the survey placed an outsize value ($91 over $57) compared to their countrymen when asked about the monetary amount they would contribute per year to ensure the preservation of the first-century relic. Around 87% said it was the most important monument in Italy. Some 70% think the entire world should be tasked with financing its ongoing upkeep, wh...

Communicating with landmarks: How architecture can amplify international support and solidarity with Ukrainians

2022-03-01T14:43:00-05:00

Coverage of Vladimir Putin's violent Ukraine invasion has flooded news and social media outlets since Thursday, February 24. Over the last few days, anti-war protestors around the globe have crowded city streets as they show support for Ukraine and its people.

Cities worldwide have echoed sentiments of solidarity and peace by illuminating public buildings and landmarks in Ukraine's national colors of blue and yellow. Yet, while many groups and organizations continue to send relief and aid, have we overlooked how architecture can be used to send messages of social and political expression? After all, architecture is political.

Delegation of the European Union to the United States building located in Washington, DC. Image courtesy of @EUintheUS via Twitter.

Take the recent writing of Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina Miranda. Posted on Monday evening, Miranda's perceptive take on President Zelensky's use of "architectural backdrops" shows the importance of how historic buildings, l...

Paul R. Williams' first LA home finally gains historic monument status

2022-02-17T14:31:00-05:00

Encouraging news for preservationists and Paul Revere Williams fans as local news outlets are reporting that the architect's first Los Angeles home, bought under the auspices of segregation, has now officially been named a Historic-Cultural Monument by the city's Cultural Heritage Commission.

The Jefferson Park home had been listed in early September for $1.6 million, prompting several local groups to petition commissioners for the designation which now gives the body the formal ability to delay any future demolition efforts for at least a year.

Williams bought the home in 1921 and used it as his principal residence until he moved to Lafayette Park in 1952. His move-in coincided with the opening of his Hollywood Masonic Temple. Commissioner Gail Kennard said the home‘s significance had more to do with the housing covenants that essentially forced the then 27-year-old architect into the neighborhood where he resided over a prolific output that yielded some of Los Angeles' most iconic...

UNESCO's new World Heritage chief says its time to expand Africa's standing on the list of endangered sites

2021-12-22T15:59:00-05:00

“Despite its vast size, sub-Saharan Africa has never been proportionately represented on Unesco’s world heritage list… Now, the first African to be made head of the world heritage centre has said that needs to change – and fast. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, a Cameroonian who led the reconstruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums after they were badly damaged in 2012 by Islamist fighters allied to al-Qaida, has said it will be a priority of his time in office.”

Africa is currently the least represented continent (behind the Arab nations) in terms of the representation of cultural sites on the U.N. list, though it does account for 30% of all sites the organization considers to be endangered.

Assomo was appointed as Director earlier this month and told The Guardian he plans to pursue an ambitious strategy that will both protect and enhance the status of important sites spread throughout what he called “the cradle of Humankind.”

“The training and capacity-building of heritage experts is an area where we will have to put more emphasis on in the future to help address this imbalance,” he said. “Africa is today on the frontline of the effect of climate change. This is also something which makes us believe that mobilizing our efforts for existing world heritage sites in Africa should be a priority.”

Confederate monuments at the center of deadly Charlottesville rally have been removed

2021-07-12T12:43:00-04:00

Charlottesville said in a news release that the equestrian statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as well as a nearby one of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson will be removed Saturday. Designated public viewing areas for the removals will be established in both parks where the statues are located, the news release said.

The city had been planning to take at least the Lee statue down since 2016, which in part prompted the deadly 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally. A number of laws and local ordinances had put the removal in question before a court ruling earlier this year ultimately cleared the way.

The statues were removed on Saturday after a last-minute announcement by the city. NPR has more on the planned removals herer.

Neutra Reunion House added to Los Angeles' list of Historic-Cultural Monuments

2021-06-11T18:43:00-04:00

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday added the Reunion House, by prominent modernist architect, Richard Neutra, to the city’s list of Historic-Cultural Monuments.

