Ada Louise Huxtable was the New York Times Architecture Critic and my favorite quotation from her is this: "Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance. Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tin-horn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed"
It always has amazed me how creative and constructive mankind can be, and turn right around and be just if not more destructive. Like most things we only seem to appreciate them when they are gone. We are a strange species.
They could afford to keep it clean. They just didn't want to appropriate funds for its maintenance, and cleaning. Greed and stupidity brought down these buildings and not the coventional, public excuse.
"you want to dig up the men who approved its demolition and bang their bones together so hard their souls have headaches for all eternity" ~ James Lileks
They're permitting it (vandalism) now against Grand Central. No sooner was it in public hands than the selling off of air rights started - to benefit One Vanderbilt, with the new building towering over and upstaging GCT to belittle it to insignificance. There is to be another building on the other side that's bigger still. The tallness destroys the balance of the all-thirty-stories-except New York Central Building config (or Helmsly Building if you prefer, but Halmsley's "for little people") that obtained for about 8 blocks square previously. So far, as part of this "deal" they got one stair and a partially remodeled subway entrance. In return they gave away Vanderbilt Avenue, effectively blocking access to the Guastavino-vaulted taxi stand and reducing it to a permanent latrine. The MTA thought restaurants would be nice; then it was a bicycle stand. The upshot is all the taxis are forced out onto 42nd street where they line up three lanes thick and require traffic controllers attempting keep order. The people who built this One Vanderbilt were the ones who previously bought the Lincoln Building across the the street, then sold off the statue of Lincoln and the big bronze plaque with some of his inspiring prose on the wall by the statue that was located in the recessed alcove of the building's main entrance for about 75 years previous, for all to see and enjoy. Their lipservice for Grand Central is just that. To build One Vanderbilt they had to demolish an entire block of more appropriately and often nicely proportioned buildings including a rare instance of 5-story mullions by Cass Gilbert - which you'd think would be on the register - along with the Hotel Pennsylvanisa (PEnnsylvania 6-5-oh-oh-oh) to prevent this kind of thing - what with the Municipal Arts Society and Local Authority and so on, but it's just more class conscious lipservice nad posturing. Some Japanese company did a nice job of replacing the old nondescript 6-story brick building at 5th and 42nd with a nice glassy modern while respecting the proportional - but that's an exception with developers, they're all dumb as shit.
@@LUIS-ox1bv The Railroad? Oh no, it's worse than that, and the PRR was the originator, refusing their lucrative US Mail contracts (to get rid of passenger trains) Inventor of propaganda kinks, just in time for the benighted Metroliners. (which were noisy and rough anyway, so Amtrack selected them as the pattern for their entire fleet for the next 40 years) We preserve the tradition of propaganda kinks in NYC. They've been in Sunnyside on the LIRR for 20 years, and on the Jamaica flyover - get an operator who doesn't know about it and you'll know what people look like when they think the gonna die. PRR was at the Vanguard! - of the Freight Carrier Railroad Engineering FRA Revolving Door Cabal.
Me too!..though it caught me off guard...I was honestly thinking (before he said parking lot) that we were going to see a worthy successor to the demolished building! .
The loss of Penn Station is just heart breaking!! Shame on NYC for allowing it to happen!!! Of the 22 giant stone eagles that originally adorned the entrances to the station, 18 still exist. Four of them can be seen on the Market Street bridge that crosses the Schuykill River in Philadelphia.
The Fox theater in San Francisco while the outside was nice the interior was spectacular. Torn down for a condo. This would make a great video Thank you.
I was a teenager when the demolition of Penn Station began. I remember that it wasn't being maintained all that well, anymore. It was "long in the tooth", and was, generally, looking worn out, dingy, and a bit dirty. Sad, really. It was a true masterpiece that, today, would look spectacular if kept up.
Agreed! Its strange to see how dingy it was looking in the 1960s... the pictures from that time period are almost unrecognizable from a few decades before
There was even plans to demolish Philadelphia City Hall in the 60's. One plan shows just the clock tower standing with a roundabout around the tower, another plan shows a completely new simplistic clock tower. Thank GOD they didn't go with that plan
The Singer Tower, the City Investment company building and the old Penn Station and the old City Hall Post Office and Courthouse were real architectural masterpieces of architecture that should have never been demolished in the first place at all! It is a shame!
The US Post Office and Sub-treasury Building in Boston (demolished in 1929) could be an honorable mention for this list. I wonder if my grandfather did any work for Penn Station as he was a stone cutter and polisher in the Milford (MA) quarries: it was built of Milford pink granite.
@@aegisofhonor Yup and many more, too: D.S Morgan, Buffalo Public Library, Hotel Buffalo, Iroquois Hotel, German Insurance Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad Station, Bank of Buffalo, Old M & T Bank, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (D. L. & W.) Terminal
10:55 It was the realization The City had no power to preserve buildings and neighborhoods based solely on their architectural and historical significance that led to creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Beyond that, passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, requiring Federal projects to asses historic effects, also resulted from Penn Station's loss.
@@paulagomes7713 The striking thing about most of these buildings is that they were NOT constructed as buildings in Europe and Asia had been for centuries; they had steel frames and the monumental "architectural" embellishments were added as a facade. That's also the reason they were held in contempt by some. I think some purists don't appreciate the notion that a good fake can be a work of art for that reason alone
@@pcno2832 Yeah, and at least they were beautiful. I loved how old building break up their construction into "layers" and are covered in tons of ornamental detail. These days you're lucky if a large building has more than 5 perfectly flat, straight surfaces. Everything is just glass cubes.
@@pux0rb : There is much more than glass cubes these days but...Yes, there are too many. Still, they can reflect the light nicely. There is a building that is the epitome of the glass cube between my living room and Lake Michigan and it reflects the surroundings so beautifully that it's always a pleasure to see.
As an architectural designer and restorationist, I could list a million more buildings that were wrongfully deleted. Architecture, for the most part, like so many things in our lives, has become generic. Bland, tasteless, worthless. And they say architecture reflects the people and culture in which it's built.
Well, I think one thing we can agree upon, the 1960s were not the ideal era to replace buildings. Pretty bleh. Pittsburgh fascinated me. The hills, the rivers, the greenery, the architecture.
Of all American cities, San Francisco might deserve recognition for preserving most of her fabulous Beaux-Arts compliment of public spaces. There are no fewer than 12 masterpiece structures, seven in Civic Center alone. Her City Hall is grander than the capitol buildings of most countries.
