did you think it was a good op-ed, though? i have yet to hear someone articulate the 'why' in why it's an aesthetic achievement. simply pointing to how many times its been published or been 'recognized' isn't going to move the buckhead crowd. i think the larger problem in atlanta (as elsewhere) is that we've removed any ability to talk about aesthetics from our daily experience that too many people can say 'i like ben carter's complex more than THAT.' no one is presenting a cogent, concise defense for 'why' its aesthetically important in and of itself. forget trying to argue it contributes to a more 'culturally vibrant' neighborhood. there's too much money involved to make that a relevant factor.
i've heard too much over the past week that makes me think this is a done deal. for all those in town and interested, there is a protest rally scheduled for 11am on saturday, at the library. the organizers would like people to park on the street (instead of in the library) to emphasize the numbers. the fulton county library is supposed to vote on the sale in their meeting on the 27th of this month.
here's what pisses me off and i would hope the architectural community takes up, if this is indeed a lost cause: what's frustrating isn't that they are selling a public property - that happens all the time. what frustrates me is that the library seems perfectly willing to give up a valuable community asset (and one that has artistic merit to boot) without any realistic plan about how to replace it. there's no accountability with what to do next.
i'd propose, at a minimum, that the aia and the architectural community request the following as conditions for the sale of the library:
1. identify and put under option a replacement property, within the same basic location to serve the existing community. it should be within walking distance (1/2 mi.) of the existing library, near public transport (bus), and not be a marginal property located on the periphery of the 'new' buckhead.
2. the library board should commit to using all monies from the sale of the existing library on a new facility. no money should be allowed to be diverted to other facilities or to the general county coffers. this should be agreed to, in writing, by the fulton county commission.
3. the library board should affirm their commitment to creating a new library of an equal architectural character or merit. this could be accomplished by:
a. establishing a competition to select a new architect. the board could invite a select number of firms or it could be an open, 2 stage international competition.
b. whittle the number of qualified contenders down to 5. pay each of them a reasonable sum to develop their schemes (this is the second stage). have each present their schemes in a public forum. allow the public vote to be counted as one additional vote when the library board votes on a final winner.
the money would work -
devote 4 mil to acquiring a 2 acre property.
keep a 30,000sf facility @ 500/sf (15 mil) (includes site dev. costs)
ffe @ 1.25 mil.
design fees, testing, etc - 2 mil
moving, storage, etc. - 500k.
competition - 600k
total: 23.35mil. keep the rest in for all the miscellaneous stuff (owners rep, lawyers, etc.)
it would work and, at the very least, you'd get something from it in the end. the public process would (hopefully) be open, interesting, and engage the peeps at large about the merits of design. what i'm afraid is that the arch. community will take a preserve it only option and is going to go away if the up/down vote goes down. a more productive strategy is to hold the public officials accountable for their actions and to get the most you can if it's a fait acompli....
Also, if you live in the Atlanta area there are two events you can participate in:
The Save the Library Forum is this Thursday (Feb. 21) at 6:00-8:00pm at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, Auditorium, East Architecture Building.
A sidewalk protest is Saturday (Feb. 23) at the library, 269 Buckhead Avenue at 11 am.
Nice post laru. Hope you have a nice big sign with those financials on it at the rally. Delegate someone else to survey the crowd for aesthetic arguments... but I think the pragmatics and rationality of the second half of your post makes the stronger argument.
It's just amazing that a city council can vote counter to the advice of the committee for the saving of a building that, at the very least, is humorous, delightful or maybe just interesting, and the county commission in Fulton County where the Buckhead Libray sits is willing to give up nearly every aspect that belongs to the public: the land, the building, the view, the security/access, and the vision to a private developer.
It pisses me off.
Save the Buckhead Library and save the Denny's. I cheer whenever elected officials stand up for the public in the face of big developers.
This story is a shame. If anything though, its a good look at the devide between what the public wants, and what we (designers) think they should want.