The hillside residence was built in 1950 and sits at 2440 Neutra Place in Silver Lake. It was built as a speculative house, designed to accommodate grandparents and visiting family members, hence the name Reunion.

The Neutra family bought the home in 1963, and in 1966, it was transferred to Richard’s son Dion who lived there until his death in 2019. Dion, also an accomplished architect, trained under his father starting at the age of 11. He studied at the USC School of Architecture, where he graduated in 1950. Neutra went on to work in his father’s firm, where the pair worked together through the 1950s. He became a partner of the practice in 1965 and led the company following his father’s death in 1970. Over decades, minor alterations were made on the house by both Richard and Dion. Most notably, Dion added an apart...

Remembering the built environment of segregated America

2020-12-07T13:22:00-05:00

Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

For the NYT, photojournalist Richard Frishman shares powerful images of sites, buildings, and places throughout the United States along with their almost forgotten, sometimes preserved, stories from America's segregated past.

"All human landscapes are embedded with cultural meaning," Frishman writes. "And since we rarely consider our constructions as evidence of our priorities, beliefs and behaviors, the testimonies our landscapes offer are more honest than many of the things we intentionally present."

Mellon Foundation announces $250M "Monuments Project" to reimagine the way history is told in the U.S.

2020-10-05T16:51:00-04:00

Today, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced a new five-year, $250 million grant effort called the "Monuments Project," which will "transform the way our country's histories are told in public spaces." Grants made under the new initiative will fall under three areas of activity:

Funding new monuments, memorials, or historic storytelling spaces
Contextualizing existing monuments or memorials through installations, research, and education
Relocating existing monuments or memorials

Created in response to the national outcry on racial and social injustice, the Foundation intends to "recalibrate the assumed center of our national narratives to include those who have often been denied historical recognition."

"Monuments, memorials, and other commemorative spaces convey both individual narratives and national values,” said Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander in a statement. “They shape the histories of who we are and influence ongoing discussion about which people in our socie...

Artist wants to transform Chicago dump site into sculpture garden for dismantled monuments

2020-07-13T11:48:00-04:00

Conceptual artist JB Daniel wants to transform a Chicago landfill site near the Calumet River into a sculpture park to house all of the toppled monuments from recent protests, reports The Art Newspaper.

The artist proposes the statues be installed in their topped states with their unoccupied pedestals nearby. According to The Art Newspaper, Daniel added that the park would educate visitors about the country's controversial past and would serve to inform future generations to come.

The Getty devotes $100 million to global “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” conservation initiative

2019-09-23T15:45:00-04:00

As a response to the race against time to preserve the world's ancient cultural heritage, The Getty recently announced an ambitious, $100 million initiative called “Ancient Worlds Now: A Future for the Past” that aims to promote a stronger understanding of global cultural heritage and its value to present and future society. Although activities related to the decade-long initiative are already underway, an official launch is scheduled for next summer.

Main objectives of the initiative include:

raising broad awareness of the threats to ancient heritage caused by development, economic pressures, mass tourism, political forces, climate change, and violent conflict;
creating effective conservation strategies and educational programs to engage audiences worldwide about the significance of protecting ancient sites;
and pursuing further research to strengthen understanding of the interconnections between ancient cultures.

“In an age of resurgent populism, sectarian violence, and climate ch...

Rome aims to protect national monuments and historic landmarks with strict tourist rules

2019-06-12T13:58:00-04:00

Authorities in the Italian capital have now enforced a slew of rules, updated from legislation drafted in 1946, as they seek to clamp down on uncouth behavior that has long been a source of frustration.

With a slew of visitors and tourists filling the streets of historic cities across the globe, it is no wonder authorities in the Italian capital are enforcing measures to help preserve Rome's cityscape. From "messy eating" and foot bathing near the Trevi Fountain to preserving historic staircases, these rules are set to reduce the level of transgressions happening within the city. "Bans on wheeled suitcases and buggies being dragged down historic staircases, walking around bare-chested, and pub crawls. The authorities are also taking aim at 'nuisance drunks' or people who sing on public transport, as well as those who wrap their mouths around the nozzles of the city's drinking fountains."

