Tag: Ban Demolition - Page 6
-
Another One Bites the Dust: University Closes Observatory, Evicts Famous Astronomer
Tom Bolton discovered the first black hole using the 75 inch reflector at the David Dunlap Observatory just north of Toronto; how sad to see him sitting on the steps, crying, as the University of Toronto kicks him out and shuts it down, as they sell
-
Preservation or Parking? Two Takes on Riverview High
previously whined about the imminent demolition of Paul Rudolph's Riverview High School in Sarasota, with its "melding of Modern modularity and technology with sensitive siting, daylighting, natural ventilation, and aggressive shading against the
-
Another Paul Rudolph Bites the Dust: Sarasota's Riverview High School
Architecture from the 1950s and 60s is not beloved and protected like older stuff, but Paul Rudolph in particular is in danger of having his entire oeuvre wiped off the map. Latest to go is the Riverview High School, complete with its "melding of
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Alma College Burns Down
I sometimes wonder how people like Catherine Nasmith keep going. She is the President of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, fighting to preserve buildings around the province. Next week she is holding a
-
Buildings Owned By Union Collapse While LIUNA President Calls For "Rebuilding Infrastructure"
Watch this amazing video of the collapse last week of Hamilton's historic Balfour Building, owned by the Laborers' International Union of North America. Never was there a more blatant example of demolition by neglect; LIUNA promised that the facade
-
Energy Efficiency Is So 19th Century
Devereaux House was on the corner of lands owned by the Town of Halton Hills, falling to pieces and due for demolition. In 2004 a citizen's committee started raising money to renovate it, but when they started looking closely, they found that it was
-
Preservation is Sustainability
Speaking at Bernard Maybeck's historic First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley, the President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Richard Moe, made an historic speech about how saving old buildings is not about the past, but the
-
Ban Demolition, Especially by Greedy Universities
In a growing city, one is used to the demolition by neglect practiced by greedy, rapacious developers to get around the rules preserving historic buildings; just ignore them long enough and the roof will fail, the water
-
Concrete Can Be Beautiful
That is an odd title coming from this TreeHugger, who prefers "Sustainable Cement is Like Vegetarian Meatballs" Nonetheless when a building is made from such a long-lasting material the best thing to do is to maintain it well and
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Robin Hood Gardens
When I was in architecture school my favourite architects were the Archigram gang, but if you asked me about those who actually built things and were making real changes in the way things worked in the world, I would have pointed to Alison and Peter
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Hamilton's Lister Block
Hamilton, Ontario should be a great city; it has geography (a great location close to the border, a great big harbour that is now quite beautiful) topography (a nice "mountain" that keeps it from being boring) a major university and great transportation
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Bucky Fuller's Union Tank Car Dome
It was, in 1958, the worlds largest clear span. The Union Tank Car Building was 384 feet in diameter, 128 feet high. "It was just big and magnificent," Fuller biographer Jay Baldwin said to Kansas City Star reporter Mike Hendricks. "It was a
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Classic Bata Shoe HQ Demolished
So what is a City to do when the Aga Khan drops into town with $ 200 million for the Aga Kahn Museum, to be built on the site of John Parkin's classic 1965 Bata Shoe Headquarters, still full of orange Eames shell chairs and Herman Miller Desks?
-
Drilling for Heat at New York's General Theological Seminary
One of the loveliest spots in New York is the courtyard of the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, surrounded by a fabulous collection of 19th century buildings. (it is also a great place to stay in New York at a reasonable price, although they
-
Another One Bites The Dust: Erickson's Graham House
If you've gotta have a traditional monster house in Vancouver, you can't let history or genius get in the way. It was Arthur Erickson's breakthrough house in 1963, a stunning multi-storey wood-and-glass house that descends in levels.
-
Landmarks, not Landfill: I.M. Pei Church in Washington Under Threat
OK, brutalist concrete buildings are not the current rage, but there is a lot of embodied energy in that concrete, and enough of it that the building could last forever. It is not one of Pei's best; the architectural critic at the time called it "rude
-
Demolition by Neglect: Use It or Lose It
Yesterday we wrote "Nobody should be allowed to neglect a building until it falls down;. Use it or lose it." We also have complained before about demolition by neglect, and said there aughta be a law. Turns out, there is
-
Demolition by Neglect: Stanford White Lovenest Falls Down
Not every building is an architectural gem; some are background buildings and some are foreground. Preservationists usually concentrate on the foreground ones, but every building tells a story. Fans of classic American architecture, E.L. Doctorow and