Philadelphia City Hall almost would have joined this list in the 60s, had not been for City Council finding out it would have been the most expensive demolition of a single building in human history.
An honorable mention should be the Larkin Building in Buffalo NY designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The building was the headquarters of the Larkin Soap Company but after the company faced hard times in the 1940s it was vacated and no one wanted to move back in. The building was demolished it and replaced it with a parking lot.
We build boxes & tear down works of art. It's ALL about money. How many people can fit into a building, how fast they can get from point A to B. I don't think there are even any artisans left to BUILD beautiful building like those anymore.
Woman’s hospital didn’t work as a building it was difficult to build,and the towers were a complete waste of space.Want to feel old I worked on a building that didn’t out last me.
Prentice was outside my living room window. I thought it was grotesque. If it had been one elegant piece, maybe it would have been better but it was like three incoherent pieces stuck together. I'm glad I don't have to look at it anymore. The glass cubes in the area are uninspired but they're not aggressively ugly and they reflect the light nicely.
@@lrvogt1257 It’s what happens when you let donors make decisions.The guy that did Marina towers was a hot architect so he got the nod.It was kind of anti form follows function.The whole building even had to be repainted before it could be opened.And the mix of mental patients and pregnant woman was scary.
This was just fascinating. A beautiful sadness to it all. Like portraits of forgotten family. Your narration was excellent. Something simple and marvelously unique about your calming voice. Wasn't familiar with most of these amazing buildings. (Also lost: The Larkin Bldg, Buffalo, Frank Lloyd Wright 1906. Demolished 1950),
Americans don’t only have a few very important architectural buildings, but the only ones they have they demolished them. What the heck is wrong with you? History must be preserved!
These were not masterpieces. They were obsolete useless buildings. If it was the size of a painting, you keep it, if it’s the size of a city block that has no practical use, take a picture.
Great Video. You could easily do 40 of these type videos. Our country was full of these great architectural structures. The intricate and extravagant designs were commonplace, because there were men who could build them. As the decades passed, they could no longer be built and could not even be kept up. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago and more were replete with 'millionaire's rows' mansions. The owners died and their kids could not keep them up or simply did not want them, and they fell victim to the wrecking ball. It is an absolute shame that structures like these are no longer with us, but that is the unfortunate way of the building world.
Great video and channel. Glad I found it. Pittsburgh still has a lot of gems left including the Union Station, and I think that some of the mistakes you mentioned made the city turn more towards preservation. Yeah, sad about Penn Station.
I really appreciate how you don't clutter up the video with pictures of these (some of them) gorgeous old buildings, but instead provide us with computer-models of downtowns with no way to tell which building went where. Spectacular.
This was a great video. If you do a part two…. Look at Larkin Building in Buffalo, NY. Built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Buffalo loved to tear down masterpieces in the 1950-1960’s
2:56 Historical significance doesn't have to imply beauty, and in this case, I'd say it didn't. But I'll bet the building's less-than-optimum use of the available space and status as a maintenance-nightmare waiting to happen, played a role in its demise. Gravity is not usually kind to giant cantilevered structures like that.
Truly my all time favorite construction project would have to be the World Trade Center. Truly an amazing monument to architectural engineering. A massive and cohesive office complex encompassing two massive Towers, three lower buildings, a central plaza, later a hotel, and a newer tower constructed across the street yet connected to the complex via two pedestrian walkways. To top it all off, the raised complex was located atop an indoor shopping mall which was connected to New Jersey’s PATH system and New York’s subway system. The architecture had a coherent and concise flow, everything fit perfectly together, and now the World Trade Center is just a memory.
Here some other examples: 1st Madison Square Garden Tower (NYC), Pabst Building (Milwaukee), Farmers Bank Building (Pittsburgh), Frank Furness Building (Philly), Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (NYC), Masonic Temple (Chicago), Old Chicago Board of Trade, Women's Temple (Chicago), Yankee Stadium (NYC), New York World Building (NYC), Richfield Tower (LA), Commercial Cable Building (NYC), Manhattan Life Insurance Building (NYC), Cadillac Square Building (Detroit), Trinity Court Building (NYC)
Milwaukee lost not just one but *two* downtown railroad stations- the other being the Chicago and NorthWestern lakefront station. Incidentally, the replacement for the Everett St. Station was built further south (now with a handsome new facade), closer to the Menonomee River, and cut off from downtown by a monster elevated freeway. The site of the old station (which fronted the city's oldest park) is now occupied by a souless office building.
I always shake my head when I see images of Pennsylvania Station! It is such a loss! I cannot help but imagine what that bldng would be like today if it had been restored/preserved like Grand Central....
I miss brutalist architecture. As someone born in the early 1970s, I still see this style as forward-thinking and futuristic, probably in part because it was often featured in science fiction film and television when attempting to depict the future.
I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I never see another Brutalist building again, it'll be too soon. The area around L'Enfant Plaza, before it started getting redeveloped, could plausibly have been used as a stand-in for an Eastern bloc country in a movie set during the Cold War. It really was that bleak and dystopian.
@@ToABrighterFuture 100% true. Although, the DC metro brutalist style actually is not too bad. But it has lighting etc. which enhances the space. If it was just an above ground building it would suck.
Agree, I was introduced to brutslist architecture the same way and have always thought it as futuristic. Not all of it is great, like any style, but it shouldn't be summarily dismissed like it is by many. Tastes of today aren't necessarily the tastes of tomorrow. I'm particularly a fan of Paul Rudolph having attended as a child an elementary school he designed. I didn't realize until much later its significance. It was torn down a decade ago and replaced by a far less interesting building. Not enough people could see the value in keeping it. Very sad to me.
I used to love the Eagle Silk Mill in Shamokin Pa. I miss those large clocks that sat atop beautiful buildings. I’m old enough to remember looking up to see what time it was and not looking at a cell phone. I don’t think we knew what we had
Atlanta demolished 2 (!) Grand railroad terminals 1 Greek revival and the other Spanish Renaissance ..now there is only a tiny RR station on Peachtree St. ..A city with almost NO Preservation , just street walls of Glass and Blank empty facades ..a city that sold it's soul decades ago
I might have added the old Marion Country courthouse in Indianapolis, which looked very much like Old Detroit City Hall, but it's been gone since about 1963. Thanks for sharing these.