I spent the last 3 years studying architecture in a Scogin/Elam building and it was a very interesting experience. Not the warmest building, and is usually only interested in entertaining those who pay attention to it. Because that doesnt include most people, im not surprised most dont have a problem getting rid of it. psh, the collective...geez
I was at the small rally at the library on Saturday and a lot of people didn't realize the library is being threatened. People coming into our out of the library were asking for buttons and wanted to know what they could to help. Its really sad...everything around the library is pretty much torn down and the library is the last thing standing...Save it! Its the greatest spot there and thats exactly why the public should keep it. I should be working...but I'm typing up my letter to mail to THE MAN.
the library board met this afternoon to vote on their approval for the sale of the property.
the final vote was 8-0, with 2 abstentions. any guess on how they voted???
THEY VOTED TO KEEP IT!!!!! WOHOO!!!!!!!!!
the issue still has to go before the fulton county commission, which could over-rule the library board, but this is a HUGE first step in saving the building and could really turn the tide.
That is Great News! Least we know the Library Board has people who are on the side of keeping the building...lets hope so. If it is a hold
out to get more money out of the developer...that would be a whole other thing.
the two people who didn't vote are on the commission-they were also leaning towards support of the developer, who they both have met with.
If people haven't sent in emails yet I would urge you to send them to these two people.
I guess they finally realized that there isn't money to be made from this deal-for the library system anyway. A new library would eat up the entire 24 million and the city can't guarantee that the money would even be directed back to the library since the county gets the check-not the board. Accepting the developer's offer of sale AND tenancy would be be a compromise of quality and power and some people on the board were clearly uncomfortable with that.
is usually only interested in entertaining those who pay attention to it.
That's exactly why I like their buildings. They have a richness of experience that leads to finding new things each time you see/interact with them. Precisely a quality that would make a good library -- a building designed to be interacted with over and over and over again and also for long periods of interaction.
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/27/08
Local developer Ben Carter's $24 million offer to buy and demolish the distinctive Buckhead library was rejected Wednesday by the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system.
Board trustees voted 8-0, with two abstentions, to keep and renovate the 18-year-old library, which has earned international acclaim for its design.
The vote will be a recommendation to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, which has the final say.
For library board Chairman John Thomas the issue came down to protecting unique, if controversial, buildings.
"The Buckhead library, for better or for worse, represents a piece of what Atlanta was as the 20th century drew to a close," Thomas said after the vote. "We have a chance to begin a trend of saving similar structures."
Thomas praised Carter's $1.5 billion Streets of Buckhead project, which will turn a former eight-block party zone into a ritzy area to shop, eat, stay and live.
At the same time, he said, buildings that don't fit the mold are worth protecting. "What do we believe? Do we believe it has to be shiny and tall with no character?" Thomas asked. "We have to stop this process."
The library sits in the middle of Carter's project. He proposed relocating the library to a future mixed-use building, where it would be sandwiched between a parking garage and condominiums. Patrons would have to ride an elevator to access the library.
John Eaves, the commission chairman and a library trustee, abstained from voting.
Eaves said he initially thought Carter's proposal was "wonderful." But after press reports about Carter's idea, Eaves said he heard a lot of opposition and retreated from his earlier enthusiasm for the plan.
Trustee Jim Maddox, an Atlanta city councilman, also abstained. Early in the meeting he said, "What's being offered is very, very significant. It sounds to me like a very fair offer."
After his abstention, Maddox told the standing room crowd, "I couldn't feel strongly for it; I couldn't feel strongly against it."
Carter, who was not at the board meeting, has said the library would be "a gap in the experience" when Buckhead Avenue, where the library is located, becomes a high-end shopping area.
The library has been referred to as a "slate dragonfly" because of its unusual exterior and airiness. Designed by Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, the building sits on a crest and offers a view of downtown.
About a dozen people spoke for preserving the library before the board voted.
"Pretty soon, all our children are going to wear the same clothes from Target," said one audience-member, defending the library's unique look.
John Szabo, the library system director, said Carter had suggested two sites on East Paces Ferry Road where a new standalone library could go.
But buying that land and constructing a new building would eat up most, if not all, of the $24 million Carter offered, Szabo said.
Trustees opposed to putting the library in a mixed-use building said it would be "a captive" under that scenario.
More than 100 library defenders demonstrated outside the building last weekend. An online petition drive to save the library had garnered in excess of 1,500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
The Northside Library Association, equivalent to a friends-of-the-library group, started a separate petition drive and gathered another 400 signatures from fans of the building.
