mapa member Jose B. is currently trying to collect a few things, including a brief bio, from each of the charrette participants. mapa will use this information for the upcoming online exhibition of the charrette submissions. we appreciate your help assembling the needed content.
"Main Street Modern, United States, once symbolizing ideals of progress and democracy, and the forward-looking philosophy of the post-War era, the civic buildings of American towns—libraries, schools, town halls—were designed in the Modern style. Now perceived as out-dated or even old-fashioned, these buildings are being demolished at an alarming rate, putting an entire corpus of important architecture in America at risk of disappearing."
I wrote little amicable note to both the Library Board, and to John Gallagher (local arch. critic) sharing the inclusion of the Library in the Most Endangered Sites for 2008. That type of publicity is capable of making people take notice.
i think the only thing that annoys me about this is if the effort on behalf of many of you here goes unnoticed. at the very least some recognition by the AIA, Grosse Point or the AIAMI is warranted.
it's a little misstated that designlab was the "winner" of an international design charrette. after the mapa charrette which designlab didn't participate in, the project went out as a standard rfq, and designlab was selected by the library board to proceed with the design, but in general, i'm glad they have the project up on their website. sadly, it appears the project will not happen. i have heard no news on the project in over a year.
jafidler, i am glad you have more on the library project. i too am glad they got it, my point was that there was a good amount of effort put in by a lot of people here, and i want them to be recognized for doing that, and saving the building from demolition or poorly conceived addition.
just as an aside, it really was mapa that was responsible for raising community interest and influencing the library board to explore preservation options for the breuer building. aia detroit and aia michigan were frustratingly silent while this was all taking place, in my opinion, primarily in an effort not to step on the toes of the architect designing the new structure rather than acting in the best interests of the community, but that's just me venting.
mapa also put together a list of potential architects the board should consider AND called those architects to make sure they knew about the project. designlab were among our list...
the images look great. may happen someday. this isn't the time, obviously.
SAVE ME! Grosse Pointe Central Library, designed by Marcel Breuer (1953) - slated for demolition
You 've forgatten Rem Koolhaas endorsment..
An update regarding this effort is forthcoming.
Please refrain from off topic posts. Thanks.
Episode 1 of 3 part mini-series on the Grosse Pointe Central Library and the efforts of mapa will be launched today. Stay tuned.
Part 1 is now live - Virtual Activism
Kudos to everyone involved in this initiative!
Attention charrette participants:
mapa member Jose B. is currently trying to collect a few things, including a brief bio, from each of the charrette participants. mapa will use this information for the upcoming online exhibition of the charrette submissions. we appreciate your help assembling the needed content.
the news is that the Breuer Library has made the World Monuments Fund watchlist for 2008. Many thanks to those who crafted the appeal to WMF!
from the watchlist:
"Main Street Modern, United States, once symbolizing ideals of progress and democracy, and the forward-looking philosophy of the post-War era, the civic buildings of American towns—libraries, schools, town halls—were designed in the Modern style. Now perceived as out-dated or even old-fashioned, these buildings are being demolished at an alarming rate, putting an entire corpus of important architecture in America at risk of disappearing."
I wrote little amicable note to both the Library Board, and to John Gallagher (local arch. critic) sharing the inclusion of the Library in the Most Endangered Sites for 2008. That type of publicity is capable of making people take notice.
was anyone aware of this?
i think the only thing that annoys me about this is if the effort on behalf of many of you here goes unnoticed. at the very least some recognition by the AIA, Grosse Point or the AIAMI is warranted.
it's a little misstated that designlab was the "winner" of an international design charrette. after the mapa charrette which designlab didn't participate in, the project went out as a standard rfq, and designlab was selected by the library board to proceed with the design, but in general, i'm glad they have the project up on their website. sadly, it appears the project will not happen. i have heard no news on the project in over a year.
jafidler, i am glad you have more on the library project. i too am glad they got it, my point was that there was a good amount of effort put in by a lot of people here, and i want them to be recognized for doing that, and saving the building from demolition or poorly conceived addition.
just as an aside, it really was mapa that was responsible for raising community interest and influencing the library board to explore preservation options for the breuer building. aia detroit and aia michigan were frustratingly silent while this was all taking place, in my opinion, primarily in an effort not to step on the toes of the architect designing the new structure rather than acting in the best interests of the community, but that's just me venting.
mapa also put together a list of potential architects the board should consider AND called those architects to make sure they knew about the project. designlab were among our list...
the images look great. may happen someday. this isn't the time, obviously.
Wow. I am madly in love with that rendering style! They look so cool, but so approachable.
The design is good too.
what do you s'pose they did with the parking? did it look like the across-the-street deal was going to work out?
the Boston's designlab link by b3ta made my antivirus go mad about a trojan.
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