The World Trade Center was technically not demolished, but it was definitely iconic, unprecedented in its scale and style, and to this day nothing of its scale, as in twin buildings with 110 floors each, exists anywhere in the world.
Good video. But question: why do you have zoom videos? What are we supposed to be looking at? The buildings are there anymore… I really don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking at. The building that replaced it?? If so…. I don’t know which building on the screen is the one that replaced it is.
The 60s seem to have been a time for demolition worldwide. Here in Melbourne, Australia, we lost many grand buildings that were replaced by eyesores. Now, many of the eyesores have been replaced by glass and steel monoliths. Such a lack of vision .
Excellent presentation. 1) request, might you mark up on the maps where buildings are? Hard to tell with so many. 2) Show, odd buildings like the 4 cylinder hospital. Maybe insides if can get pics. Sad ppl want to destroy our heritage.
Thanks! And I appreciate the constructive feedback! I'll keep those ideas in mind going forward. This video was tough to find much for since most of these buildings have been gone for 70 years or more, so unfortunately grainy old pictures were most of what I could find.
I think they could have saved Pennsylvania Station had the Pennsylvania Railroad been in better financial shape and the City of New York was willing to partially pay for the cost of maintenance of the building. It was a huge building, and with Pennsylvania Railroad's failing finances, was starting to fall into disrepair. In the end, it was far more financially valuable to replace that building with the current Madison Square Garden, which is still a major moneymaker for New York City. Indeed, there is still talk to demolish Madison Square Garden, put a replacement at a new location on Manhattan, and restore the site to something akin to the old Pennsylvania Station. Only one problem: is someone willing to foot the bill, which could run as high as US$45 billion?
Seeing a certain Midwest bias here… Downtown LA had some spectacular buildings near City Hall, all destroyed as part of a move to create an open expanse and perhaps distance downtown from the aging Victorians on Bunker Hill. Thankfully, Gehry’s Disney Hall has added major architectural luster, along with MOCA and the Broad.
5:28 That building doesn't look like something that would go down easily in a fire, but it sure did. I'll venture a guess that despite its monumental appearance, it had a badly protected steel frame.
Marlborough - Blenheim Hotel. Atlantic City, NJ 1906. Reinforced concrete also supervised by Edison. Grandest hotel in town. Demolished late 70:s for Bally's Hotel Casino.
From my French perspective it seems that US efficiency has a flipside regarding conservation of historical buildings. There is indeed not enough time for heritage protection associations nor citizens to be aware of these money driven vandalism projects, so by the time people get organized or realize what is going on… it is too late and the buildings are already demolished 😢
No surprise this little "gem" would be offered up by the French. Their effete nature is entirely consistent with the dismissal of property rights and disregard for the realities imposed by fiscal realities. Eventually, if we keep preserving existing structures we will run out of land. Not every old building needs to be, or even should be preserved.
@@dougtaylor2803I was told multiple times by Americans that the US is multiple times bigger than Europe (almost twice actually), and here you imply that you won't have enough space for historical buildings ... so which is it then ? Unless you actually believe that it is normal to have parking lots everywhere and highways flowing every corner of the city, then no wonder you feel that way ... And yet i will tell you if a small country (compared to the USA) and much more densely packed have almost no problems with historical buildings then America can do the same. Have you ever wondered why many foreigners like to go to France and many European countries for vacations ? One of the reasons is landmarks, if the French had followed your logic then we would have destroyed every single castle, the few remaining city's walls, and places like Saints Michelle Mountain .... You will be surprised by the number of money France makes from tourism. Of course no decisions are flawed less a give you some credit, some places that fall apart, unsafe, and to costly to maintain can (and are in France) disposed of, but it must be rare cases not the default, also replace those by at least some worthy, for example I have seen many good looking houses been replaced by mid-rise residential buildings, not beautiful but at least the land is not wasted by some ugly corporate cube-scraper or a parking lot (those exists in France but are deliberately build in old industrial Westlands, or land that have been abandoned for decades) ...
The Prentice Women's hospital was brutalism at its best or worst. It's still intriguing in its drab, grimy style. They should have preserved it. Yet, using this depressing, flaking hulk as a hospital wasn't the best idea anyway. It was a landmark of both, audacity and flawed ambition. Today, concrete is for architects what plastic is for consumers. You need it, you use it but you don't like it.
I bury my face in tears; these recollections should bring shame to all thoughtful Americans. Just think of the proliferation of strip malls and box stores with vast asphalt parking lots, and minimalls corrupting the once-bucolic American farmlands. It makes these losses even more criminal.
Buffalo, NY still has our spectacular Post Office building standing, and many more remarkable pieces of architecture. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the country in the late 1800's, but much of its architecture was saved by the fact that Buffalo was one of the poorest rust belt cities in the mid century era when so many buildings were destroyed in the name if "progress " We have our massive Brutalist former Courthouse, some great Frank Lloyd Wright homes, and many gorgeous old buildings still standing. That said, we've lost many wonderful buildings as well, in the name of "progress," or "parking lots."
Richfield Oil Building in DTLA is my nomination for this list. Designed by Stiles O. Clements and featured a black and gold Art Deco façade. The unusual color scheme was meant to symbolize the "black gold" that was Richfield's business. The building was covered with architectural terra cotta.
I’m really hesitant to support keeping buildings that don’t serve any function except their looks. The hospital in Chicago was absolutely heinous. I live there and I was happy to see it go.
You have a fair point, I 100% agree that functionality is definitely a concern... but I also don't think it would be fair to say these old buildings serve no function. Sure, they may be less efficient than ultra efficient offices with cubicles packed in them, but they still provide usable space. Its definitely a balancing act and every situation is a little bit different, but to me in the 1960s things swung way to far towards an emphasis on efficiency, being "modern" and large scale centrally planned redevelopment projects. While all of those things have their place, I think it's also important to value history, architecture, beauty and culture as well.
The 1950-1980s were such a distructive time. All the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. sit on land where the largest concentration of Victorian homes in the country once were and were all demolished to rid of the “blight”…. Now the city is regretting this decision was ever made.
That's not quite true. Those old, stately Victorian homes were on Bunker Hill. However, many of those homes were in disrepair because the wealthy had left decades before and moved further west. Still, there were buildings like the beautiful Art Deco Richfield Oil Building that didn't deserve to be destroyed and replaced with two sleek boring towers.
