The Ralph Rapson masterpiece Gutherie Theatre in Minneapolis is finally under the wrecking ball. Since the new Nouvel theatre opened this fall on the banks of the Mississippi, the days of the 1963 building have been numbered. The Walker Art Center will now landscape the site for a new sculpture court. Is this a drama or tragedy? Star Tribune
4 Comments
I don't know anything about the original Guthrie and I know almost as little about Rapson unfortunately, so this is meant as less of reaction to this specific demolition than a lamentation on things in general. I just think it's a shame that (in New England atleast) almost any older neo-classical, Beaux Arts, Victorian (or basically brick) regardless of historical importance, architectural significance or even aesthetics is deemed "historic" and worthy of preservation efforts, while at the same time anything Modernist is hardly given a second look and either demolished or horrifically renovated, often to be replaced with some trite historicist building. This is changing a bit, but rather slowly I think. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in favor of thoughtful preservation and love seeing a modern renovation to older structures, but I wish there was some degree of appreciation for good Modernist architecture that is threatened that even came close to the degree of appreciation for unimportant, even bad pre-modernist architecture.
yep.
as discussed on a forgotten archinect thread, the gutherie was a great building when first built, but rennovations and alterations over the last 20 years destroyed all of it's architectural value.
But now Mpls gets a shiney new sculpture garden and landscape for the H+D walker art center. I'm thinking that the city is better off with a fabulous new theater down by the river and an expanded walker.
i think treekiller is right to a degree -- the original design wasn't fully realized, and was severely modified 20 years ago as a consequence. BUT, a talented group of architects such as H&dM could certainly design to accommodate a perfectly useful structure as well.
Rapson's original design (take a look a his website, rapsonarchitects.com) had an ornamental screen in front which was supposed to be steel plates. Of course costs cut that piece out of the design in favor of stucco over plywood, and apparently the plywood was damp at the time of installation, therefore mold, therefore renovation in the 80s... therefore demolition?
I guess the real question in this case is partially preservation of a modernist design - but moreover, wasn't it also severely disrespected and compromised much earlier by a bad renovation (faceless curtain wall replaced ornamental screens)?
there was a strong "save the guthrie" campaign for a while, when in fact a real appreciation for its design probably should have been delivered in a "restore the guthrie" campaign.
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