The more period commentary on these spaces you read...the more you see the hotel's owners are falling into the very trap the interiors were engineered to escape: banality, anywhere-ness, the flimsiness of changing fashion...Are the current going to rip out the mirror and replace it with barn wood and mason jars? Just wait. Stop the unpermitted demolition. Landmark this interior and, in doing so, remind people of its undated and undateable wonder. — ny.curbed.com
Alexandra Lange writes about the Ambassador Grill & Lounge and Hotel Lobby at the United Nations Plaza Hotel (now known as ONE UN New York), which is currently planned for reconstruction and where illegal exploratory demolition has reportedly begun. The remodeling plan has sparked outcry from advocates, who recently filed a Request for Evaluation with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to grant landmark status to the iconic Roche Dinkeloo-designed interior.
More on Archinect:
Another bittersweet look at Hotel Okura's legacy, as redesign is underway
Brutalism's struggle to stay relevant: a few more buildings we lost in 2015
Carry out: world's first Taco Bell is being rescued from demolition
9 Comments
Seeing more of this, "Urban Renewal" (mentality) all over again.
I'm over the whole "save my favorite building/style from demolition" thing... It's becoming another form of design culture jerking off that has to stop. It never works and It's all symptoms of a larger problem--public ignorance and a fickle media
Or: we failed to save Brutalism, let's move on to another style with equal public disapproval and save it by appealing to the 58 design people who give a shit
Nate, Are you not noticing changing opinions among casual observers becoming appreciative of midcentury modern architecture? There seems to be a process of public opinion evolving. Recent history is consistently described as being "dated" by casual observers of architecture. And of course, the older a piece of architecture is the more it is perceived to be "timeless" by casual observers. Insiders/professionals/close observers tend to be leaders of this process.
^ true. Mid-century mod homes sell in days...even bad ones...people snatch them up...I would also say that 70-80% of my clients want modern design...and 70-80% of them do not live in "modern homes"...they just couldn't find "modern homes" in their price range and settled. This is a huge failure on the part of architects, and is 100% due to the outdated design as service model.
Well I don't think anyone is trying to demo mid century modern, just the more difficult strands of modernism--postmodernism, Brutalism, etc. Modernism won overall, just a certain version of it. Just find the current cycle of niche media defense to be perplexing, ineffective, insincere. What happened to in person protesting? That's the only way to save a building..
thats actually a very good example of how bad the cutting edge trendy NYc of mid-80s architecure was, i mean that is fugly - therefore worth saving. in 30 years it will be an original.
jla-x, what is an alternative to the design as service model that can provide a livelihood for architects?
None of my clients want modern. It's a shame.
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