My daughter was born in the Bertrand Goldberg-designed Prentice Women's Hospital in 2005. I was the same age as the hospital, 30. I moved to Chicago in 2001, so it was not a building I was familiar with, but it seems odd that it's gone. My son was born in the new Prentice Women's Hospital in 2012. It is a lot nicer, brighter and roomier than the first one. The windows of the Goldberg hospital were unique with their oval shape, but not great at bringing in light.
As a European, it is mindblogging to see how the US, who by essence has a shorter history and less architectural heritage than the Old World, can actually destroy the few they have. But the late 60's and 70's were quite crazy everywhere, including Europe. On a side note, I think the Milwaukee train station is not that hideous at all compared to many brutalist buildings of that time (even if it can't compete with the old one).
Is there anyone else who is a little suspicious that there were findings that the Maryland Casualty Tower Building was found to be unsafe. It would be so easy to get the right firm to come up with the right finding to pave the way for its destruction.
I wonder if many of these buildings were purposefully set up to be demolished due to lack of maintenance. I wonder if the same intention to build such beautiful buildings was there for their maintenance, would we still have them today? Was there ever a plan to demolish the White House or the Capital building in D.C. during the 1960's to build some brutalist structures? How was old buildings built on a marsh able to survive to today, yet all of those other buildings had to perish?
Do you intend to compare a train station to the home of the leader of the free world? At the end of the day, train stations are there to serve a function, not to make pretty pictures on post cards.
@dougtaylor2803 There was a time when that function was to be a grand welcome to the city rather than something that provided the bare minimum of what is needed to get passengers on and off a train. The President was not supposed to be at the same kevel as the King or Queen, just someone who presided over the executive branch
Speaking of Frank Lloyd Wright, is the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin still standing? I remember from a PBS special on Wright that it was not architecturally sound and that water would leak through the roof and the employees had buckets by their desks to collect the water.
That’s because they are depressing. They’re wiping out historical building left and right because they don’t look right, they don’t go with the rest of the buildings, they’re depressing, and all other whatnot
Very interesting and illuminating video - thank you! This is why America's cities lack so much grace, and why their centers seldom exhibit even the relatively short history we have a nation. Our cities simply recycle themselves, driven on by commercialism and development pressure. It's good that a preservation movement got started in the 1950's and 1960's - but the defeats continue to this day. Money talks, and the architectural world seem smitten with fashion. Sometimes I wonder if there is even a national will to preserve architectural monuments, or if this will always be how approach our great buildings - as objects to be used and then discarded rather than preserved and studied as part of our culture.
The Everett Street train building was replaced by a beautiful modern building that is reminiscing of a modern interpretation of a building with a lot of columns. Very common in the 60s. Example. Foley department stores. Now Macy department stores. It's a more unified and uniformed style befitting the 60s
Ada Louise Huxtable was the New York Times Architecture Critic and my favorite quotation from her is this: "Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance. Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tin-horn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed"
It always has amazed me how creative and constructive mankind can be, and turn right around and be just if not more destructive. Like most things we only seem to appreciate them when they are gone. We are a strange species.
They could afford to keep it clean. They just didn't want to appropriate funds for its maintenance, and cleaning. Greed and stupidity brought down these buildings and not the coventional, public excuse.
"you want to dig up the men who approved its demolition and bang their bones together so hard their souls have headaches for all eternity" ~ James Lileks
They're permitting it (vandalism) now against Grand Central. No sooner was it in public hands than the selling off of air rights started - to benefit One Vanderbilt, with the new building towering over and upstaging GCT to belittle it to insignificance. There is to be another building on the other side that's bigger still. The tallness destroys the balance of the all-thirty-stories-except New York Central Building config (or Helmsly Building if you prefer, but Halmsley's "for little people") that obtained for about 8 blocks square previously. So far, as part of this "deal" they got one stair and a partially remodeled subway entrance. In return they gave away Vanderbilt Avenue, effectively blocking access to the Guastavino-vaulted taxi stand and reducing it to a permanent latrine. The MTA thought restaurants would be nice; then it was a bicycle stand. The upshot is all the taxis are forced out onto 42nd street where they line up three lanes thick and require traffic controllers attempting keep order. The people who built this One Vanderbilt were the ones who previously bought the Lincoln Building across the the street, then sold off the statue of Lincoln and the big bronze plaque with some of his inspiring prose on the wall by the statue that was located in the recessed alcove of the building's main entrance for about 75 years previous, for all to see and enjoy. Their lipservice for Grand Central is just that. To build One Vanderbilt they had to demolish an entire block of more appropriately and often nicely proportioned buildings including a rare instance of 5-story mullions by Cass Gilbert - which you'd think would be on the register - along with the Hotel Pennsylvanisa (PEnnsylvania 6-5-oh-oh-oh) to prevent this kind of thing - what with the Municipal Arts Society and Local Authority and so on, but it's just more class conscious lipservice nad posturing. Some Japanese company did a nice job of replacing the old nondescript 6-story brick building at 5th and 42nd with a nice glassy modern while respecting the proportional - but that's an exception with developers, they're all dumb as shit.
@@LUIS-ox1bv The Railroad? Oh no, it's worse than that, and the PRR was the originator, refusing their lucrative US Mail contracts (to get rid of passenger trains) Inventor of propaganda kinks, just in time for the benighted Metroliners. (which were noisy and rough anyway, so Amtrack selected them as the pattern for their entire fleet for the next 40 years) We preserve the tradition of propaganda kinks in NYC. They've been in Sunnyside on the LIRR for 20 years, and on the Jamaica flyover - get an operator who doesn't know about it and you'll know what people look like when they think the gonna die. PRR was at the Vanguard! - of the Freight Carrier Railroad Engineering FRA Revolving Door Cabal.
Love your sarcasm regarding Pittsburgh Post Office replaced with culturally significant parking lot. 😂😂😂
Me too!..though it caught me off guard...I was honestly thinking (before he said parking lot) that we were going to see a worthy successor to the demolished building! .
made me snicker.
YT just put you in my queue! I LOVE/LOVED the Prentice Hospital building. It was so cool.
The loss of Penn Station is just heart breaking!! Shame on NYC for allowing it to happen!!! Of the 22 giant stone eagles that originally adorned the entrances to the station, 18 still exist. Four of them can be seen on the Market Street bridge that crosses the Schuykill River in Philadelphia.
