Your city's greatest architectural loss
For New York, Penn Station ranks up there.
The original: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...n_Station3.jpg http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/gon-penn7.jpg http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/...ainwaiting.jpg http://data.greatbuildings.com/gbc/i...60_230063v.jpg http://data.greatbuildings.com/gbc/i...36_020069v.jpg Demolished in 1964 and replaced by this in 1968 :( : http://www.observer.com/data/article...schuerman1.jpg |
In Lansing it would be the Lansing City Hall and Annex
http://www.lansingpolice.com/site/Hi...s/cityHall.gif http://www.lansingpolice.com/site/Hi...s/cityhall.jpg People might disagree, but I'd say Detroit's Old City Hall. While Hudson and Statler had some interesting and stories histories, architecturally, Detroit's City Hall can not be replaced. http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/m...s/090132pv.jpg What replaced it...Kennedy Square + Kennedy Square Underground Garage http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/photobook/Kennedy.jpg What replaced it in 2006...One Kennedy Square http://static.flickr.com/9/76082713_46bf47e6c3_o.jpg http://static.flickr.com/102/261137220_c19c63eeee_b.jpg |
http://www.saclibrary.org/sac_room/i...a_postcard.jpg
Alhambra Theatre - Sacramento, CA - demolished 1973 for a Safeway grocery store!!! |
In my opinion, this is Chicago's:
http://123pichosting.com/thumbs/8186PostOffice.jpg Replaced by: http://123pichosting.com/thumbs/1639...Center-002.jpg I know comparing van der Rohe's replacement isn't the same as Madison Square Garden for being so blatantly awful, however, Chicago has nothing but room to expand and I get pissed off every time I think about all the buildings they had knocked down because god forbid they could've thought outside the loop (yeah, bad play on words, I know). |
For Charlotte, it would either be Hotel Charlotte built in 1923:
http://www.cmhpf.org/hotelclt.jpg or the Southern Manufacturers Club built in 1894: http://www.cmstory.org/imagegallery/...002_04_276.jpg |
Calgary: Southam Building (1913-1972)
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9112/na14694gm1.jpghttp://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5149/na146946ak4.jpg http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/9479/na236519yo7.jpghttp://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8408/na25753lg0.jpg http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8050/na257519dj1.jpghttp://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8671/na262239uy6.jpg http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9682/na27233wt7.jpghttp://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7...5093949xf7.jpghttp://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6009/nd8298rf9.jpg What is terrible is that they demolished it for a little piece of shit 70's lowrise building. Alas, it was just the most vivid example of the raping that downtown Calgary's heritage underwent in the 70's and 80's. |
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Holy shit that's bloody terrible! |
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For Cleveland it's easily the loss of 200+ historic homes along Euclid Avenue. Some were lost due to construction of the Innerbelt (I-90) highway, others were demolished after their wealthy owners couldn't bear to see their homes subdivided into apartments - many had been demolished by the 1930s. At one point 60% of the world's millionaires had a home on Euclid Avenue. Of the 200+ homes, four are left. Here are some images:
On the north side of the street (on the left) were the large homes; the south side had smaller (but lavish) townhomes: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 Of the mansions you see here, only the one to the right of the round turret still stands: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 A not-recent photo of the existing mansion in question: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 Another mansion that still stands: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 The rest no longer exist: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cgi-b...B=1&DMROTATE=0 |
Most recently for St. Louis, I would say the Century Building, which was one of the only office buildings constructed entirely of marble left in the United States. It was recently replaced with a gigantic parking garage...YUCK!