Visitor dipping head into Trevi Fountain. Image © Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

One specific measure with a permanent ban are for individuals dressing up as modern-day centurions. According to the Guardian, "men who dress up in tunics and leather breastplates, wielding plastic swords – and make money by posin...

Artists reimagine monuments celebrating the Confederacy

2018-08-17T16:02:00-04:00

After the tragedy, [a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va.] and another honoring Stonewall Jackson were shrouded, but only temporarily. Around the country, similar monuments have been removed. In some cases, only their pedestals remain. We asked artists to contemplate these markers of our country’s racist and violent history — the space they take up, physically and psychically — and imagine what should happen when they are gone.

Around the US many statues and monuments celebrating racism in our country's history have been removed, either partially or fully. The question currently remains on what we as a culture should do concerning the spaces these historical monuments inhabit[ed]. The New York Times asked artists to reimagine these spaces as possibilities for the future.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design proposed a spiraling structure around the remaining pedestal where a Robert E. Lee monument in New Orleans once stood. The design includes staining the pedestal with colors corresponding to the years of slavery, segregation, and inequity in US history.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Located atop the spiraling stairs is a glass sky room where participants are able to stand where the Confederate general's stat...

Will the Los Angeles Times Mirror Square complex become a historic monument?

2018-07-18T15:11:00-04:00

The 378-page recommendation report filed by a group of preservationists, including preservationist Richard Schave and architect and 20th century architectural historian Alan Hess, calls on the city to protect the three most iconic structures of the Los Angeles Times complex [...] Purely from a design perspective, preserving The Times complex — once known as Times Mirror Square — is a difficult proposition.

The Los Angeles Times complex consists of three iconic structures which preservationists are pushing to make historic monuments. There is the 1935 building by Gordon B. Kaufmann featuring “The Times” neon sign and the grand Globe Lobby, Rowland Crawford’s late moderne style Mirror Building built in 1948, and the luxe Times Mirror corporate headquarters designed by William Pereira in 1973. Old enough to be out of date but not enough to necessarily be revered as historic, these structures hang in limbo with an undermined fate in Los Angeles history.

Google's Open Heritage project applies cutting edge technology to architectural preservation

2018-04-30T15:43:00-04:00

Google provides open access to 3D digital archives of historic sites around the globe, which have been recorded by CyArk for preservation purposes. CyArk, a non profit organization founded in 2003, has been working to digitally record, archive, and share immersive sites with people online. Through 3D models, Street Views, and VR, viewers can experience these important sites in new and relevant ways. So far, the group has 26 sites that are digitally preserved and downloadable.

3D Laser Scan data cutaway of the interior of Tudor Place. Image: CyArk.

CyArk has recorded over 200 monuments on all 7 continents, while assisting other conservationists through engineering drawings and detailed maps. The data is archived using state of the art processes to ensure continued availability.

Syria Matters exhibition to document the destruction of country’s cultural heritage

2018-04-25T13:48:00-04:00

The destruction of Syria’s heritage over the past eight years is the subject of a significant show due to open at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha later this year. The exhibition, entitled Syria Matters (opens 23 November), aims to explore the country’s centuries-old “extraordinary cultural heritage” against the backdrop of the raging conflict that has seen the destruction of six Unesco world heritage sites under President Bashar al-Assad.

Ancient Syrian Ain Dara temple severely damaged in Turkish airstrike

2018-01-31T14:49:00-05:00

Much of the magnificent 3,000-year-old temple of Ain Dara, with its mysterious and massive footprints and a structure that provides clues for understanding the biblical temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, has been destroyed in a Turkish airstrike. [...] Photos and video from the Syrian Observatory and Hawar News confirm that more than half of the temple is gone, including many of the sculptures that ringed the site.