"What residents want is a valued piece of art that happens to be a library," trustee Stephanie Moody said before making the motion to reject Carter's offer.
"what's Atlanta's landmark committee like?"
===============
Same question I have.
In practice, I find that while actual landmarking laws seldom extend to buildings under 20 years of age, the committees that call the shots can actually be fairly progressive-minded, and reactionary "ye olde" dogmatism tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
To get library's land, developer offers to build replica
Fulton commission interested in $24 million bid for Buckhead branch
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/22/08
"Most of the commentary was not over having a new library; it was that building," Carter said. "There seems to be more opposition to losing that architecture than the functionality of the library."
Carter is willing to pay the county $24 million for land acquisition and construction. That's probably $5 million to $6 million more than the project will cost, so the county will have a surplus to spend how it pleases, he said.
The Fulton County Commission is interested. It approved Commissioner Tom Lowe's resolution Wednesday "directing the county manager to take all necessary steps for the final board action on the proposed sale of the Buckhead branch library."
"That library, to my way of thinking, was an abortion the day it was dedicated," Lowe said earlier this year.
The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library trustees recommended the library be renovated after a public campaign by architects and others to save the building. The library, designed by Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, is distinctive for its black slate tiles and jutting angles. Architectural students make pilgrimages to Atlanta to study the building.
Carter wants the library site because it's in the midst of his upscale Streets of Buckhead project. He called the library "a gap in the experience" at his future shopping mecca.
Earlier Carter had offered to move the library into a new mixed-use building and recommended two nearby sites where a standalone library could be built. In voting against Carter's plan in February, trustees opposed sharing a building, defended the library's look and worried $24 million would not be enough to build a standalone facility in such an expensive area.
Carter does not own the East Paces Ferry and Maple Drive site, but he said the owner is willing to sell it.
Commissioners must approve the library system's spending plan by July in order to put bond funding before voters in November.
In my twisted mind everyone who wrote a letter or called some government official to keep this thing is really just a historical preservationist. Why can't buildings die? Like everything else. What is the big deal about losing this piece of architecture? I don't understand. Especially coming from the architecture community. it's as if this building or buildings of its type justify our lives and our existance. Pave over the thing and let the corpse of the dead building rise from something new. ( I know that will not happen in this case)
i can see how an underutilized or abandoned building might die, wurdan, but a perfectly good operating library in a prime location? should a celebrated and successful building die just because it's IN THE WAY?!
key in the discussion - separate from the fact that some of us like the design - is that a lot of energy and material went in to the making of the thing in the first place, and not very long ago. MORE energy and material will go into both removing it and replacing it. and it's completely unnecessary waste. the only benefit is the developer's own agenda for the creation of another resource-intensive same old/same old retail strip (albeit dressed up in formal clothes).
historical preservation is not just the curating of an outdoor museum. it's the recognition that our culture is built on the artifacts that we make and that some of them have a value which begins to communicate who we are as communities/neighborhoods. preservation MAKES communities prosper in many cases, because buildings worth keeping are often places that people want to be. before buckhead became a high-end commercial paradise(/hell) it was a funky cool neighborhood. this library is part of the legacy of that neighborhood and, arguably, one of the anchors of what made buckhead desirable and drove its current successes.
"In my twisted mind everyone who wrote a letter or called some government official to keep this thing is really just a historical preservationist. Why can't buildings die? Like everything else. What is the big deal about losing this piece of architecture? I don't understand. Especially coming from the architecture community. it's as if this building or buildings of its type justify our lives and our existance. Pave over the thing and let the corpse of the dead building rise from something new. ( I know that will not happen in this case)"
i don't think of it as preserving history so much as it's really more about maintaining continuity. revolutionary can be great at times...but it's also expensive and violent...an evolutionary arc can often work much better
Scogin-Elam Atlanta Library to be demolished!!!
namehenderson,
did you think it was a good op-ed, though? i have yet to hear someone articulate the 'why' in why it's an aesthetic achievement. simply pointing to how many times its been published or been 'recognized' isn't going to move the buckhead crowd. i think the larger problem in atlanta (as elsewhere) is that we've removed any ability to talk about aesthetics from our daily experience that too many people can say 'i like ben carter's complex more than THAT.' no one is presenting a cogent, concise defense for 'why' its aesthetically important in and of itself. forget trying to argue it contributes to a more 'culturally vibrant' neighborhood. there's too much money involved to make that a relevant factor.
