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The Menokin Foundation has announced the commencement of construction on The Glass House Project, a preservation endeavor to transform the ruins of Menokin, the home of Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lightfoot Lee and his wife Rebecca Tayloe Lee. The project will preserve the... View full entry
According to a recent article from The Boston Globe, due to city's "hot" real estate market, which has "prompted a number of developers to tear down and build up," the Governor's office now wants to get in on the action. On Wednesday, the Baker administration unveiled plans to redevelop the... View full entry
Heritage campaigners have welcomed the government’s plans to increase the number of listed buildings across the UK...Under the new scheme, which has been allocated £700,000, people will be encouraged to nominate buildings in their area and a heritage champion will be appointed to encourage councils’ local listings. — Architects' Journal
"These activists will form a task force, which the government describes as a modern version of the ‘Monuments Men’ who recovered countless artworks from the Nazis during the Second World War," Architects' Journal (AJ) reports. According to AJ, the plan is for the "heritage... View full entry
Authorities in the Italian capital have now enforced a slew of rules, updated from legislation drafted in 1946, as they seek to clamp down on uncouth behavior that has long been a source of frustration. — The Guardian
With a slew of visitors and tourists filling the streets of historic cities across the globe, it is no wonder authorities in the Italian capital are enforcing measures to help preserve Rome's cityscape. From "messy eating" and foot bathing near the Trevi Fountain to preserving historic staircases... View full entry
Los Angeles is a cornucopia of sites and experiences. However, beyond the city's experiential characteristics it's also home to an elaborate collection of historical landmarks and structures. This week the Los Angeles Conservancy announced its 2019 Preservation Award Recipients. The selected... View full entry
After a devastating fire broke out at Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month, designers have been proposing ideas for its restoration. Foster + Partners released a controversial rendering for a glass roof addition, Studio Fuksas proposed a spire made of crystal, and the São Paulo-based... View full entry
While Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic domes may have gotten special mention in Jeff Bridges' recent Golden Globes speech, his oldest extant lattice-shelled structure is in the news for a less glorious reason. Now under serious threat, the Dome at Woods Hole and the accompanying Nautilus... View full entry
...the new property is not to sell products. Instead, Shinola aims for the hotel to be a place where Detroiters and out-of-town visitors can bond with each other, the city, and the brand in an organic way. — Hour Detroit
The Detroit-based watch company is a fundamental entity within the city. Founded in 2011, the humble watch company built its first factory by transforming 30,000 square feet of unused space inside Detroit's historic Argonaut Building. A brand built on quality, hard work, and the spirit of Detroit... View full entry
Los Angeles's Central Library, London's Hoover building, and Lisbon's Eden Teatro, are all considered to be some of the finest examples of Art Deco from around the world. They also all take center stage in the stunning photographs taken by graphic designer and film-maker Arnold Schwartzman, whose... View full entry
A collection of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings have been nominated by the United States to the World Heritage List. Submitted by the National Park Service, the nomination will be reviewed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July of 2019. Widely considered one of the greatest American... View full entry
For now, the austere structure—and everything it symbolizes about the African American experience—awaits for a buyer while it sits quietly in Guernsey’s storage facility in upstate New York. As of this writing, the home’s destiny looks promising if uncertain. “There are 1,500 monuments to the Confederacy, which is absurd,” Mendoza says. “There are 76 monuments to the civil rights movement. Let this be the 77th.” — Artnet
When Rosa Parks' Detroit home went up for auction a few weeks ago, the auction house Guernsey's struggled to find a buyer, despite the wide media attention the house has received. “If all else fails, theatre and visual artist Robert Wilson and his Watermill Art Foundation in Long Island, New... View full entry
Plans to expand the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, which involve demolishing part of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s 1996 addition, have come under fire as architects fight to save the beloved postmodern work. With over 70 signatures, including those of Sir Terry Farrell, Paul... View full entry
In 2016, the Berlin-based US artist Ryan Mendoza and Rhea McCauley, the niece of Rosa Parks, teamed up to save the civil rights activist’s Detroit home from demolition. Now, the structure is heading to another block: the New York auction house Guernsey’s, where it is due to be auctioned tomorrow (26 July) with an estimate of $1m-$3m. — theartnewspaper.com
Park's house is part of the 700-lot of African American Historic & Cultural Treasures up for sale at the New York auction house Guernsey’s. McCauley initially bought the house for just $500 back in 2016 reaching out to Mendoza to help preserve the house. In 2017 the structure was safely... View full entry
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
