Re: What Building in your city was Demolished, and should not have been?

[Halovet]

I'm sure every city has at least one building demolished, that drove preservationist, or even the public nuts. I would have loved to have seen this one survive as a fixture on the Buffalo Skyline. At 409 Feet, in 1901, there could not have been many taller. If anyone knows why it went by the way of the wrecking ball, do tell. Also, How about posting some pictures if you can, of other buildings in your city that "bit the dust".


Why was this building torn down?

[SuburbanNation]

Century Building, downtown St. Louis...


photo reproduced without permission from builtstlouis.com

demo'd the middle of the present decade:

for parking...

[Evergrey]

Syria Mosque... demo'd for parking... the list of legendary acts who played there is mind-boggling

[UrbanSophist]

Chicago Stock Exchange

[bnk]

Originally Posted by UrbanSophist

Chicago Stock Exchange

Wow what a shame.

Facts

Height (struct.) 57 m 186 ft
Floors (OG) 13
Construction end 1894


- The eminent architectural photographer Richard Nickel died while recording the building's demolition, when part of the structure collapsed on him. "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nickel

- The design, by architect Louis Sullivan [just look at the entry arch], featured a strong cornice, projecting window bays, and an elaborately carved entrance archway.

- The stenciled trading room was one of the architect's masterworks, and has been relocated to the Art Institute of Chicago.

- The arch from the main entrance has also been preserved, and stands outside the Art Institute at Columbus & Monroe.

- One of the classic works of early skyscraper design, with a highly textured and open façade.

[Stephenapolis]

In Minneapolis, without a doubt it would be the Metropolitan Building. Otherwise known as the Northwestern National Life Building. It was the first true skyscraper in Minneapolis. It was not demolished for any good reason. It was demolished because it fell into the Gateway District Urban Renewal Project. With that it was not even really in the Gateway District. It was added to the district by a hotel owner that thought the building was ugly and did not want his clients to have to look at such an eyesore from the hotel windows. So even though it was structually sound and almost fully leased. It was demolished. It demolition formed the catalyst for the Minneapolis preservation movement. It demolition was very unpopular at the time with residents of the city. Those in charge were too busy planning the furture of the city and ignored its past. The really odd thing is most of the buiding that replaced the old ones are also gone now themselves. Most barely made it 20 years before they were demolished. Of the new building constructed in the gateway only about a dozen still remain. The district encompassed more than a dozen blocks. So all the renewal did was destroy a good part of our history. Much of the area was run down at the time with no sign of recovery. This did happen during the early "white flight" years, so it did make sense for the city to clean up it worst area. But this building had no right or reason to be demolished. The sight sat as a parking lot for several years until a benign little low rise took up the site. The good news is the hotel that would have had the "disgusting view", only was open for20 years and was quickly demolished after the hotel closed its doors. Unfortunately it has since been the site of the largest parking lot in dt Minneapolis now.

[BnaBreaker]

Christ, that is a crime! Whoever decided to knock that down should be shot.

[steel]

Originally Posted by Halovet

I'm sure every city has at least one building demolished, that drove preservationist, or even the public nuts. I would have loved to have seen this one survive as a fixture on the Buffalo Skyline. At 409 Feet, in 1901, there could not have been many taller. If anyone knows why it went by the way of the wrecking ball, do tell. Also, How about posting some pictures if you can, of other buildings in your city that "bit the dust".


Why was this building torn down?

This building was never meant to be saved. It was part of the 1901 World's Fair in Buffalo called the Pan American Expo. The building and all the others at the fair were made of plaster and wood. Most buildings at these kinds of fairs were torn down. The sole survivors from Buffalo's fair are the Albright Knox Gallery and the Historical Museum. The Electric Building downtown is loosely modeled on this tower. Prez McKinley was shot dead at this fair.

The real building that should not have been torn down in Buffalo is this one. One of the most important buildings in architectural history:



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DG

[Halovet]

Originally Posted by steel

The real building that should not have been torn down in Buffalo is this one. One of the most important buildings in architectural history:



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DG

Hey, I remember The Larkin.
Isn't there just a commemorative stone on the site now? As for that Electric tower in Buffalo, they should have built it right the first time. What a crock!

[bnk]

Sugested reading.






"Richard Nickel, whom I had the delight of knowing during his all too brief life, is one of the unsung heroes of Chicago architecture. He was not an architect himself, nor a designer. He simply took pictures, but what pictures! He was, for want of a better description, one of the most sensitive of architectural photographers. More than that, his life—and ironically, tragically and poetically, his death—were fused to Chicago architecture. How he died tells us how he lived: for the beauty in the works of Sullivan, Wright and the others. His story is one that must be told." —Studs Terkel, author

"He was completely understanding of architecture and genius and of the quality of the work he was dealing with. He was single-minded in his pursuit and dedication to quality in history, art and architecture. That is an increasingly rare quality." —Ada Louise Huxtable, former New York Times architecture critic

"Richard was an excellent photographer—sensitive and intelligent, and a very good craftsman". —John Szarkowski, former Director, Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York

"Richard Nickel was one of those who saw architecture, and who passionately and skillfully pursued its portrayal. He was one of a very small number, and to make his work known would be a fundamental service to architects, students, and teachers as well as to the art of architecture." —Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., architectural historian



Nickel's friend David Norris comments: "I think what Richard had to teach was that if you find some way to express your deepest convictions, you should exercise that talent to the very utmost of your ability. . .even if it leads somehow to your destruction."