i've heard too much over the past week that makes me think this is a done deal. for all those in town and interested, there is a protest rally scheduled for 11am on saturday, at the library. the organizers would like people to park on the street (instead of in the library) to emphasize the numbers. the fulton county library is supposed to vote on the sale in their meeting on the 27th of this month.
here's what pisses me off and i would hope the architectural community takes up, if this is indeed a lost cause: what's frustrating isn't that they are selling a public property - that happens all the time. what frustrates me is that the library seems perfectly willing to give up a valuable community asset (and one that has artistic merit to boot) without any realistic plan about how to replace it. there's no accountability with what to do next.
i'd propose, at a minimum, that the aia and the architectural community request the following as conditions for the sale of the library:
1. identify and put under option a replacement property, within the same basic location to serve the existing community. it should be within walking distance (1/2 mi.) of the existing library, near public transport (bus), and not be a marginal property located on the periphery of the 'new' buckhead.
2. the library board should commit to using all monies from the sale of the existing library on a new facility. no money should be allowed to be diverted to other facilities or to the general county coffers. this should be agreed to, in writing, by the fulton county commission.
3. the library board should affirm their commitment to creating a new library of an equal architectural character or merit. this could be accomplished by:
a. establishing a competition to select a new architect. the board could invite a select number of firms or it could be an open, 2 stage international competition.
b. whittle the number of qualified contenders down to 5. pay each of them a reasonable sum to develop their schemes (this is the second stage). have each present their schemes in a public forum. allow the public vote to be counted as one additional vote when the library board votes on a final winner.
the money would work -
devote 4 mil to acquiring a 2 acre property.
keep a 30,000sf facility @ 500/sf (15 mil) (includes site dev. costs)
ffe @ 1.25 mil.
design fees, testing, etc - 2 mil
moving, storage, etc. - 500k.
competition - 600k
total: 23.35mil. keep the rest in for all the miscellaneous stuff (owners rep, lawyers, etc.)
it would work and, at the very least, you'd get something from it in the end. the public process would (hopefully) be open, interesting, and engage the peeps at large about the merits of design. what i'm afraid is that the arch. community will take a preserve it only option and is going to go away if the up/down vote goes down. a more productive strategy is to hold the public officials accountable for their actions and to get the most you can if it's a fait acompli....
laru, i think your contingency plan is very well considered.
If you support the protection of the Library and Atlanta civic space, please sign the petition at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SAVETHEBUCKHEADLIBRARY/
Also, if you live in the Atlanta area there are two events you can participate in:
The Save the Library Forum is this Thursday (Feb. 21) at 6:00-8:00pm at the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, Auditorium, East Architecture Building.
A sidewalk protest is Saturday (Feb. 23) at the library, 269 Buckhead Avenue at 11 am.
Nice post laru. Hope you have a nice big sign with those financials on it at the rally. Delegate someone else to survey the crowd for aesthetic arguments... but I think the pragmatics and rationality of the second half of your post makes the stronger argument.
Denny's in Seattle is saved.
link
nichols-
that will either
a. burn down like twin teepees
b. be turned over on appeal as they can't afford to let it sit idle for 20 years.
the benaroya's will not be shelving plans for their 40 million dollar development. and they really don't care what happens to this p.o.s.
all they care about is making ballard a shittier place to live, and my response is, good on them. cos it's hideous.
It's just amazing that a city council can vote counter to the advice of the committee for the saving of a building that, at the very least, is humorous, delightful or maybe just interesting, and the county commission in Fulton County where the Buckhead Libray sits is willing to give up nearly every aspect that belongs to the public: the land, the building, the view, the security/access, and the vision to a private developer.
It pisses me off.
Save the Buckhead Library and save the Denny's. I cheer whenever elected officials stand up for the public in the face of big developers.
This story is a shame. If anything though, its a good look at the devide between what the public wants, and what we (designers) think they should want.
