from The New York Times -
Tile by Tile, a Mural Is Saved
go to article

A paint-staking project in relocating a ceramic tile wall mural, prompting the insight:

"Anything artistic that goes in a subway should be put on some type of removable support."

A lesson in there somewhere for all urban transport authorities?
.

from The Toronto Star -
Why settle for imitations of the past?
go to article

Apart from the argument from a historical perspective, architectural preservation has a new-found and timely justification:

"The most sustainable thing you can do is keep an existing building. When you destroy an older building you are actually destroying the energy used to construct that building. And the amount of energy required to build is phenomenal."

from The Independent -
The collapse of Moscow: Architectural heritage being destroyed
go to article
go to photos

"But the rapid development of Moscow has not been unequivocally positive; it has come with haphazard building practices, low-quality constructions and the neglect or destruction of historical buildings. [...] The crisis is not limited to the capital. Historians and activists say that Moscow's poor example has been aped across Russia. Of most concern is St Petersburg, the Tsarist capital whose elegant centre was spared the usual Soviet replanning and is free of monolithic concrete structures. Now that is changing."

A clear case of how apathetic heritage preservation practices are not only "contagious" but can be disturbingly prevalent.
.

from The Guardian -

Street clutter threat to conservation areas
go to article

The English Heritage patient
go to article

Decay of conservation areas in England
go to audio interview

Highlighting an aspect in the preservation of urban environment that is usually overlooked - streets.
.

from The Guardian -
Mies van der Rohe: demolish or not?
go to article

"Only in architecture do we contemplate, and frequently carry out, the destruction of works by the discipline's most esteemed proponents. [...] That's the trouble with architecture. You can store a tape or a picture – even a kidney stone – pretty easily. But buildings take up valuable space. They often prevent the existence of other newer, better buildings."

Perhaps this dilemma points to the danger of an "either-or" approach in thinking about heritage preservation - either we preserve (all?) or we risk going down the path of loosing all. Such an attitude hides the fact that some things are better left to go away quietly over time - in a dignified manner, if there is one.
.

from The Times -
Oligarch leads fight to save Russia's neglected 'Utopia'
go to article

An encouraging development - hopefully not just for the short-term - of private-sector (or should that be cash-rich sector) initiative in the preservation of architectural heritage in Russia. And, tapping into notions of popular culture and consumption, no less:

"In Russia the usual safeguards about heritage aren't there. The law doesn't work. So you have to fall back on fashion to save these buildings. These buildings are cool. Repeat it a thousand times till they get the picture."

Let's hope that this really works ...

from Goethe-Institut Newsletter -
The New Old Buildings: Remarks on the Reconstruction Debate
go to article

A unique page in the history of architecture must surely be that of a concerted exercise in the re-construction of historic buildings that were destroyed during the 2nd World War. Oddly, the debate of whether these architectural re-constructions could be considered as "authentic" is muted, as best - perhaps a tacit admission of complicity in war-time (wanton) destruction. Hence, it is refreshing to read a different take on these buildings - as evidence of a unique 20th-century sensibility, rather than as historic relics:

"The interpretive reconstruction of historical buildings will go down in the history of architecture as a stylistic feature of the late 20th century, practised against a backdrop of criticism of modernity and efforts to redefine regional identity and create cityscapes that would serve as commercial experience centres. In this context, the new old buildings are authentic through and through."

from The Guardian -
Victorian concrete house to be restored
go to article

Bringing up an interesting idea of using parts of the urban sprawl as primary sources for technical research and architectural study.
.

from The Art Newspaper -
Private rooms in the Forbidden City shine again
go to article

An update on the on-going conservation efforts at the Forbidden City in Beijing funded by the World Monuments Fund.

See earlier posts:
"American Philanthropists to Return 'Forbidden City' to Former Glamour"
"Rebuilding the Forbidden City"
.

from The New York Times -
An Opaque and Lengthy Road to Landmark Status
go to article
Preservationists See Bulldozers Charging Through a Loophole
go to article
Houses of Worship Choosing to Avoid Landmark Status
go to article
Preservation and Development, Engaged in a Delicate Dance
go to article
Looking at Landmarks
go to interactive map

An excellent extended feature looking at the work of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in New York and some learning points to be had.