"The temple, one of the largest and most extensively ancient excavated structures in Syria," National Geographic reports, "is famous for its intricate stone sculptures of lions and sphinxes, and for its similarities to Solomon’s Temple—the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, said to have held the Ark of the Covenant."

International Criminal Court issues ruling in first case of cultural destruction as war crimes

2017-08-31T15:08:00-04:00

The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on 17 August, that an Islamic extremist caused €2.7m in damages when he destroyed shrines in Timbuktu, Mali, in 2012. This is the first time that the ICC has made a ruling solely on cultural destruction, setting an important precedent. [...] Islamic extremists used pickaxes and bulldozers to destroy nine mausoleums and the centuries-old door of the Sidi Yahya mosque, built during a golden age of Islam [...].

By ruling that "the destruction of the protected buildings has caused the suffering of people throughout Mali and the international community," the International Criminal Court in The Hague acknowledged the demolition of cultural heritage as a war crime — potentially treating recent acts of violence against historic sites in Palmyra and Mosul as such as well.

Montgomery, Alabama plans a memorial to the 4,000+ victims of lynchings throughout the U.S.

2017-08-21T18:08:00-04:00

Slated to open in 2018, the Memorial to Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama will seek to tell the truth. Six acres of land owned by the Equal Justice Initiative—the legal services nonprofit Stevenson founded in 1989—will memorialize the more than 4,000 victims of what Stevenson calls racial terror lynching in the American South between 1877 and 1950. A nearby museum will tell the history of slavery, lynching, segregation, and mass incarceration as a single narrative.

Designed by MASS Design Group—which has previously worked on the Kigali Genocide Memorial—the memorial stems from a comprehensive report on lynchings released in 2015 by the Equal Justice Initiative. The memorial will feature six-foot columns, each representing counties where lynchings took place. For each column, a duplicate will be placed in the surrounding courtyard and eventually relocated to their respective counties as they directly confront their part in this history.

Where should Confederate monuments go when, and if, they are taken down?

2017-08-17T16:40:00-04:00

“You can argue that any sculpture is art in some way, but it’s a loose argument,” Schoonmaker said Tuesday. “I don’t know that these statues are worthy of preservation as art objects so much as historical objects – made to preserve a lost cause, a lost war. They weren’t made with great artistic intent, but with political intent. And intent matters in this case.”

With the tragic events occurring in Charlottesville, much ink has been spilled over the topic of Confederate memorials: Should we keep them? Should we take them down? Is keeping them up a celebration of slavery and is taking them down erasing an important part of our past that we must face?

With so much attention given to the particular statue of Robert E. Lee that caused the alt-right to riot in Virginia, it might be a surprise that a number of confederate monuments have been taken down in recent years with much less bloodshed. In May, another statue of the Confederate general was hoisted away in New Orleans amongst a cheering crowd of onlookers and a number of cities across the country have had plans in the works to take down monuments commemorating leaders of the Confederacy. With the events that occurred over the weekend, many of these cities are looking to expedite the process—the Mayor of Baltimore even had all Confederate statues dismantled overnight.

This begs the question ...

Statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is taken down in New Orleans

2017-05-30T12:57:00-04:00

As many onlookers cheered Friday, a crane hoisted the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the top of a monument in New Orleans. It is the fourth, and final, Civil War-era landmark the city has removed since late April. The effort to remove New Orleans' monuments has been part of a nationwide debate over Confederate symbols, which some argue represent slavery and injustice and others say represent history and heritage.

On Friday, the final Civil War-era landmark in New Orleans, a statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, was taken down. This was the fourth, and final, Civil War monument that the city has removed since late April after voting in 2015 to remove the Confederate markers. Many have argued that landmarks, such as the now dislodged statue of Robert E. Lee, glorify historical figures and events that for many rightfully represent slavery and injustice. As the New Orleans Mayor explained in a private address, the historical markers "celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for...to literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our more prominent places—in honor—is an inaccurate recitation of our full past, is an affront to our present and it is a bad prescription for out future."