I spent the last 3 years studying architecture in a Scogin/Elam building and it was a very interesting experience. Not the warmest building, and is usually only interested in entertaining those who pay attention to it. Because that doesnt include most people, im not surprised most dont have a problem getting rid of it. psh, the collective...geez
I was at the small rally at the library on Saturday and a lot of people didn't realize the library is being threatened. People coming into our out of the library were asking for buttons and wanted to know what they could to help. Its really sad...everything around the library is pretty much torn down and the library is the last thing standing...Save it! Its the greatest spot there and thats exactly why the public should keep it. I should be working...but I'm typing up my letter to mail to THE MAN.
a quick update:
the library board met this afternoon to vote on their approval for the sale of the property.
the final vote was 8-0, with 2 abstentions. any guess on how they voted???
THEY VOTED TO KEEP IT!!!!! WOHOO!!!!!!!!!
the issue still has to go before the fulton county commission, which could over-rule the library board, but this is a HUGE first step in saving the building and could really turn the tide.
That is Great News! Least we know the Library Board has people who are on the side of keeping the building...lets hope so. If it is a hold
out to get more money out of the developer...that would be a whole other thing.
Yes! We won the first battle!
Yet will we win the war?
woohooo indeed!!!
thanks for the update laru. that's great news...
the two people who didn't vote are on the commission-they were also leaning towards support of the developer, who they both have met with.
If people haven't sent in emails yet I would urge you to send them to these two people.
I guess they finally realized that there isn't money to be made from this deal-for the library system anyway. A new library would eat up the entire 24 million and the city can't guarantee that the money would even be directed back to the library since the county gets the check-not the board. Accepting the developer's offer of sale AND tenancy would be be a compromise of quality and power and some people on the board were clearly uncomfortable with that.
nice! that's great news about the vote.
That's exactly why I like their buildings. They have a richness of experience that leads to finding new things each time you see/interact with them. Precisely a quality that would make a good library -- a building designed to be interacted with over and over and over again and also for long periods of interaction.
$24 million to fill a "Gap in the Experience"
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/27/08
Local developer Ben Carter's $24 million offer to buy and demolish the distinctive Buckhead library was rejected Wednesday by the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system.
Board trustees voted 8-0, with two abstentions, to keep and renovate the 18-year-old library, which has earned international acclaim for its design.
The vote will be a recommendation to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, which has the final say.
For library board Chairman John Thomas the issue came down to protecting unique, if controversial, buildings.
"The Buckhead library, for better or for worse, represents a piece of what Atlanta was as the 20th century drew to a close," Thomas said after the vote. "We have a chance to begin a trend of saving similar structures."
Thomas praised Carter's $1.5 billion Streets of Buckhead project, which will turn a former eight-block party zone into a ritzy area to shop, eat, stay and live.
At the same time, he said, buildings that don't fit the mold are worth protecting. "What do we believe? Do we believe it has to be shiny and tall with no character?" Thomas asked. "We have to stop this process."
The library sits in the middle of Carter's project. He proposed relocating the library to a future mixed-use building, where it would be sandwiched between a parking garage and condominiums. Patrons would have to ride an elevator to access the library.
John Eaves, the commission chairman and a library trustee, abstained from voting.
Eaves said he initially thought Carter's proposal was "wonderful." But after press reports about Carter's idea, Eaves said he heard a lot of opposition and retreated from his earlier enthusiasm for the plan.
Trustee Jim Maddox, an Atlanta city councilman, also abstained. Early in the meeting he said, "What's being offered is very, very significant. It sounds to me like a very fair offer."
After his abstention, Maddox told the standing room crowd, "I couldn't feel strongly for it; I couldn't feel strongly against it."
Carter, who was not at the board meeting, has said the library would be "a gap in the experience" when Buckhead Avenue, where the library is located, becomes a high-end shopping area.
The library has been referred to as a "slate dragonfly" because of its unusual exterior and airiness. Designed by Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, the building sits on a crest and offers a view of downtown.
About a dozen people spoke for preserving the library before the board voted.
"Pretty soon, all our children are going to wear the same clothes from Target," said one audience-member, defending the library's unique look.
John Szabo, the library system director, said Carter had suggested two sites on East Paces Ferry Road where a new standalone library could go.
But buying that land and constructing a new building would eat up most, if not all, of the $24 million Carter offered, Szabo said.
Trustees opposed to putting the library in a mixed-use building said it would be "a captive" under that scenario.
