John Lautner's demolished Shusett House. (Tyco Saariste)
Patch reports that Beverly Hills, in part responding to the destruction of modernist landmarks like John Lautners’s Shusett House and Sydney Eisenshtat’s Friar’s Club, has finally passed a preservation ordinance. It’s about time.
Quick Clicks> High(er) Line Education, Cyclopedia, Plaza Politics, Preserving the Ranch
Avenues: The World School (via Business Insider)
A High Line education. A $75 million for-profit school called Avenues will open next year at the High Line, reported the NY Times. Funded by private equity firms, the school is slated to move into a converted ten-story, 215,000-square-foot historic Chelsea warehouse in September of 2012.
Cyclopedia. Finally, we have a well-curated, refreshing book celebrating vintage bicycle design. Publishers Thames & Hudson recently released Cyclopedia: A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs that explores 90 years of classic and racing bicycle history through bright, crisp photographs and an uncluttered layout. More info at Cyclodelic.
Plaza politics. Beginning September 7th, Cheonggyecheon Plaza in Seoul, South Korea will host an installation titled Itjanayo (You Know…) featuring the work of Soo-in Yang. The project is comprised of a mirrored cube on the outside and a recording studio and viewing room on the inside allowing visitors to record their opinions to be replayed for others.
“Throughout history, a plaza has been a place for airing statements of opinion, historical statements are limited by time and forgetfulness, but the statements inside Itjanayo are recorded and replayed for others to hear. Others who subsequently enter the box can add responses to the earlier statements as though they were adding online comments”, wrote e-flux.
Saving the ranch. Ranch houses, those one-story dwellings once popular in the suburbs following World War II, are now turning fifty years old, making them eligible for preservation. While some deride the houses for their plain style, preservationist Richard Cloues argues that they must be saved as an important markers of U.S. housing development in the mid-twentieth century. More at the WS Journal.
Future of Preservation in St. Louis Looks Modern
Del Taco in St. Louis (Courtesy Modern STL)
When St. Louis architects Schwarz and Van Hoefen designed a 120-foot diameter flying saucer in 1967 along the city’s Grand Boulevard, historic preservation was likely the last thing on their minds. Today faced with demolition, the structure’s concrete cantilever has garnered tremendous public outcry and has become a local icon. (It’s facebook page numbers over 11,600 fans, trouncing the 850 fans of Chicago’s threatened Prentice Tower.) It’s hard to imagine a gas station turned drive through restaurant could muster such support with such an anti-urban background, but the Del Taco building isn’t leaving without a fight.
Quick Clicks> Splashes, Preservation, and Taxis
Rendering of Splash House by the Parson's Design Workshop
Splash House. Graduate architecture students at the Parson’s Design Workshop are ready to get to work this summer on a pool-deck pavilion for the Highbridge Park Swimming Pool in Washington Heights–that is, if they can raise enough funds for their project via a Kickstarter campaign. Mammoth has more details on the pavilion.
Preservation Month. Richard Layman isn’t wasting any time in celebrating National Preservation Month, going on all May long. He has collected 33 ideas for an action-packed DC-based month of preservation.
Taxi of the Future. WNYC’s Transportation Nation reports on the city’s choice of Nissan to build the Taxi of Tomorrow, finding there’s likely to be a controversial road ahead for the bright-yellow mini-van.
Celebrating Coney Island′s Most Curious
(Courtesy Vivienne Gucwa/Flickr)
The Congress of Curious Peoples has touched down in Brooklyn. Part symposium, part festival, and part freak show, the event celebrates Coney Island’s rich history as a vacation and amusement destination. Starting on April 8th, the 10 days of freaky fun begins with Coney Island USA’s annual Sideshow Hall of Fame Inductions and ends on the 17th with Alumni Weekend, where you can catch legendary sideshow performers from the Coney Island Circus Sideshow as well as a scholarly conference on the past, present, and future of this unique and historic part of NYC.
Quick Clicks> Boardwalk, High-Speed, Archives 2.0, the Street
Wood is good, say residents of Coney Island of their historic boardwalk (Courtesy Intiaz/Flickr).
Boardwalk Empire. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Coney Island will not be getting a concrete boardwalk, at least not if Community Board 13 has a say in the matter. The board members recently voted down a proposal from the Parks Department that would cement over parts of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk while covering some of the famed seaside path with recycled plastic lumber.
Express Train. The Van Alen Institute wants to know what you think of the future of high-speed rail in the United States. Check out its call for design ideas here.
Digital Architectural History. The Chicago Tribune’s Blair Kamen brings news that the good folks at the Ryerson and Burnham Archives at the Art Institute of Chicago have digitized 5,000 images from Archpaper’s late 19th century predecessor, the Inland Architect and News Record, offering up photos and drawings from a pivotal period in US architectural history.
