Preservation
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Endangered: Silver Spring Library by Rhees BurketThe mid-century modern Silver Spring Library by noted local architect Rhees Evans Burket, AIA, is facing an uncertain future. The county has put out a request for proposals from developers to turn the site into senior housing and child day care facilities through either incorporating the existing building or knocking it Read More >
January 27, 2017
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Prince George’s Modern
As part of growing local efforts to document and preserve local mid-century modern architecture, the Prince George’s County Planning Department has launched its Prince George’s Modern project to help raise awareness of the mid-century treasures in the county. One of the signature buildings in the county is the Hyattsville Public Read More >
October 23, 2015
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Lost: Rockville’s ‘Pink Bank’ Building
The “Pink Bank” in Rockville at 255 N. Washington St. will be no more. Work has started to take down the 1964 former Suburban Trust Bank building. Despite the city’s Historic District Commission’s recommendation that the building be spared and that a historic designation process be allowed to begin, the Rockville City Read More >
January 5, 2014
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Johnie’s Coffee Shop in LA Landmarked
Some good preservation news from Los Angeles. Johnie’s Coffee Shop, designed in 1955 by Armet and Davis, was landmarked by the LA City Council last week. The original drawing for the Googie coffee shop first built as Romeo’s Time Square is part of the Overdrive: L.A. Constructs Read More >
December 2, 2013
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Post Highlights MoCo Modern Preservation Effort
The Washington Post is out with a story today on the efforts of Montgomery County historic preservation planners Montgomery Modern effort to catalog and preserve mid-century modern buildings (such as the school in Takoma Park pictured above) and communities. “The challenge is always preserving the recent past,” Read More >
March 1, 2013
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Help Preserve Mid-Century Glenmont
Planners are working on a new sector plan for Glenmont that looks at past recommendations and reflects the community’s vision for a transit-oriented, revitalized community. The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the draft plan this Thursday (Feb. 14.) here Read More >
February 12, 2013
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Preserving DC’s MCM Architecture
Interested in what is happening in efforts to preserve Washignton’s mid-century modern architecture? If you are, pick up tickets for an Oct. 4 event at the National Building Museum (NBM) that will explore the issue. Six years ago, the D.C. Preservation League, working with Robinson & Associates, a research and Read More >
September 18, 2012
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Mid-Century Manhattan: Manufacturers Trust Interior Gutted
The interior of the landmarked Manufacturers Honover Trust building has been gutted.
So much for preserving the1954 Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building on 5th Avenue by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Curbed New York reported this week on the gutting of the interior of the landmark modernist building by Read More >July 1, 2011
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Preserving Iconic Mid-Century Modern Homes
As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations this year for Fallingwater, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is holding a symposium on April 5 at the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater about preserving iconic modern homes throughout the country. Private Domains/Public Displays: The Modern House Interpreted will bring together an “international Read More >
March 24, 2011
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Saving the 1970 Brown Planetarium
Named as one of Arlington County’s most endangered historic places for 2010, the 1970 David M. Brown Planetarium in Arlington is facing closure amid much needed capital improvements that the county’s school district said it cannot fund. The mid-century facility is the sole freestanding school planetarium open to the public Read More >
January 4, 2011
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DCPL Preservation Conference to Explore Mid-Century Modern Issues
A detail of the 1972 AIA headquarters designed by TAC. Photo by Greg Braun.
Two panels during the D.C. Preservation League’s upcoming 2010 Citywide Historic Preservation Conference will focus on preserving mid-century modern buildings in the city. The concurrent sessions on Friday, Sept. 24, are entitled “Preservation and Public Opinion” and Read More >September 14, 2010
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Last Chance to Submit for DCPL’s 2010 Most Endangered Places List
Tomorrow is the last day to get in your nominations for the D.C. Preservation League’s 2010 list of Most Endangered Places. Any MCM buildings you think should be nominated? Selections will be announced in May. Click here for more info.
February 4, 2010
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Saarinen’s U.S. Embassy in London Protected
Eero Saarinen’s 1960 U.S. embassy in London
A year ago I posted here and here about the potential demise of Eero Saarinen’s brutalist U.S. embassy in London. While the U.S. still plans to move its embassy to Read More >October 22, 2009
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Charles Goodman Included in New Canaan’s Modern Home Study
Charles Goodman
Launched nearly two years ago, the “Modern Homes Survey: New Canaan Connecticut” is now available online. The survey catalogues 91 homes built between 1939 and 1979 and has bios on 31 architects who helped turn New Canaan into one of the meccas of modernism Read More >July 2, 2009
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Summer Reading: Larry Van Dyne’s ‘Tear It Down! Save It!’
If you are looking for something to read on the beach this summer, take a look at this fascinating 10,000-word Washingtonian article by Larry Van Dyne on the history of Washington preservation efforts, including the growing debate over what to do with modern structures built during the past 50 years.
“The Read More >
June 22, 2009
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Event: Wright Conservancy Guggenheim and NY House Tour; June 20
Max Hoffman House (1955). Photo by Steve Maxwell.