http://www.builtstlouis.net/images/century-1.jpg photo from www.builtstlouis.net I swear, some of the people behind these demolitions should be prosecuted. |
For Ottawa:
The Capital Theatre - A 2500 seat Art Deco movie theatre built downtown and demolished in the seventies. Replaced by same office building, though I'm not sure which. http://beatles.ncf.ca/caption_300.jpg http://beatles.ncf.ca/caption_500.jpg Daly Building - Ottawa's first department store and only building in Ottawa built in the Chicago style. It was demolished in 1991 after the NCC's attempt to find a developer to restore it to safe conditions failed due to the expense of the venture. It was the first designated heritage building in Ottawa to be demolished and the site wasn't used until 700 Sussex, was built there. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...y_Building.jpg http://www.wtl.technomages.net/image..._04_15/55t.jpg An almost demolished, but luckily saved and rehabilitated is the Aberdeen Pavilion. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tle_Castle.JPG |
I would definitely say the old Toronto Star building
Scraper on the left http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t_to_BaySt.jpg It was replaced by First Canada Place (Toronto's tallest). |
For Regina, I'd have to vote the old Capital Theatre. Maybe not the most iconoclastic piece of architecture, but from an urban fabric point of view, tearing down the last old-style theatre in the downtown area has pretty much doomed downtown Regina to be an uneventful place after business hours. What replaced it was the new Crown Life Insurance building built when the company moved from Toronto. There's a quality sordid political story there, but I won't get into it. Here's a couple shots of the Capital:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...k/12d9f53b.jpg http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...k/0a9e6959.jpg |
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A few for Miami:
The Everglades Hotel (built in 1925): http://www.twoatlarge.com/family/hpm/jpgs/hpm-67.jpg Fell into disrepair and demolished in 2005 http://www.mthurricane.com/images/De...olition_06.jpg At least its getting a decent replacement: 2 538-foot towers: http://www.miamibeach411.com/photos/...on-the-bay.jpg Another candidate would be the Roney Palace demolition in Miami Beach: Original: http://www.hellomiami.com/miami/imag...tel%201930.jpg Replaced with this monstrosity: http://www.enews7.com/florida/miami-...h-resort-1.jpg |
Detroit has FAR too many to name. Most disconcerting are buildings that have been scavenged so much that there is nothing left.
Michigan Theater (The One Used in Eminem's 8-Mile and Rap Video) Converted into parking in the late 1970s http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...bbyDetroit.jpg From DetroitYes.Com http://detroityes.com/downtown/41michtheat_stairs.htm Michigan Central RailRoad (also from DetroitYes.Com) abandoned since the late 1980s http://detroityes.com/downtown/54mcfull.jpg Sadly for Detroit there are too many gone, but still standing to list :( |
i wouldnt even know where to start - thousands of buildings from the mid 1700s to the early 1900s were destroyed from the 1950's - 1980's.
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For Salt Lake City? Probably the old Auerbach Building:
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/...r&CISOPTR=8600 http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/...r&CISOPTR=8226 http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/...r&CISOPTR=8220 In the late 40s, early 50s, it was demolished for the Centre Theater: Centre Theater u/c: http://utahtheaters.info/theaters/Ce...CN2112-760.JPG http://utahtheaters.info/theaters/Ce...CN2116-577.JPG That then was demolished in the early 1990s for this: http://www.pentalonconstruction.com/Broadway-1.JPG I'd take the Auerbach Building over the theatre and tower any day. |
Check out the book Lost Chicago. It will bring you to tears.
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There are two candidates.
The Langren Hotel, which was replaced by a two story parking deck in the early 1980's. The parking deck serves the building that replaced the Nichols Shoe Co. building in the foreground -- the Akzona Building, perhaps the most hideous thing I.M Pei ever designed. http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids...g/ball1229.jpg Or possibly, the Old Battery Park Hotel. http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids...es/lec127a.jpg The New Battery Park Hotel replaced it in 1927. http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids...g/ball1606.jpg Probably, for most grievous loss, the Langren wins out. Tearing down a grand dame hotel for an elegant high-rise might be defensible but tearing down an elegant hotel for a two-story piece of shit parking deck is not. From the 1960s on through the early 90's Americans were so relentlessly stupid when it came to urban issues it's a miracle anything worth loving survived to the present day at all. |
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