On the day after his body was discovered, a Chicago Sun-Times editorial cartoon honored him with a drawing of a gravestone with the epitaph:

Richard Nickel
1928-1972
Killed in Action
rescuing Chicago architectural treasures

The Chicago Daily News characterized Nickel's death as "a sacrifice to art--a civic offering on the altar of greed."




"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." Richard Nickel.

[Evergrey]

Steel beat me to it... btw here is a pic of the current Electric Building in Buffalo... inspired by the Pan Am fake building

[steel]

By the way Thomas Edison took some movies of that Buffalo tower. They are very interesting. You can see them at the Library of Congress web site. You can also see McKinley's Buffalo funeral movie there too.

[Sulley]

If that building had been constructed in the past 30 years, it would have been ostracized for not being built to the street and with ground level retail.

[Sulley]

For Birmingham:



It's not the largest demolition to have taken in the city, but what a crime to have lost this building...

[Shasta]

Houston has lost so MUCH and to this day continues to lose older buildings. Right now, the River Oaks Theater (still a movie house), West Gray Shopping Center, and Alabama Theater are all in danger to make way for more typical crap (a Barnes and Noble, parking garages, expanded strip centers). Last year, the 10 story hotel across the street from Minute Maid Park came down in the middle of the night. It is a surface parking lot now (as if downtown didn't have enough already). BUT, here's a look at what I truly miss;

Old City Hall and Market Place facing Market Square


The Rossonian Apartments


The Medical Arts Building (still surface parking downtown some 20 years after it came down)


Harris County Courthouse


original Houston High School in Midtown area


The Shamrock Hotel came down in the med center. It is still surface parking 20 years later.

[VivaLFuego]

I'm really not sure where to begin for Chicago. A recent loss was indeed the Stock Exchange.

In fact if I started trying to list and document all the destroyed gems, I'd tear up, and I'm not in the mood for that right now. Literally dozens, if not hundreds. Theatres, skyscrapers, office blocks, apartment blocks, houses, transportation, everything.

[nygirl1]

Any New Yorker will tell you our greatest loss was the Singer Building. Most of us here on the site weren't around to see it in person. When we see pictures, however, we know that out of all the buildings brought down in and around the 1960's that Singer is the lowest blow of all.

[DecoJim]

For Detroit there are many candidates such as the late great Hudsons department store but one of the most recent and senseless was the destruction of the Statler Hotel.

This hotel when it opened in 1915 was one of the most advanced in the world at the time with bathrooms for each of its 800 guest rooms (later expanded to 1000 rooms) and was the first hotel to have air conditioning (installed in 1937).


The hotel, which closed in 1975, was demolished in 2005 in an attempt to prevent Superbowl visitors in 2006 from seeing an abandond building (is if there are not others!). Now as the downtown revitalizes, the hotel could have been adapted to a new use such as condos.

[BigKidD]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

For Detroit there are many candidates such as the late great Hudsons department store but one of the most recent and senseless was the destruction of the Statler Hotel.

This hotel when it opened in 1915 was one of the most advanced in the world at the time with bathrooms for each of its 800 guest rooms (later expanded to 1000 rooms) and was the first hotel to have air conditioning (installed in 1937).


The hotel, which closed in 1975, was demolished in 2005 in an attempt to prevent Superbowl visitors in 2006 from seeing an abandond building (is if there are not others!). Now as the downtown revitalizes, the hotel could have been adapted to a new use such as condos.

I was reading about the old Hudson Department store in Detroit a few days ago. It's such a shame what happened to many buildings in Detroit, almost depressing just to think about what was destroyed for pretty much no replacement.

[b-s]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

For Detroit there are many candidates such as the late great Hudsons department store but one of the most recent and senseless was the destruction of the Statler Hotel.

This hotel when it opened in 1915 was one of the most advanced in the world at the time with bathrooms for each of its 800 guest rooms (later expanded to 1000 rooms) and was the first hotel to have air conditioning (installed in 1937).


The hotel, which closed in 1975, was demolished in 2005 in an attempt to prevent Superbowl visitors in 2006 from seeing an abandond building (is if there are not others!). Now as the downtown revitalizes, the hotel could have been adapted to a new use such as condos.

It makes me sad to think about Detroit's lost treasures. IMHO, no other city in the country has lost more gems than Detroit.

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Others: What's the deal with posting photos of every little building? The topic is singular, not plural, for the love of god. Spare us the bandwidth for the cities with buildings of real class.