Sharing is Caring. New York’s Municipal Art Society kicked off its second annual “Streets Month” with a program about the city’s new and innovative place-making efforts, including a presentation by DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Check out a recap and analysis from MAS over here.
Quick Clicks> Frank′s Party, Little Cooper, Gaudi′s Church, and Carnegie Saved
Frank Gehry with his birthday cake.
Happy Birthday, Frank! Over the weekend, Frank Gehry celebrated his 82nd birthday on top of New York. New York by Gehry, that is. The penthouse unit on the 76th floor of 8 Spruce Street, Gehry’s first skyscraper, was filled with celebrities (think Bono) and starchitects (Robert A.M. Stern and more). Check out a gallery after the jump.
Little House on the Bowery. Fred Bernstein writes for Design Observer about a little brick house at the center of a giant preservation fight along New York’s Bowery. The demolition has been stopped for now, but Bernstein argues that the building’s real value is in the present, not in its history.
All in the Familia. Oscar Tusquets Blanca writes for Domus about Antoni Gaudí’s under construction Segrada Família in Barcelona. Blanca recalls, interspersed with some amazing photography, when he once advocated abandoning the project decades ago but points out how is opinion has changed today.
Carnegie Wrecking Ball. Ephemeral New York reminds us of a one-time plan to raze the famed Carnegie Hall for a bright red skyscraper set behind a sunken plaza. The March 31, 1960 wrecking date was averted at the last minute by the efforts of the Committee to Save Carnegie Hall.
Quick Clicks> Cooper, Dharavi, Evolution, Charts
35 Cooper Square in 1917 (Courtesy Bowery Alliance)
Keeping Cooper. There’s a fight brewing over the demolition of the 186-year-old 35 Cooper Square. A demolition permit had been issued and subsequent stop work orders and candlelight vigils. The small federal style structure was once home to descendants of Peter Stuyvesant and beatnik Diane DiPrima. Keep tabs on the little building at EV Grieve and the Bowery Alliance (And in other Cooper Square preservation news, what’s going to happen to the Astor Place mosaics under the planned pedestrian plaza upgrades?)
Slum for Sale. In the heart of Mumbai, India, the Dharavi settlement is under pressure to redevlop. Polis has a review of a new documentary on the struggles of a “city tearing at the seams” trying to balance capital growth and the needs of its inhabitants.
Urban Evolution. Cities are constantly changing, but we rarely take the big step back and look at how an area has evolved over, say, the past 500 years. Aid Watch put together a visual history of one block in New York’s Soho neighborhood, from wilderness, to brothel central, to home of high-end retail. (Via Economix.)
Infographic. Gothamist uncovers an interesting chart comparing Chicago and New York by the statistics. Categories include miles of transit track, cost of living, and even who has better pizza.
Check out an even older view of 35 Cooper Square after the jump.
Quick Clicks> Safe, Cuts, Drawing, Rage
Manufacturer’s Trust Company, Fifth Avenue, NY (Courtesy Landmarks Preservation Commission via DNAinfo)
Safe. DNAinfo has a story on the newly landmarked interior of Gordon Bunshaft’s Manufacturer’s Trust Company building in New York including a 30-ton circular vault visible from the street. The exterior has been a landmark since 2007. Previous AN coverage here and here.
Cutting History. Preservation magazine reports that President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget sends the wrecking ball after two federal grant programs supporting historic preservation across the country: Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America. Needless to say, the National Trust president was “profoundly disappointed.”
Pin Up. Architect Roger K. Lewis penned a piece for the Washington Post lamenting the downfall of hand drawing in architectural production. He warns that we should avoid the seductive “I can, therefore I shall” approach that computers can sometimes produce.
Sidewalk Rage. Researchers at the University of Hawaii have identified key traits of Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome. Richard Layman has the list of behaviors on Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space, which is readily on display on the sidewalks of major cities everywhere.
The Other Side of Ellis Island
Most visitors to Ellis Island only get to see the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. I was fortunate enough to go on a hard hat tour of the island’s south side, which is not open to the public, and explore newly stabilized structures including the new (‘new’ as of 1934) ferry building and part of the old South Side Hospital Complex.
photo by Alyssa Nordhauser
Rose Window is Lower East Side’s Newest Star
It’s official. The multi-decade restoration of the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue is now truly complete with the recent installation of the new rose window that we told you about last February.
Rudolph’s New York Home Passes Landmark Test
23 Beekman Place (Courtesy Paul Rudolph Foundation)
The latest Upper East Side landmark isn’t another of its signature rowhouses, but rather what’s atop one of those brownstones. Yesterday, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved landmark status for mid-century architect Paul Rudolph‘s less-than-context-sensitive home at 23 Beekman Place.
And that’s great news for New York’s modern architectural heritage. Read More.
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