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If you've got a few thousand dollars lying around and want to grab a piece of lunchroom history, now's your chance.Perfectly summed up by Vanity Fair as “Absolute ground zero for power lunching”, Philip Johnson and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's iconic Four Seasons restaurant will end its lease... View full entry
It’s shaping up to be one bummer of a summer for Marina City, where some residents have been banned from their balconies.
City inspectors discovered trouble with nearly 2,000 balcony railings [...] While crews work to fix 1,920 handrail posts, 1,300 balusters and 1,020 bottom rails, some residents have been banned from using the balconies for four months or longer. [...]
“What’s worse is that we’re not allowed to open the door to the balcony to let the breeze in.”
— DNAinfo
The iconic Marina City towers—now officially a city landmark—recently in the Archinect news:Chicago's Marina City designated official landmark status — it's about time!Only one vote left before Marina City can become official city landmarkChicago's famed Marina City seems destined for... View full entry
If someone told you today that a new, brightly lit neon sign was going up across the street from where you live, you might react with disgust at the thought of such a commercial eyesore invading the skyline of your community. Yet when some older sign or billboard is threatened, everyone is suddenly up in arms, rushing to its defense. How does something as mundane as outdoor advertising grow to become considered an essential piece of the urban fabric? — Consumerist
“They become landmarks, loved because they have been visible at certain street corners — or from many vantage points across the city — for a long time,” writes Michael J. Auer in the brief. “Such signs are valued for their familiarity, their beauty, their humor, their size, or even their... View full entry
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... View full entry
Though the [Vanna Venturi] house has been nominated for the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, Stecura said it is being sold without any protections against alterations inside or out. [...]
Cross your fingers and hope for the best. [...]
there is no broader strategy in place — in the museum world or among the nation's leading historic preservation groups — to protect the most important works of 20th-century residential architecture from the vagaries of the market
— Christopher Hawthorne – latimes.com
Related on Archinect:The price of keeping Britain's 'Downton Abbeys' from crumblingLe Corbusier's Cité de Refuge in Paris to reopen after restorationChicago's Marina City designated official landmark status — it's about time!"Stop the unpermitted demolition": Roche Dinkeloo's shiny UN Plaza... View full entry
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation...Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated...it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility... — Curbed
“...But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial... View full entry
The Shukhov Tower, a 1920s broadcast transmission tower in Moscow that is a landmark of modernist structural engineering, has been placed on the 2016 World Monuments Fund Watch list of endangered global cultural heritage sites.
Activists in Moscow organized two days of events over the weekend to observe the tower’s 94th birthday [...]
At a Kremlin meeting last December, Mr. Putin praised activists for rallying to save cultural heritage sites and dressed down officials for not doing enough.
— nytimes.com
The Shukhov Tower, also known as Shabolovka Tower, previously in the Archinect news:Russia's Shukhov Tower is saved following a 91% smartphone vote in favor of keeping itMoscow Puts Iconic Shukhov Tower on Protected Landmark ListArchitects Try to Save a Tower in Moscow View full entry
[JRJR Networks] is eager to shed itself of the big basket, but that may not be easy. What non-basket-related company will want a giant basket to be the face of their company? Are there enough well-off eccentrics in or visiting Newark to convert it into market-rate apartments or a boutique hotel?...A deal to donate the building to the city no longer appears to be in the works, and foreclosure is a possibility. — CityLab
A few throwbacks related to weird architecture in Archinect news:The politics behind China's ban on "weird" architectureMovie-themed resort in Macau to show off "figure-8" ferris wheelSouthwark planners nix 'crude and literal' rocket-shaped flats27 weird and compelling architectural evolutions of... View full entry
...it's tempting to turn cartwheels over the Chicago City Council's vote to grant permanent landmark status to Marina City, the city within a city best known for its iconic corncob-shaped towers.
Marina City was a landmark building that lacked official landmark status and was therefore vulnerable — if not to demolition, then to insensitive additions that chipped away at the sculpted beauty of its curving concrete.
— Chicago Tribune
Since the process began last July, Chicago City Council unanimously voted 48-0 (with the absence of two aldermen) to designate Bertrand Goldberg's midcentury icon as a historic city landmark as of Wednesday, according to Loop North News."Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, deserves credit for championing... View full entry
Marina City residents support landmark designation because it would help upgrade the complex's concrete exterior through the city's "Adopt a Landmark" zoning provision [...]
The measure lets developers build more floor space in return for funding improvements to official city landmarks.
Landmark status would allow the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to regulate changes to the exterior of Marina City
— chicagotribune.com
Marina City, aka "the corncobs," was given preliminary landmark status back in July. The designation is expected to become official in early 2016. View full entry
The organization seeking to turn the David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix into an educational and cultural center filed for historic landmark protection last week, seeking official status for a 6.1-acre site before following through with plans to open it to the public. [...]
The designation would provide preservationists with a nice ending to the long saga of this spiral residence, which at one point in 2012 was slated for demolition.
— curbed.com
More on Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy:With $1.5M to go, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture approaches first fundraising milestone towards independenceFrank Lloyd Wright's "Unity Temple" getting a $23M restoration“New” Frank Lloyd Wright Home FoundFrank Lloyd Wright's La Miniatura finally... View full entry
These are confusing times in the business of protecting the country’s architectural heritage. [...]
Recently, two large modernist buildings were up for consideration for listing: the British Library in St Pancras, and an East End council estate, Robin Hood Gardens. Both have been controversial [...]
Yet the library has been granted the immortality of a Grade I listing, while the estate has been denied recognition and is set to be demolished.
— theguardian.com
Related on Archinect:Robin Hood Gardens residents dare Lord Rogers to spend a night in the blighted estateRobin Hood Gardens Set For DemolitionPostmodern No 1 Poultry divides architects in debate over recent heritage View full entry
Lafayette Park, the neighborhood northeast of downtown dotted with high-rises and townhouses, and known for its modern architecture, has attained the status of national historic landmark. [...]
The neighborhood consists of a 78-acre housing development designed and realized by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, considered a master of modern architecture. It was founded by developer Herb Greenwald to help keep the middle class in the city.
— The Detroit News
The three other sites that also recently gained landmark status are:George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VirginiaRed Rocks Park and Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Jefferson County, ColoradoFirst Peoples Buffalo Jump in Cascade County, MontanaMvdR-related... View full entry
Marina City, the iconic Chicago riverfront complex famed for its corncob-shaped towers, could soon be on the way to becoming an official city landmark. [...]
Goldberg's design, a poetic expression in concrete that combined residential, commercial and entertainment uses to form a "city within a city," is one of the most recognizable images on the Chicago skyline.
— chicagotribune.com
Other Goldberg buildings in Chicago weren't so lucky: the Prentice Women's Hospital could not be saved from the wrecking ball — despite enormous public outcry. View full entry
The interior of the Four Seasons restaurant, a vision of Modernist elegance with its French walnut paneling and white marble pool of bubbling water, should not be changed, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission decided [...].
The decision was a setback to Aby J. Rosen, the owner of the Seagram Building, which is home to the restaurant. Mr. Rosen had proposed what he characterized as minor changes to the interior that was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson in 1958.
— nytimes.com
Phyllis Lambert — part of the group of architects passionately opposing Rosen's revamp plans and personally interwoven with the history of the Seagram Building like no one else — penned this Op-Ed in the New York Times last week: Save New York's Four Seasons. View full entry