The Fox theater in San Francisco while the outside was nice the interior was spectacular. Torn down for a condo. This would make a great video Thank you.
Thanks. You were correct making Penn Station No 1
I was a teenager when the demolition of Penn Station began. I remember that it wasn't being maintained all that well, anymore. It was "long in the tooth", and was, generally, looking worn out, dingy, and a bit dirty. Sad, really. It was a true masterpiece that, today, would look spectacular if kept up.
Agreed! Its strange to see how dingy it was looking in the 1960s... the pictures from that time period are almost unrecognizable from a few decades before
There was even plans to demolish Philadelphia City Hall in the 60's. One plan shows just the clock tower standing with a roundabout around the tower, another plan shows a completely new simplistic clock tower. Thank GOD they didn't go with that plan
The Singer Tower, the City Investment company building and the old Penn Station and the old City Hall Post Office and Courthouse were real architectural masterpieces of architecture that should have never been demolished in the first place at all! It is a shame!
You should also include the Chicago Stock Exchange Building designed by architectural greats Adler and Sullivan.
Some doors from that building ended up in a building at Yale University
The trading room and the iconic arch are at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The US Post Office and Sub-treasury Building in Boston (demolished in 1929) could be an honorable mention for this list. I wonder if my grandfather did any work for Penn Station as he was a stone cutter and polisher in the Milford (MA) quarries: it was built of Milford pink granite.
Your commentary was spot on. Good video and most interesting
Appreciate it, thanks for watching!
Exactly his continual mention of a "lack of functionality" is telling, the buildings were not functional and outlived there utility....
@@AMD7027their*
also, form over function
a building has to be beautiful
So happy you included the Erie County Savings Bank building in Buffalo on here. A+ list.
and the Larkin Building also in Buffalo, both buildings down down for stupid reasons.
@@aegisofhonor Yup and many more, too: D.S Morgan, Buffalo Public Library, Hotel Buffalo, Iroquois Hotel, German Insurance Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad Station, Bank of Buffalo, Old M & T Bank, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (D. L. & W.) Terminal
10:55 It was the realization The City had no power to preserve buildings and neighborhoods based solely on their architectural and historical significance that led to creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Beyond that, passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, requiring Federal projects to asses historic effects, also resulted from Penn Station's loss.
I am still amazed on how those buildings of late 1800's to early 1900's were constructed.
Why not? We’ve been building them in Europe and Asia for over 1000 years.
@@paulagomes7713 The striking thing about most of these buildings is that they were NOT constructed as buildings in Europe and Asia had been for centuries; they had steel frames and the monumental "architectural" embellishments were added as a facade. That's also the reason they were held in contempt by some. I think some purists don't appreciate the notion that a good fake can be a work of art for that reason alone
@@pcno2832 Yeah, and at least they were beautiful. I loved how old building break up their construction into "layers" and are covered in tons of ornamental detail. These days you're lucky if a large building has more than 5 perfectly flat, straight surfaces. Everything is just glass cubes.
@@pux0rb : There is much more than glass cubes these days but...Yes, there are too many. Still, they can reflect the light nicely.
There is a building that is the epitome of the glass cube between my living room and Lake Michigan and it reflects the surroundings so beautifully that it's always a pleasure to see.
Well done Uncle Sam !
You’ve transform cities with nice centers where you can enjoy to walk to look at the building into ugly things
Detroit lost multiple theaters, train station, Olympia stadium, tiger stadium and many more historical significant buildings, so very sad.
As an architectural designer and restorationist, I could list a million more buildings that were wrongfully deleted. Architecture, for the most part, like so many things in our lives, has become generic. Bland, tasteless, worthless. And they say architecture reflects the people and culture in which it's built.
It was the top ten not. The top 2000
Well, I think one thing we can agree upon, the 1960s were not the ideal era to replace buildings. Pretty bleh.
Pittsburgh fascinated me. The hills, the rivers, the greenery, the architecture.
Great video. Nice to hear a real person's voice instead of a computer's.
Thanks, appreciate it!
Baltimore's Tower Building was so neat. its a shame i never got to see it. My Dad took some photo's of it's deconstruction in 86
Oh, no one uses it anymore... lets build a parking lot now!
I agree, more parking, less museums😊.
The loss of most of these buildings, excepting by fire or structural integrity, is absolutely criminal.
Of all American cities, San Francisco might deserve recognition for preserving most of her fabulous Beaux-Arts compliment of public spaces. There are no fewer than 12 masterpiece structures, seven in Civic Center alone. Her City Hall is grander than the capitol buildings of most countries.
Philadelphia City Hall almost would have joined this list in the 60s, had not been for City Council finding out it would have been the most expensive demolition of a single building in human history.
The dome of the Old Chicago Federal Building reminds me more to Florence Cathedral than to St. Peter's.
An honorable mention should be the Larkin Building in Buffalo NY designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The building was the headquarters of the Larkin Soap Company but after the company faced hard times in the 1940s it was vacated and no one wanted to move back in. The building was demolished it and replaced it with a parking lot.
The trainstation in my small town in Asbury Park, NJ was a minuture Grand Central, with Cathedral ceilings, marble and granite, torn down in the 70's.
We build boxes & tear down works of art. It's ALL about money. How many people can fit into a building, how fast they can get from point A to B. I don't think there are even any artisans left to BUILD beautiful building like those anymore.
Even when the old buildings were originally built it was all about money. IT'S ALWAYS about money.
Woman’s hospital didn’t work as a building it was difficult to build,and the towers were a complete waste of space.Want to feel old I worked on a building that didn’t out last me.
Prentice was outside my living room window. I thought it was grotesque. If it had been one elegant piece, maybe it would have been better but it was like three incoherent pieces stuck together. I'm glad I don't have to look at it anymore. The glass cubes in the area are uninspired but they're not aggressively ugly and they reflect the light nicely.
@@lrvogt1257 It’s what happens when you let donors make decisions.The guy that did Marina towers was a hot architect so he got the nod.It was kind of anti form follows function.The whole building even had to be repainted before it could be opened.And the mix of mental patients and pregnant woman was scary.
There wasn’t much protest from the neighborhood when Prentice came down. The new building is an exceptional medical center.
Yeah. To be that is unlamented. I hate brutalist style.
@@lrvogt1257 you sound like a hick - is that what you were going for?