For one, urban preservation is not merely a technical enterprise, but, perhaps more importantly, also an emotional one - in that it involves persuasion, empathy and sharing responsibilities. Looking at architectural heritage solely from a technical perspective would seem to defeat the very larger purpose of preservation - which is to connect communities across time.

Another important lesson is that heritage preservation work, not matter how noble or essential, is not self-evident given the context of present-day societal preoccupations. Hence, this makes the work of preservation that much more complex and difficult as changing prevailing social paradigms become an important aspect of the groundwork needed before preservation efforts could be understood or supported.
.

from The Guardian -
Building plans give U2 hometown blues
go to article

I was digging around my backlog of e-mails and found the above rather dated news snippet, and it kind of made me sad to learn that one of my early favourite bands has got absolute no credibility in so far as heritage preservation is concerned. Maybe I have been listening to the "wrong" kind of music ... or that great music and preservation don't mix ... or that U2 is no longer great ... or all (or none) of the above.
.

from The Telegraph -
Shanghai: Art Deco capital - for now
go to article

It will take plenty of political and popular will for Shanghai, which is emphatically leading the economic charge in China, to escape the fate that had befallen the other modernist cities and be considered as the last vestige of Art Deco architeture in the world! Leaving it to free market forces will undoubtedly ensure that architecture remnants of the Art Deco movement will be merely textbook curosities.
.

from The Christian Science Monitor -
A new endangered species: Modern architecture
go to article

When modern buildings become less useful or totally unusable, then does that makes it easier to demolish them, putting aside for the moment that most would also see these buildings as "ugly"? Or perhaps only when such a building has fallen into dereliction, only then can its "preservation capital" start to rise? And adding to that, the inherent ideological thrust of modern architecture does not help a bit:

"Many Modern buildings were designed for a specific purpose – Modern architects value function over form – making renovation for another use even more expensive."

from The New York Times -
Nothing Down, $0 a Month, Hammer Required
go to article

An interesting idea to match architecture enthusiasts with the need to maintain architectural gems. The scheme is a clear example of how heritage preservation solutions need not always be about generating more cash to pay for such efforts. Sometimes, money really can't buy everything.
.

2007 URA Architectural Heritage Awards
go to press release
go to web-site

Yet another round of the award which, perhaps, is Singapore's unique and consistent contribution to re-definition of the term "conservation" as both a pragmatic pursuit and end-point.
.

from The Guardian -
Russian capital's architectural gems bulldozed
go to article

from The Guardian -
At home with Moore
go to article
go to audio slideshow

from Dallas Morning News -
Restoration will set things Wright
go to article

from The Guardian -
Heritage row on selection of Darwin's home
go to article

from The Guardian -
The building that God forgot
go to article

A slew of articles related to the field of architectural conservation.
.

from The Art Newspaper -
Elton John concerts in Venice raise concern about possible damage to St Mark's Square
go to article

from The Guardian -
Fears for Gaudi masterpiece as rail tunnel approved
go to article

Another 2 examples of the fragile cause of architecture conservation in the face of relentless urban development and activities.
.

from The Art Newspaper -
Views of Russia’s crumbling modernist heritage
go to article

The pervasiveness of an awareness of and active participation in heritage conservation, in all its different forms, would surely be a sign of a stable and highly developed socio-political community. With the collapse of societal infrastructure, heritage preservation becomes easily expendable and, hence, neglected.
.

from Metropolis Magazine
Virtual Preservation
go to article

A variation on the successful BBC programme "Restoration", whereby the public gets to vote for a historic property to be restored. In the case of San Francisco, the public will vote online for half of the number of listed historic sites to share in the final "prize-money". Does this not sound like passing the burden of decision-making to the "public", regardless of how inadequate or ambiguous that term / group may be?

from Monthly Review
Demolishing the Palace of the Republic, A GDR Symbol
go to article

An update, with more extensive background information, on an earlier news story on the impending demolition of an unfortunate architectural icon from the Cold War era. It is also highly ironic (or some might say retributory) that the Palace of the Republic was built on the grounds of a demolished older Prussian palace which suffered heavy damage in the Second World War.

The current decision on whether to demolish the building was put to a vote in parliament and unsurprising, perhaps, the result ran along party and faction lines. The loser in this instance is the collective heritage of the world at large. When politicians are given the final authority in deciding issues of heritage preservation, then it is inevitable that the final decision would suffer because of short-sighted (propagandistic) gains.