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July 25, 2006
Battling Teardowns, Saving Neighborhoods
The fight against the "teardown" phenomenon to save historic neighborhoods and buildings isn't limited to opponents of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, which proposes to demolish the one of the best local candidates for "adaptive reuse," the Ward Bakery (pictured here, with its architecturally significant white terra cotta facade).
The National Trust for Historic Preservation President Richard Moe gave a speech in San Francisco decrying the "teardown" trend. Text of this speech was recently published on the Trust's web site.
In some places, teardowns are acceptable or even desirable. Replacing outdated and inefficient structures is sometimes necessary if a community is to remain economically viable. But in recent years the pace of teardowns has amounted to an orgy of irrational destruction.
Sound older houses should be cherished as an irreplaceable legacy from the past — but instead, in community after community, they're being discarded like yesterday's newspaper.
Posted by lumi at July 25, 2006 11:25 AM