Archinect - News

Richard Rogers’ Channel 4 headquarters gains Grade II-listed status in London

2023-04-03T11:58:00-04:00

Following an advocacy campaign by Historic England, the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently granted Grade II-listed status to Richard Rogers Partnership’s 1994 Channel 4 headquarters building in Westminster, London, answering some concerns as to its future after the property was targeted for a private sell-off by the struggling broadcaster just last year.

The group’s official entry praised it as a demonstrative and highly sophisticated design that displayed all the key elements of the High-Tech movement while functioning rather seamlessly as the flexible first home of the country’s high-brow intellectual mainstay.

The Channel 4 Building, 124-126 Horseferry Road, London © Historic England Archive DP434074

Historic England cited this status also in terms of its cultural significance, emphasizing its early-90s commissioning came on the heels of Rogers’ seminal Lloyd’s Building and stating that it was one of the “most significant” UK projects of the Italian-born Briti...

Kurt Cobain's childhood home is now a historic landmark in Washington State

2021-08-04T17:18:00-04:00

The one-and-a-half story house on 1210 E. First St. has been added to the state’s list of landmarks because it “is directly connected to specific activities or events which had a lasting impact on the community or region,” according to the Washington Heritage Register.

The Cobain house will now avoid the fate of Jimi Hendrix' childhood home two hours away in Seattle. Cobain made Aberdeen, WA a bit of a household name for 90s pop culture followers. The town has since named a park in his honor after declining to do so for an area bridge the future Nirvana frontman was supposed to have slept under before his rise to fame and which is now a magnet for grunge fans and Cobain-inspired graffiti.

Cobain's mother eventually sold the home for a reduced price after originally putting it on the market in 2013. The home was bought by a lighting designer and will soon begin accepting visitors following a brief renovation. Rolling Stone has more on the state's designation here.

A landmark designation effort backfires in the push to save one historic Los Angeles restaurant from the wrecking ball

2021-06-18T13:23:00-04:00

LA's famed Taix Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard made headlines earlier this month after a strange ruling by the City Council to designate only certain elements of the century-old establishment a historic landmark in an unprecedented move that could have ramifications for preservation efforts in Los Angeles and across the country for years to come.

The LA Times is reporting that efforts to save Taix from an encroaching redevelopment scheme culminated in a unanimous decision to limit the designation to the restaurant’s signage and cherrywood-topped bar.

The decision is unlike any other in recent history in that it eschews almost the entirety of the Norman Revival building in favor of a plan that recognizes only non-structural components as historic landmarks. By limiting the designations to the bar and advertising, critics say Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell has created a dangerous standard that can be abused by development-hungry business interests where the opportunit...

Los Angeles landmarks first Corporate Modern downtown skyscraper

2020-02-27T14:03:00-05:00

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to support a Historic Cultural Monument (HCM) application for the Union Bank Square complex in Downtown Los Angeles.

The designation makes the 40-story office tower, designed by New York City architects Harrison & Abramovitz in conjunction with A.C. Martin & Associates in 1967, the first downtown skyscraper in the city to receive this rarefied designation. The tower complex features a 2.25-acre tree-filled plaza at its base that is situated above a retail and parking plinth. The plaza is designed by Garrett Eckbo of Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams, one of the most prominent landscape architects of the post-World War II era.

Union Bank Plaza Tower in Los Angeles. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine / courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Harrison & Abramovitz built widely around the country, as well, especially in New York City; Among the most famous works of the firm are the former Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the Corning Museum of Glas...

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).

The Vanna Venturi house becomes an official historic place

2016-11-15T15:27:00-05:00

After being proposed for addition to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places last year, the iconic Vanna Venturi House has officially joined the list after being voted in by the Philadelphia Historical Commission on November 10th. According to PlanPhilly:

"After a nomination first heard last December, Vanna Venturi House was added to the register with universal glee, although the case dragged on for about thirty minutes as the new owner—who had purchased it to preserve it—quizzed the commission on exactly what they meant by the word 'property' and whether modifications to the grounds would be allowed."

For more on all things Venturi:

When 'Frank Lloyd Wright' and 'historic designation' are holding back your home’s value, what’s a seller to do?

2016-08-09T18:23:00-04:00

Richard Herber, owner of the [Frank Lloyd Wright-designed] home at 3901 N. Washington Road, said he wanted the [historic] distinction pulled because he wanted to sell the house for the best price. Getting the property off the historic list was the only way to “cast a wider net to the widest number of people,” he said. [...] Not everybody is a candidate for buying a home that’s historic, ... but those who are know exactly what they’re doing.

More on the sticky business of historic preservation: