Norman Alston Architects

Phone trouble continues.

Seems that Clear Communications, my telephone provider, has chosen to change some lower-level carrier and is "switching me over". Until this is complete, and there is no timetable, my phone service will remain unreliable and calls to my main number will not be forwarded. So I must say to you as they say to me, "Sorry for the inconvenience."

Dallas' Praetorian Building Doomed.

The Dallas City Council has apparently removed the last roadblock to the demolition of the historic Praetorian Building in Downtown. For several months it has been known that the planned expansion of the Joule Hotel would remove Dallas' oldest skyscraper. Additional information on the building's history can be found at this Dallas Public Library site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you were wondering why it doesn't look familar to you, this is what it looks like today thanks to an "updating" it received in the 1960's. It has long been understood that the update did an unusual amount of damage to the building, including the complete removal of the massive terra cotta cornice at the top.

 

Too bad.

US Post Office and Courthouse Building Restoration receives Preservation Achievement Award

Last Friday, the jury for Preservation Dallas' 2012 Preservation Achievement Awards selected the restoration of the historic US Post Office and Courthouse Building as an award winner. The presentation of the award will be made at the Majestic Theater, around the corner in Downtown Dallas, on Wednesday, May 16, 2012.You can see additional information about this project from my post last December as well as last September .

Congratulations to developer Shawn Todd and the rest of the project team!

 

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe: Google Doodle

via www.youtube.com

It's Mies van der Rohe's birthday. Thanks Dallas Center for Architecture for bringing this to my attention.

City May Sell Historic Landmarks « CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — More than a dozen historic landmarks in Baltimore may be up for sale soon.

via baltimore.cbslocal.com

This is pretty scary. I think the city is going to spend $46,000 to find that most of them don't have a viable commercial use without destroying the historic integrity of the building. I mean, a shot tower? A water tower?

Good luck, Hon.

Old Dallas High School historical photos

Came across this image at the Dallas Public Library. It's from a 1939 yearbook and shows the front entrance hall at old Dallas High School/Crozier Tech. The statue is Athena, the Roman goddess of Wisdom. This particular statue is a copy of one at the Vatican. Unfortunately, the statue at DalHi is no longer there.

Trouble by the Bay

It's always a challenge to read about preservation issues when they are covered by "main stream" media because the really critical questions seem never to get asked, much less answered. In this article in the New York Times, residents of stunning historic neighborhoods in San Francisco are reported to be rebelling against the requirements associated with repair and renovation work taking place in existing historic districts. So much so, that there is fear it will undermine politically an on-going effort to protect many more nearby neighborhoods and structures. As preservation efforts are almost always grass roots efforts of the local residents, one can only wonder what has happened to bring about this sort of rebellion. Gleaning what I can from the article, I note the following hints:

• There is a stated desire to ease the provisions of the Secretary of the Interiors Standards, with no indication those standards have been augmented with more stringent local provisions, or even that their interpretation or application has been especially narrow.
• Among the modifications mentioned as likely to encounter resistance from those reviewing and enforcing the preservation district restrictions are window replacement and extending new garages into the building setback line established by the original structures. Such issues are among the most common and familiar to those working with historic districts.
• The high cost of conformance is mentioned. One again, a concern voiced repeatedly by those working withing historic districts.

I am not there, but from this article I expect we have come across an example of:

The Preservation Generation Gap

It works something like this; an historic neighborhood sits in need of stabilization and investment. Urban Pioneer types come in using the stability and predictability of historic preservation provisions as an important tool to improve the neighborhood's apprearance, liveability and, of course, property values. This wave of residents seeks to reclaim the appeal that the neighborhood was once thought to have.

Judging from the article, this has been achieved. These neighborhoods are apparently successful by anyone's standards; architecturally engaging, well cared for and valuable. They are so nice that a new generation of residents seeks them out, residents who fully appreciate the beautiful neighborhood that has been created but who may not have a real feel for how it got that way. The value of the preservation component is substantially lost on them.  Specifically because the neighborhood is so successful and subsequently so expensive, this  new generation tends to be highly educated, financially successful, politically active and used to achieving success on their own terms. "Sure this is a beautiful neighborhood, and it will be even better when I .........."

In this way, a neighborhood might very well choke on its own success. A case that bears watching.

Merry Christmas

New York Elevator Tragedy

The New York Times reports this truly horrific story about an elevator accident in Manhatten. I appreciate their restraint in reporting the more spectacular and unsettling details of this most unfortunate event. I only bring it up because in this earlier blog post of mine, I mention how I learned that with most elevator accidents, the car falls UP the shaft, not down. Sure enough.

Drury Blakeley Alexander: 1924 - 2011

I am very sad to note the passing Sunday of Blake Alexander. He pretty much was the face of the School of Architecture to me while I was at the University of Texas and he taught my very first class, Architecture and Society. Dignified and distinguished in his bow tie, he was the living image of what a college professor should be. On the last day of our Architecture and Society Class, everyone stood and applauded when he finished, a new custom adopted from the movie "Paper Chase". He was our KIngsfield. Every semester his classes waited for him to show up for class just one time wearing his Viturvian "Firmness, Commodity and Delight" t-shirt beneath his blazer. Even today his book Texas Homes of the 19th Century is the seminal work on early Texas architecture and is referred to by my colleauges and myself regularly.

A more complete and more fitting biography can be found here. First Hal Box and now Blake Alexander in 2011. Tough year.