The uncertainty looming over the building’s future is serving as a call to action for preservation groups in Atlanta and around the world who are beginning to mobilize. [...]
Ironically, to gain the Breuer building, Atlanta lost its original Carnegie Library. [...]
As evidenced by the transformation of the former Whitney Museum into the Met Breuer, it is clear that with a careful restoration, Breuer’s works can be an iconic piece of the urban fabric in which they reside
— artsatl.com
The Architecture and Design Center has begun a petition to protect the library, and has since garnered 1,023 signatures of 2,000 needed.
The petition states: "We ask that the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System Board of Trustees take actions to protect the Central Library and Library System Headquarters Building, located at One Margaret Mitchell Square, from demolition and damaging renovation, whether the Library System maintains ownership or sells the building. We also ask that the building is renamed to honor its architect, the internationally renowned Marcel Breuer."
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22 Comments
dummies you cant demo a brutalist building - a wrecking ball would shatter against that thing.
These brutalist buildings are loathed by the buildings occupants, visitors, and neighbors, but must not be disturbed in any way? Blow the damn thing up, already!
since it's not as good as this one, ok....
look at this photo. A full height wall separates it from the older tenement buildings, guy pushing a baby carriage on left, old cars, and there - a spaceship from Mars!
ZHA eat your heart out.
seems to me there is a lot of support for this building volunteer. wouldn't it be more accurate for you to say that you loathe the building, rather that trying to speak for the occupants, visitors, and neighbors?
The German submarine pens in Lorient, France, left over from WW II are more attractive. Note the greenery.
Is it an institutional failure or architectural? Preservationists should propose thoughtful renovations ...
the building is fantastic inside and out. i've spent many a lunch hours exploring the beautiful stair cases and lovely double height spaces. to destroy or damage its design would be a travesty.
Actually, we find this type of submarine base not only in Lorient but in many more cities of Normandie, north of France. Quite having similar architecture.
And biggies in Bergen and Trondheim, Norway, as well. The one in Trondheim was used by the Norwegian Navy for several years after the war.
i love it, there are far too many other buildings worth blowing up; Anything by Stern, for instance.
The answer, obviously, is to move the library building to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and repurpose it as a submarine pen. Kind of like the Bacardi "house-moving" commercial on the back of a truck, but different. A win-win if there ever was one!
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjw5a2wm77MAhUF1R4KHTilCcYQtwIIKTAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOgs6uD4xlNY&usg=AFQjCNF4sH9ZVce5YlWw-o5dQVzWsQgcgA&sig2=egET61NVmfGLfR7IhqUZJA
Stern's building are very low quality, even the expensive ones.
so volunteer you hate brutalism, but you are going to scour the web for utilitarian structures that look like brutalist buildings and you like those?
Actually I am a WW II buff so I didn't have to scour anything. If you can't see the similarities between Brutalism and the earlier German U-Boat pens you don't have much of an imagination. Someone described one of Bruer's buildings as "ten floors of basement". Enough said.
Yeah. Anything made of concrete is the same.
of course I see the similarity, I just don't understand why you think one is ok and the other is not. Concrete is awesome. Brutalism is awesome. Obviously the someone you are referring to is a Luddite with no appreciation of non-traditional materials or abstraction. Get on with your puffy shirt wearing self.
The Luddite was Jack Kemp, the Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, referring to the hideous Breuer building he had to work in everyday.
also known as right-wing nutter who failed at a campaign for president and ran with bob dole during his unsuccessful presidential campaign, which he lost largely because his views on marcel breuer are not shared by the american public.
there may be some exaggeration in that statement, but not as much as volunteer's misguided understanding of people outside downtown charleston, SC.
Among Brutalist buildings that must be saved is this gem. This is not a police station, or a 'fusion' center, or a place where they do autopsies, this is a college classroom in London!
For less money they could have had a nice updated collegiate gothic building faced in stone with gracefully arched windows and entrances, vaulted passageways, a quad green with grass and trees and maybe (who knows) a bed of flowers. But noooooooo, enjoy your college experience, children.
seems to me the brunel university lecture centre is hated more by people who build their view of the world around works of fiction, rather than the well-adjusted sort of people who live in real life.
Demo the salk institute! Too much concrete! Have fun in your labs scientists!
"For less money they could have had a nice updated collegiate gothic building faced in stone with gracefully arched windows and entrances, vaulted passageways, a quad green with grass and trees and maybe (who knows) a bed of flowers."
And with that, Volunteer provides evidence as to why his point of view is not worth validating.
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