More than 100 library defenders demonstrated outside the building last weekend. An online petition drive to save the library had garnered in excess of 1,500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
The Northside Library Association, equivalent to a friends-of-the-library group, started a separate petition drive and gathered another 400 signatures from fans of the building.
"What residents want is a valued piece of art that happens to be a library," trustee Stephanie Moody said before making the motion to reject Carter's offer.
Bravo! didn't say anything here before but I did signed the petition...
"what's Atlanta's landmark committee like?"
===============
Same question I have.
In practice, I find that while actual landmarking laws seldom extend to buildings under 20 years of age, the committees that call the shots can actually be fairly progressive-minded, and reactionary "ye olde" dogmatism tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
I just heard that Ben Carter has apparently proposed to make a REPLICA of the Buckhead library in another location! Unbelieveable!
To get library's land, developer offers to build replica
Fulton commission interested in $24 million bid for Buckhead branch
By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/22/08
"Most of the commentary was not over having a new library; it was that building," Carter said. "There seems to be more opposition to losing that architecture than the functionality of the library."
Carter is willing to pay the county $24 million for land acquisition and construction. That's probably $5 million to $6 million more than the project will cost, so the county will have a surplus to spend how it pleases, he said.
The Fulton County Commission is interested. It approved Commissioner Tom Lowe's resolution Wednesday "directing the county manager to take all necessary steps for the final board action on the proposed sale of the Buckhead branch library."
"That library, to my way of thinking, was an abortion the day it was dedicated," Lowe said earlier this year.
The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library trustees recommended the library be renovated after a public campaign by architects and others to save the building. The library, designed by Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, is distinctive for its black slate tiles and jutting angles. Architectural students make pilgrimages to Atlanta to study the building.
Carter wants the library site because it's in the midst of his upscale Streets of Buckhead project. He called the library "a gap in the experience" at his future shopping mecca.
Earlier Carter had offered to move the library into a new mixed-use building and recommended two nearby sites where a standalone library could be built. In voting against Carter's plan in February, trustees opposed sharing a building, defended the library's look and worried $24 million would not be enough to build a standalone facility in such an expensive area.
Carter does not own the East Paces Ferry and Maple Drive site, but he said the owner is willing to sell it.
Commissioners must approve the library system's spending plan by July in order to put bond funding before voters in November.
that guy sounds awfully desperate...and clueless
In my twisted mind everyone who wrote a letter or called some government official to keep this thing is really just a historical preservationist. Why can't buildings die? Like everything else. What is the big deal about losing this piece of architecture? I don't understand. Especially coming from the architecture community. it's as if this building or buildings of its type justify our lives and our existance. Pave over the thing and let the corpse of the dead building rise from something new. ( I know that will not happen in this case)
i can see how an underutilized or abandoned building might die, wurdan, but a perfectly good operating library in a prime location? should a celebrated and successful building die just because it's IN THE WAY?!
key in the discussion - separate from the fact that some of us like the design - is that a lot of energy and material went in to the making of the thing in the first place, and not very long ago. MORE energy and material will go into both removing it and replacing it. and it's completely unnecessary waste. the only benefit is the developer's own agenda for the creation of another resource-intensive same old/same old retail strip (albeit dressed up in formal clothes).
historical preservation is not just the curating of an outdoor museum. it's the recognition that our culture is built on the artifacts that we make and that some of them have a value which begins to communicate who we are as communities/neighborhoods. preservation MAKES communities prosper in many cases, because buildings worth keeping are often places that people want to be. before buckhead became a high-end commercial paradise(/hell) it was a funky cool neighborhood. this library is part of the legacy of that neighborhood and, arguably, one of the anchors of what made buckhead desirable and drove its current successes.
"In my twisted mind everyone who wrote a letter or called some government official to keep this thing is really just a historical preservationist. Why can't buildings die? Like everything else. What is the big deal about losing this piece of architecture? I don't understand. Especially coming from the architecture community. it's as if this building or buildings of its type justify our lives and our existance. Pave over the thing and let the corpse of the dead building rise from something new. ( I know that will not happen in this case)"
i don't think of it as preserving history so much as it's really more about maintaining continuity. revolutionary can be great at times...but it's also expensive and violent...an evolutionary arc can often work much better
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