This was just fascinating. A beautiful sadness to it all. Like portraits of forgotten family. Your narration was excellent. Something simple and marvelously unique about your calming voice. Wasn't familiar with most of these amazing buildings. (Also lost: The Larkin Bldg, Buffalo, Frank Lloyd Wright 1906. Demolished 1950),
It's sweetly ironic that 2 demolition companies went out of business wrecking the Larkin Building.
All these American cities look so depressing now..
lmao NYC looks depressing, said only you, apparently. Go to Paris and you will know what a depressing city feels like.
@@yaush_Paris, France doesn't look depressing
That’s a lie
@@fischXYes it looks depressing to me. I love my city, Florence! Where people like Leonardo, Michelangelo and Galileo made magic back in the day!!!
@@yaush_that’s right, I think the same brother!
If you want to see shots of the Old Penn it is featured in the 1964 film, Dear Heart.
I think you mean "shots"
@@jamesmurray6883 lord how did you let that get through?
Also Killer's Kiss by Kubrick
“Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god...one scuttles in now like a rat.”
Good video, thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it!
Americans don’t only have a few very important architectural buildings, but the only ones they have they demolished them. What the heck is wrong with you? History must be preserved!
We have a lot more history than just these 10 buildings lol.
@ Yes but they were a masterpiece. So sad they’re gone forever!!!
These were not masterpieces. They were obsolete useless buildings. If it was the size of a painting, you keep it, if it’s the size of a city block that has no practical use, take a picture.
@@Jude74 Some were were saving/ They were beautiful and historic. Some others... not so much.
@@Jude74alright American buddy.
you go live in car centric suburbia while I stay here in Europe well away from urban obliteration
Great Video. You could easily do 40 of these type videos. Our country was full of these great architectural structures. The intricate and extravagant designs were commonplace, because there were men who could build them. As the decades passed, they could no longer be built and could not even be kept up. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago and more were replete with 'millionaire's rows' mansions. The owners died and their kids could not keep them up or simply did not want them, and they fell victim to the wrecking ball. It is an absolute shame that structures like these are no longer with us, but that is the unfortunate way of the building world.
Great video and channel. Glad I found it. Pittsburgh still has a lot of gems left including the Union Station, and I think that some of the mistakes you mentioned made the city turn more towards preservation. Yeah, sad about Penn Station.
Thanks, appreciate it!!
Great video
Thanks!
I really appreciate how you don't clutter up the video with pictures of these (some of them) gorgeous old buildings, but instead provide us with computer-models of downtowns with no way to tell which building went where. Spectacular.
Appreciate the support and positivity, glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!!
Thanks!
This was a great video. If you do a part two…. Look at Larkin Building in Buffalo, NY. Built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Buffalo loved to tear down masterpieces in the 1950-1960’s
Appreciate the suggestions, I'll definitely check them out!
2:56 Historical significance doesn't have to imply beauty, and in this case, I'd say it didn't. But I'll bet the building's less-than-optimum use of the available space and status as a maintenance-nightmare waiting to happen, played a role in its demise. Gravity is not usually kind to giant cantilevered structures like that.
Truly my all time favorite construction project would have to be the World Trade Center. Truly an amazing monument to architectural engineering. A massive and cohesive office complex encompassing two massive Towers, three lower buildings, a central plaza, later a hotel, and a newer tower constructed across the street yet connected to the complex via two pedestrian walkways. To top it all off, the raised complex was located atop an indoor shopping mall which was connected to New Jersey’s PATH system and New York’s subway system.
The architecture had a coherent and concise flow, everything fit perfectly together, and now the World Trade Center is just a memory.
Here some other examples:
1st Madison Square Garden Tower (NYC), Pabst Building (Milwaukee), Farmers Bank Building (Pittsburgh), Frank Furness Building (Philly), Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (NYC), Masonic Temple (Chicago), Old Chicago Board of Trade, Women's Temple (Chicago), Yankee Stadium (NYC), New York World Building (NYC), Richfield Tower (LA), Commercial Cable Building (NYC), Manhattan Life Insurance Building (NYC), Cadillac Square Building (Detroit), Trinity Court Building (NYC)
Great list, I'll definitely need to make a part 2 video!
Jackie Onassis saved Grand Central from the same fate
Milwaukee lost not just one but *two* downtown railroad stations- the other being the Chicago and NorthWestern lakefront station. Incidentally, the replacement for the Everett St. Station was built further south (now with a handsome new facade), closer to the Menonomee River, and cut off from downtown by a monster elevated freeway. The site of the old station (which fronted the city's oldest park) is now occupied by a souless office building.
That's a shame, I didn't realize there was a second one!
I always shake my head when I see images of Pennsylvania Station! It is such a loss! I cannot help but imagine what that bldng would be like today if it had been restored/preserved like Grand Central....
Agreed! Some go the later images of it make it look kinda dingy, but if it had been better maintained or fully restored, it would be spectacular
I miss brutalist architecture. As someone born in the early 1970s, I still see this style as forward-thinking and futuristic, probably in part because it was often featured in science fiction film and television when attempting to depict the future.
I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I never see another Brutalist building again, it'll be too soon.
The area around L'Enfant Plaza, before it started getting redeveloped, could plausibly have been used as a stand-in for an Eastern bloc country in a movie set during the Cold War. It really was that bleak and dystopian.
@@ToABrighterFuture 100% true. Although, the DC metro brutalist style actually is not too bad. But it has lighting etc. which enhances the space. If it was just an above ground building it would suck.
Agree, I was introduced to brutslist architecture the same way and have always thought it as futuristic. Not all of it is great, like any style, but it shouldn't be summarily dismissed like it is by many. Tastes of today aren't necessarily the tastes of tomorrow.
I'm particularly a fan of Paul Rudolph having attended as a child an elementary school he designed. I didn't realize until much later its significance. It was torn down a decade ago and replaced by a far less interesting building. Not enough people could see the value in keeping it. Very sad to me.
Well done
Thank you for remembering Penn Station.
Honorable mention to Pittsburgh's Syria Mosque
And the REAL Yankee Stadium
Thanks for mentioning Syria Mosque! A classic theatre. Saw David Gilmour and Roy Buchanan there in the 80s. Then...it was gone.
I used to work in Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern in the 90's.
The Pennsylvania station looked really charming. Tearing that place down?? That was really criminal!!!🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁
Sad to see it go!
