[MassHistPres] lessons from New York in today's Times

[Aaron Marcavitch]

It is absolutely fascinating that there is such a swing towards recent past preservation.  (I feel
a bit like I happened catch the wave just before it happened - I was never this hip in high
school.) I especially love that its happening much like the rest of preservation (hopefully it
doesn't take as long) as the major landmarks are preserved, then the second tiers, and hopefully
soon a real national move towards preservation of the recent past vernacular (i.e. roadside,
suburbs).  While we have the "lunatic fringe" of recent past preservationists - myself included -
who are championing these recent past vernacular buildings, the rest of the world still has lots
of work to do.  

I liked this portion of the article - "The threatened demolition of the O’Toole Building is most
troubling of all. Designed by the New Orleans architect Albert C. Ledner, it is significant both
as a work of architecture and as a repository of cultural memory. <snip>

In short, you don’t need to love the building to grasp its historical value. Like Ledner’s
Maritime dormitory building on Ninth Avenue or Edward Durell Stone’s 2 Columbus Circle, the
O’Toole represents a moment when some architects rebelled against Modernism’s glass-box aesthetic
in favor of ornamental facades.

Viewed in that context, the O’Toole Building is part of a complex historical narrative in which
competing values are always jostling for attention. This is not simply a question of losing a
building; it’s about masking those complexities and reducing New York history to a caricature.
Ultimately, it’s a form of collective amnesia."

Anyway, I'm glad to see recent past resources are getting their due.  And how I ever managed to
catch the wave, I have no idea - I'm just glad I'm on it.

Aaron

--- M Fenollosa <mmt.fenollosa at verizon.net> wrote:


---------------------------------
  ArchitectureIn Village, a Proposal That Erases HistoryHiroko Masuike for The New York Times

The 1963 O’Toole Building, threatened by development


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http://www.marcavitch.com


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