The four monuments that have been taken down over the past months will be stored and eventually relocated althou...

Palmyra recaptured from ISIS; first photos show level of destruction

2017-03-03T13:24:00-05:00

Syrian government troops have retaken Palmyra from Islamic State forces, with help from Russian air support, the Syrian army said in a statement on Thursday. Politicians in Russian welcomed the news as a triumph, as widely reported by the state’s media, but few details have emerged about the condition of the ancient site, where Isil has previously wreaked large-scale destruction. [...] Isil first took Palmyra in May 2015 and the extremist group destroyed a number of important monuments [...].

The Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities & Museums published an initial set of photos of the extent of destruction after ISIS troops had been driven out of Palmyra's archaeological sites on March 2, 2017.

↑ Roman Theater

↑ Tetrapylon

↑ Triumphal Arch (previously on Archinect)

↑ Palmyra Museum

All images via dgam.gov.sy under Creative Commons License.

Paris mayor announces €300M Eiffel Tower renovation

2017-01-16T13:05:00-05:00

The Eiffel Tower is to undergo a €300m, 15-year refurbishment, Paris’s mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday. [...] The planned refurbishment is intended to bolster the French capital’s bids to host another World’s Fair in 2025 and, before that, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games [...]. The project will be managed by the tower’s operator, the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a public service company wholly owned by the City Council.

The 15-year refurbishment of this most-visited monument anywhere in the world (the 127-year-old wrought iron structure has been operating at its maximum capacity of about 7 million visitors since 2003, according to Wikipedia) will take more than a few buckets of paint and also comprises the modernization of the elevators, viewing gallery, security and access facilities, as well as the light show systems.

ISIS militants retake ancient city of Palmyra

2016-12-12T15:09:00-05:00

ISIS forces have retaken the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, according to Syrian government media, the ISIS media wing and a human rights monitor. [...] ISIS first seized control of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in May 2015. Syrian government forces recaptured it in March this year. [...] ISIS demolished many of the city's ancient treasures, including the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph and the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin, as well as the Temple of Bel.

Palmyra previously in the Archinect news:

ISIS believed to have bulldozed 2,900-year-old Assyrian ziggurat in Nimrud, Iraq

2016-11-14T18:42:00-05:00

One of the tallest surviving structures from the ancient world has been totally destroyed by Isil extremists at Nimrud, the former capital of Assyria, which was captured by Iraqi government forces on 13 November. The ziggurat, which was nearly 2,900 years old, was obliterated. Only the largest Egyptian pyramids are higher than Middle Eastern ziggurats and central American step pyramids. [...] incidents represent “the worst damage that Isil has inflicted on Iraqi archaeology”.

An older satellite photo from August 31, 2016 shows the Ziggurat and Temple of Ishtar still intact. Image via ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives Facebook page.

International Criminal Court hears first case of cultural destruction as war crimes

2016-08-22T15:38:00-04:00

In the first case of its kind, the Islamic extremist Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi has today (22 August), pleaded guilty to war crimes for destroying historic monuments in the ancient city of Timbuktu in northern Mali. Al-Mahdi is accused of ordering the razing of nine mausoleums and the 15th-century Sidi Yahia mosque. It is the first time the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has heard a case about the demolition of cultural heritage.

Learn more about Timbuktu's outstanding value as a world heritage site on UNESCO's website.

Meet Hossein Amanat, the architect who designed Iran's most famous monument

2016-01-14T15:31:00-05:00

For 45 years, Iran's most famous modern monument, the Azadi (Freedom) Tower in Tehran, has been the backdrop to every major news story coming out of the country...Hossein Amanat was a rising star in Iran's architectural scene when, in 1966, he won a national competition to design the monument...Its historical pull, he believes, lies in the tower's evolution as a 'symbol of Iran'...that is both intensely Iranian and Islamic at the same time.