Well done. Richfield Tower building in Downtown Los Angeles should have been included.
Ill put that in the part 2 video!
@@BuildingTales Can't wait to see that! Thank you.
I used to love the Eagle Silk Mill in Shamokin Pa. I miss those large clocks that sat atop beautiful buildings. I’m old enough to remember looking up to see what time it was and not looking at a cell phone. I don’t think we knew what we had
Atlanta demolished 2 (!) Grand railroad terminals 1 Greek revival and the other Spanish Renaissance ..now there is only a tiny RR station on Peachtree St. ..A city with almost NO Preservation , just street walls of Glass and Blank empty facades ..a city that sold it's soul decades ago
I might have added the old Marion Country courthouse in Indianapolis, which looked very much like Old Detroit City Hall, but it's been gone since about 1963. Thanks for sharing these.
I'm not familiar with that one, appreciate you mentioning it! I'll definitely look into it for a future video!
@@BuildingTales There were some beautiful old buildings in Indy, most of which are now gone.
It s a sin to distroy such beautiful buildings...what a pity 😞
Certainly a shame to see them go!
That 'sad' joke with the "culturally significant" parking lot made me laugh out loud. Well done! 😀 😀 👍
And by the way, I just subscribed. 🙂
Thanks!
@@BuildingTales You're welcome. 🙂
As someone wrote, comparing the old and new Penn Station - "One once entered New York like a king; now one scurries in like a rat".
That was the great architectural historian Vincent Scully.
First time I heard about Penn Station. This is a tragedy...
Belle Grove, which stood near White Castle, LA, was the largest private residence prior to the construction of Biltmore.
The World Trade Center was technically not demolished, but it was definitely iconic, unprecedented in its scale and style, and to this day nothing of its scale, as in twin buildings with 110 floors each, exists anywhere in the world.
Yes it was along with building 7
Good video. But question: why do you have zoom videos? What are we supposed to be looking at? The buildings are there anymore… I really don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking at. The building that replaced it?? If so…. I don’t know which building on the screen is the one that replaced it is.
I was going to ask the same thing. The "zoom to nothing" was a big distraction.
Gotta mention the Church of the Unity, Springfield, Massachusetts. H. H. Richardson masterpiece, a parking lot since the mid 60s. 😢
It's frightening. Especially when you see what repulsively ugly buildings are now standing in this place!
#7 was lit af
Good old “urban renewal”. What a shame.
I like calling it urban obliteration 😅
The 60s seem to have been a time for demolition worldwide. Here in Melbourne, Australia, we lost many grand buildings that were replaced by eyesores. Now, many of the eyesores have been replaced by glass and steel monoliths. Such a lack of vision .
Excellent presentation. 1) request, might you mark up on the maps where buildings are? Hard to tell with so many. 2) Show, odd buildings like the 4 cylinder hospital. Maybe insides if can get pics.
Sad ppl want to destroy our heritage.
Thanks! And I appreciate the constructive feedback! I'll keep those ideas in mind going forward. This video was tough to find much for since most of these buildings have been gone for 70 years or more, so unfortunately grainy old pictures were most of what I could find.
I think they could have saved Pennsylvania Station had the Pennsylvania Railroad been in better financial shape and the City of New York was willing to partially pay for the cost of maintenance of the building. It was a huge building, and with Pennsylvania Railroad's failing finances, was starting to fall into disrepair. In the end, it was far more financially valuable to replace that building with the current Madison Square Garden, which is still a major moneymaker for New York City.
Indeed, there is still talk to demolish Madison Square Garden, put a replacement at a new location on Manhattan, and restore the site to something akin to the old Pennsylvania Station. Only one problem: is someone willing to foot the bill, which could run as high as US$45 billion?
Well if the big oil companies keep gaslighting towards pro-automobile.
Seeing a certain Midwest bias here… Downtown LA had some spectacular buildings near City Hall, all destroyed as part of a move to create an open expanse and perhaps distance downtown from the aging Victorians on Bunker Hill. Thankfully, Gehry’s Disney Hall has added major architectural luster, along with MOCA and the Broad.
5:28 That building doesn't look like something that would go down easily in a fire, but it sure did. I'll venture a guess that despite its monumental appearance, it had a badly protected steel frame.
Marlborough - Blenheim Hotel. Atlantic City, NJ 1906. Reinforced concrete also supervised by Edison. Grandest hotel in town. Demolished late 70:s for Bally's Hotel Casino.
That is an amazing one for sure... definitely will be on a part 2 video if I make one!
Why would you catch flak for Prentice Women's Hospital? Architecture is architecture.
Singer was known for its sewing machines, but they also made some great cars. Sad that their building didnt survive.
The Detroit City Hall reminds me of the Delaware County (NY) county courthouse.
From my French perspective it seems that US efficiency has a flipside regarding conservation of historical buildings. There is indeed not enough time for heritage protection associations nor citizens to be aware of these money driven vandalism projects, so by the time people get organized or realize what is going on… it is too late and the buildings are already demolished 😢
No surprise this little "gem" would be offered up by the French. Their effete nature is entirely consistent with the dismissal of property rights and disregard for the realities imposed by fiscal realities. Eventually, if we keep preserving existing structures we will run out of land. Not every old building needs to be, or even should be preserved.
@@dougtaylor2803I was told multiple times by Americans that the US is multiple times bigger than Europe (almost twice actually), and here you imply that you won't have enough space for historical buildings ... so which is it then ?
Unless you actually believe that it is normal to have parking lots everywhere and highways flowing every corner of the city, then no wonder you feel that way ... And yet i will tell you if a small country (compared to the USA) and much more densely packed have almost no problems with historical buildings then America can do the same.
Have you ever wondered why many foreigners like to go to France and many European countries for vacations ? One of the reasons is landmarks, if the French had followed your logic then we would have destroyed every single castle, the few remaining city's walls, and places like Saints Michelle Mountain .... You will be surprised by the number of money France makes from tourism. Of course no decisions are flawed less a give you some credit, some places that fall apart, unsafe, and to costly to maintain can (and are in France) disposed of, but it must be rare cases not the default, also replace those by at least some worthy, for example I have seen many good looking houses been replaced by mid-rise residential buildings, not beautiful but at least the land is not wasted by some ugly corporate cube-scraper or a parking lot (those exists in France but are deliberately build in old industrial Westlands, or land that have been abandoned for decades) ...
