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270 Park Avenue, also known as the Union Carbide Building, is slated for demolition. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill partner, Natalie Griffin de Blois, and completed in the early 60s, the mid-century office tower will be town down in order for the building's owner, JPMorgan Chase, to... View full entry
[...] historians were dumbstruck last week when Chase announced plans to demolish the 52-story glass-curtain-wall skyscraper, which opened in 1961, and replace it with an even bigger structure.
The news prompted two immediate responses. The first was an outcry by preservationists. That part was predictable; what is surprising this time around was their wistful sense of resignation.
News of the Union Carbide building's demolition a little over a week ago has incited commotion, yet there is a level of resignation to many of the outcries. Jeffrey Lieber takes a deeper look into why this relinquishment may exist around the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill skyscraper. The... View full entry
“Today’s state of wooden architecture can be defined as an SOS,” says Igor Shurgin, an architect and restorer who runs the Foundation for Maintenance of Wooden Architecture Monuments. “If we do nothing to support it, then nothing will be left in 20 years.” A grant from the European Union enabled the organisation to stage a series of exhibitions in Russia and Europe between 2010 and 2012 that highlighted the problem. — The Art Newspaper
After the contemporary artist Danila Tkachenko photographed a series of the country's abandoned wooden houses set ablaze, attempts to save Russia's wooden architectural heritage have become a high priority for preservation activists. Russia's ministry of culture has intentions to adopt an action... View full entry
Despite being in the midst of a housing crisis, the United Kingdom seems bent on destroying some of the finest examples of social housing the post-war era has to offer, even tampering with the heritage-listing system in order to do so. The Robin Hood Gardens council estate, an icon of brutalist... View full entry
The boat belongs in Washington, a city both blessed and socially determined by its rivers....Many of the most dramatic and some of the most exciting changes in Washington today are clustered along its rivers. The most visible transformation is the District Wharf development,...but projects like the 11th Street Bridge Park....transcend mere commercial development, and underscore the myriad possibilities of using the river as a means of connection, social equity and public discourse. — The Washington Post
The saga to save the Louis Kahn-designed floating concert hall, Point Counterpoint II, continues. It all began back in mid-July when Yo-Yo Ma made a plea in The New York Review of Books to salvage the barge facing demolition on account of the fact that the owners—Robert Boudreau, whom doubles... View full entry
With focus on works of the twentieth century, the Getty Foundation's Keeping it Modern program awards buildings of architectural and cultural significance funding for conservation and preservation. Grants focus on the creation of conservation management plans that guide long-term maintenance and... View full entry
Officials and activists in the Hudson River town of Kingston, N.Y., plan to meet with the boat's owner Aug. 4 to discuss the possibility of transporting the vessel there from its current berth on the Illinois River in Ottawa, Ill. Late last month, musicians performed aboard the boat in the town, some 80 miles southwest of Chicago. — Chicago Tribune
Last week Archinect reported that Yo-Yo Ma sent a letter out through the New York Review of Books in an attempt to save the floating concert hall, designed by Louis Kahn, from demolition. The famed cellist pleaded: "At a time when our national conversation is so often focused on division, we... View full entry
"Almost every day, a visitor will be standing in the house and will ask where the house is," said Jenny Gibbs, executive director of the Elmhurst Art Museum. — The Chicago Tribune
The McCormick House, located in the Chicago suburbs, was built by Mies van der Rohe in 1952 and is one of only three residences designed by the pioneering modernist architect. In 1994, the steel frame row house was moved to a nearby park where it was restored and opened to public as part of the... View full entry
After being proposed for addition to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places last year, the iconic Vanna Venturi House has officially joined the list after being voted in by the Philadelphia Historical Commission on November 10th. According to PlanPhilly:"After a nomination first heard last... View full entry
Mr Shan Jixiang, head of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, said many of the selected structures tell abundant stories and are witnesses to key events in the nation's history.
He added that the new list will make people aware of the need to preserve more recent architectural sites for future generations. [...]
"Masterpieces of the 20th century prove that Chinese architects' spirit and techniques are well inherited. And they deserve to be passed on to modern times."
— straitstimes.com
98 sites make up China's first 20th-Century Chinese Architectural Heritage List, issued by the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics and the Architectural Society of China. The announcement comes about half a year after the country declared an official end to "weird" architecture.It's not exactly... View full entry
Their biggest challenge was securing the house’s foundation....Other work included stabilizing the walls by injecting adhesive between the lath and plaster with a veterinarian’s needle and transforming a small bathroom into an elevator shaft — NYT
Jori Finkel profiles Carlie Wilmans founder of 500 Capp Street Foundation. The foundation was established to stabilize and preserve 500 Capp Street (exterior, interior, site-specific installations) in San Francisco, which was the longtime home and studio of the Conceptual artist David Ireland... View full entry
What they weren’t trivializing or coarsening with commerce, railroad executives were simply neglecting. Whether desperately or cynically, they seemed to understand that redevelopment of their money-losing, nine-acre station would be more palatable if the public could be made to forget the glories of Mr. McKim’s original design. Pink granite walls were allowed to turn gray. Straw-colored travertine looked nicotine-stained. Jules Guerin’s murals disappeared under veils of grime. — nytimes.com
The destruction of Old Penn Station in favor of its soulless, uninspiring replacement has garnered an ample share of outraged pixels—but what if the long-accepted narrative has a twist? Apparently, the inspiring sweep and elegance that is so often attributed to Penn Station had fallen victim to... 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