Calling all Frank Lloyd Wright fans. Join the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy‘s for Out and About Wright: New York on June 20. Start the day with a lecture at the newly restored Guggenheim Museum and Read More >June 6, 2009
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Third Church Makes DCPL’s Most Endangered List
The D.C. Preservation League unveiled its 2009 Most Endangered Places list yesterday. The one modern building on the list was no surprise: the Third Church of Christ, Scientist at 900 16th St. NW. The Brutalist-style church, built in 1971, made the list last year as well. The city recently said Read More >
June 3, 2009
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Roger Lewis: ‘The Triumph and Decline of a Truly Brutal Style’
Post columnist Roger K. Lewis, a practicing architect and a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, gives some of the history of brutalist architecture and tells preservationists not to worry too much over the Third Church of Christ decision.
“[P]reservationists should not panic,” he writes in today’s Read More >
May 30, 2009
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Upcoming DCPL Events: Most Endangered List, Symposium on Third Church
The D.C. Preservation League is will announce its 2009 list of most Endangered Places on June 2 at 12:30 p.m. See full details here. I wonder if there will be any MCM buildings on the list this year? Last year, the brutalist Third Church of Christ, Scientist correctly made the Read More >
May 27, 2009
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Post’s Kennicott Analyzes Trust’s Most Endangered List, Third Church Debate
The Post‘s architecture critic Philip Kennicott takes a look at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s List of Most Endangered Historic Places, saying the list does not always pick “easy” choices and comments on the Third Church of Christ debate. (According to this AP story, “Rebecca Miller, executive director of Read More >
May 17, 2009
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D.C. Gives Green Light to Demolition of Brutalist Third Church of Christ
“The Christian Science Church got the OK to raze its 1970s-era concrete chapel and can now proceed with development plans, apparently ending one of the city’s fiercest battles over historic preservation,” the Washington Business Journal reports. Read the full article here. Is this really the end of this long-simmering Read More >
May 13, 2009
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A 1941 Tauxemont Contemporary ($619K) and Efforts to Preserve the Community
Before developing the ground-breaking modern community of Hollin Hills beginning in the late 1940s, Robert Davenport built the nearby cooperative community of Tauxemont in the earlier part of the decade. The basic cinder block, wood and aluminum one-story side-gabled roofed homes were originally designed by architect and cooperative member Read More >
March 2, 2009
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DCPL’s 2009 Most Endganered Places Nominations Close Feb. 6
Do you know of any mid-century modern buildings in D.C. that are endangered? If you do, click here to nominate your choice to be included in the D.C. Preservation League’s 2009 list of Most Endangered Places. Nominations close Feb. 6.
December 22, 2008
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Event: DCPL to Host Evaluating Modern Discussion PAHO Building
The D.C. Preservation League will host a panel discussion Nov. 20 on the designation and future preservation of modern buildings and sites in Washington. The discussion, the the second event of the DCPL’s D.C. Modern fall program, will be held 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Pan American Read More >
November 10, 2008
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WashPost: Preservationists Want Fenty Adviser Off Case
“The D.C. Preservation League is demanding that a senior adviser to Fenty (D) disqualify herself from ruling on the Third Church of Christ, Scientist’s appeal to raze its building at 16th and I streets NW,” the Post reported yesterday. “The preservationists contend that Harriet Tregoning, the District planning director who Read More >
October 30, 2008
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More on Saarinen’s American Embassy in London
The architecture critic of the Sunday Times (London) argues that the Eero Saarinen-designed U.S. Embassy in London should not be lost as the State Department seeks a new home elsewhere in the city. “Like it or loathe it, this building has enormous character, the expression of a Read More >
October 8, 2008
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Roger Lewis on the Third Church of Christ Debate
Washington Post columnist Roger K. Lewis, a practicing architect and a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes about the continuing battle over the church that is detested by its owners and being protected by preservationists. “In real estate, few laws provoke as much controversy and Read More >
September 13, 2008
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National Trust Book on Preserving Modern Buildings
For those interested in issues concerning the preservation of modern buildings and communities, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has published Preserving Resources from the Recent Past by Jeanne Lambin. The book “looks at the historic context of the postwar building boom, the special challenges of preserving this legacy, and Read More >
December 2, 2007
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More on Saving Mies’ MLK Library, I.M. Pei’s Church of Christ
Washington Post columnist Roger K. Lewis, a practicing architect and a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes about what should be done about modern buildings that may not have aged so well. He discusses the recent debates abut two D.C. buildings: Ludwig Mies van Read More >November 11, 2007
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Post on D.C. Preservation Efforts
Today’s Washington Post Sunday Source section ran a piece on historic preservation efforts in D.C. The story’s sidebar highlights success stories of some buildings saved from the wrecking ball, including the Ludwig Mies Van de Rohe-designed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The building, which was Read More >
November 4, 2007
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Whither Bradley Park?
I was looking at this 1963 home in Bradley Park the other day when I came across this lot. For the most part, the original California contemporary homes by Ken Freeman remain. Some have been modified while others have met the wrecking ball to make way for homes Read More >September 5, 2007
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Architectural Record: Aging Moderns Still Prove Controversial
An interesting story in Architectural Record on the hurdles mid-century modern preservation efforts are facing. The magazine also reports that the the Recent Past Preservation Network, which is seeking to save from destruction Richard Neutra’s 1961 Cyclorama Building at the Gettysburg National Military Park, will meet with the D.C. district Read More >
June 30, 2007