The Richfield Oil building in Los Angeles should have been on this list.
Definitely a cool one!
Whitemarsh Hall IMO was the most beautiful and iconic building we lost in America. Thank goodness Lynwood Hall is still around. 👍
That one is beautiful! I wasn't familiar with it, definitely glad you mentioned it... will have to make a part 2 video and include it on there!
The Prentice Women's hospital was brutalism at its best or worst. It's still intriguing in its drab, grimy style. They should have preserved it. Yet, using this depressing, flaking hulk as a hospital wasn't the best idea anyway. It was a landmark of both, audacity and flawed ambition. Today, concrete is for architects what plastic is for consumers. You need it, you use it but you don't like it.
I bury my face in tears; these recollections should bring shame to all thoughtful Americans. Just think of the proliferation of strip malls and box stores with vast asphalt parking lots, and minimalls corrupting the once-bucolic American farmlands. It makes these losses even more criminal.
Interesting thx
Thank you!
Buffalo, NY still has our spectacular Post Office building standing, and many more remarkable pieces of architecture. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the country in the late 1800's, but much of its architecture was saved by the fact that Buffalo was one of the poorest rust belt cities in the mid century era when so many buildings were destroyed in the name if "progress " We have our massive Brutalist former Courthouse, some great Frank Lloyd Wright homes, and many gorgeous old buildings still standing. That said, we've lost many wonderful buildings as well, in the name of "progress," or "parking lots."
Richfield Oil Building in DTLA is my nomination for this list. Designed by Stiles O. Clements and featured a black and gold Art Deco façade. The unusual color scheme was meant to symbolize the "black gold" that was Richfield's business. The building was covered with architectural terra cotta.
I made a similar comment. The photos I've seen of the interior look just as impressive as the exterior.
"Unique" is an absolute, so it is not modifiable, as in "very unique." It means one of a kind, and a thing is one of a kind or it is not.
That is a very unique concept, I’ll keep that in mind next time
Easier to replace architectural marvels with refrigerators than to fix their plumbing
You can include LaSalle Street station in Chicago. That was a fantastic place. Movies The Sting and North by NW show its grandeur.
I’m really hesitant to support keeping buildings that don’t serve any function except their looks. The hospital in Chicago was absolutely heinous. I live there and I was happy to see it go.
You have a fair point, I 100% agree that functionality is definitely a concern... but I also don't think it would be fair to say these old buildings serve no function. Sure, they may be less efficient than ultra efficient offices with cubicles packed in them, but they still provide usable space. Its definitely a balancing act and every situation is a little bit different, but to me in the 1960s things swung way to far towards an emphasis on efficiency, being "modern" and large scale centrally planned redevelopment projects. While all of those things have their place, I think it's also important to value history, architecture, beauty and culture as well.
The 1950-1980s were such a distructive time. All the skyscrapers in downtown L.A. sit on land where the largest concentration of Victorian homes in the country once were and were all demolished to rid of the “blight”…. Now the city is regretting this decision was ever made.
That's not quite true. Those old, stately Victorian homes were on Bunker Hill. However, many of those homes were in disrepair because the wealthy had left decades before and moved further west.
Still, there were buildings like the beautiful Art Deco Richfield Oil Building that didn't deserve to be destroyed and replaced with two sleek boring towers.
My daughter was born in the Bertrand Goldberg-designed Prentice Women's Hospital in 2005. I was the same age as the hospital, 30. I moved to Chicago in 2001, so it was not a building I was familiar with, but it seems odd that it's gone. My son was born in the new Prentice Women's Hospital in 2012. It is a lot nicer, brighter and roomier than the first one. The windows of the Goldberg hospital were unique with their oval shape, but not great at bringing in light.
As a European, it is mindblogging to see how the US, who by essence has a shorter history and less architectural heritage than the Old World, can actually destroy the few they have. But the late 60's and 70's were quite crazy everywhere, including Europe. On a side note, I think the Milwaukee train station is not that hideous at all compared to many brutalist buildings of that time (even if it can't compete with the old one).
Is there anyone else who is a little suspicious that there were findings that the Maryland Casualty Tower Building was found to be unsafe. It would be so easy to get the right firm to come up with the right finding to pave the way for its destruction.
1:19 I have to say, that's a very appropriate inscription
I wonder if many of these buildings were purposefully set up to be demolished due to lack of maintenance. I wonder if the same intention to build such beautiful buildings was there for their maintenance, would we still have them today?
Was there ever a plan to demolish the White House or the Capital building in D.C. during the 1960's to build some brutalist structures? How was old buildings built on a marsh able to survive to today, yet all of those other buildings had to perish?
Do you intend to compare a train station to the home of the leader of the free world? At the end of the day, train stations are there to serve a function, not to make pretty pictures on post cards.
@dougtaylor2803 There was a time when that function was to be a grand welcome to the city rather than something that provided the bare minimum of what is needed to get passengers on and off a train. The President was not supposed to be at the same kevel as the King or Queen, just someone who presided over the executive branch
The problem with those old buildings was that they're full of lead paint and asbestos, the abatement alone makes the project unfeasable
Thanks for the informative video. I would include Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin HQ building in Buffalo in any Top 10 list of lost Architectural Gems.
Speaking of Frank Lloyd Wright, is the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin still standing? I remember from a PBS special on Wright that it was not architecturally sound and that water would leak through the roof and the employees had buckets by their desks to collect the water.
That’s because they are depressing. They’re wiping out historical building left and right because they don’t look right, they don’t go with the rest of the buildings, they’re depressing, and all other whatnot
Very interesting and illuminating video - thank you! This is why America's cities lack so much grace, and why their centers seldom exhibit even the relatively short history we have a nation. Our cities simply recycle themselves, driven on by commercialism and development pressure. It's good that a preservation movement got started in the 1950's and 1960's - but the defeats continue to this day. Money talks, and the architectural world seem smitten with fashion. Sometimes I wonder if there is even a national will to preserve architectural monuments, or if this will always be how approach our great buildings - as objects to be used and then discarded rather than preserved and studied as part of our culture.
This is how much too rich people destroy the world.
The Everett Street train building was replaced by a beautiful modern building that is reminiscing of a modern interpretation of a building with a lot of columns. Very common in the 60s. Example. Foley department stores. Now Macy department stores. It's a more unified and uniformed style befitting the 60s