But Cheryl Luckett, who lived in the house for 18 years, said she is in shock at the demolition. Luckett sold the home in 2016 to a retired general contractor who restored and upgraded the interior.
Source: Oregon’s only midcentury aluminum Alcoa Home bulldozed in SW Portland – oregonlive.com
The former Green Hotel building at Cooper Street and Railroad Avenue, in Woodbury, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014. (Staff Photo by Joe Warner/South Jersey Times)(JOE WARNER)
“History is and always has been important in this town. There are a lot of old buildings here,” he said after the vote. “To forget and let them go is a shame, and that’s what happened here. There’s been no investment.”
via Woodbury approves demolition of Victorian-era Green Hotel | NJ.com.
Superfund sites aren’t easy to turn around, but there are countless examples all over the country of these toxic places being transformed. Why can’t NW Natural summon some sense of community responsibility here? Certainly it’s not the responsibility of a utility company to act as stewards of a city or region’s most historic architeture. Yet the fact remains that a rich local company, one with a partial monopoly, is set to willfully demolish one of the most historic and beautiful works of architeture in the city. Maybe demolishing this building seems like the only plausible scenario given the contaminated nature of the site, yet I can’t help but suspect that NW Natural hasn’t really tried very hard to come up with a solution that would save the building. And if that’s the case, it means the company is not a very good corporate citizen. What they’re planning to destroy may be a contaminated building that’s sat empty for a half-century, but behind the dust is an irreplaceable part of Portland’s history and culture. In others’ hands, it might have become a renovated destination.
via Portland Architecture: Century-old Portland Gas & Coke building set to be demolished.
Treehugger reflects on the genius and beauty of the Cincinnati Library – demolished in 1955.
Completed in 1874 and designed by architect J.W. McLaughlin, the building was considered the “the most magnificent public library in the country”. The heads of Shakespeare, Milton and Franklin stood guard over the Main Entrance…. he building’s feature was it’s third section, with a 4-story atrium (as seen in this photograph) with five levels of cast iron alcoves, which could hold an enormous quantity of books. This Circulation area was the main part of the library. It was topped by a skylight and also had many library workrooms. The entire floor of the library was covered with a checker board marble floor.
Demolition has begun at West Hollywood’s The Lot, the Target-adjacent studio once known as Pickford-Fairbanks, United Artists, and the Samuel Goldwyn Studio. Developer CIM Group plans to build new offices and soundstages on the property, but that means lights out for several historic buildings, including the 1920s-era Pickford building. A group of preservationists protested outside The Lot on Sunday, but according to the Save the Pickfair Studios site, “by 10 AM PST the next day the fencing had gone up around the ‘Pickford Building’.” Deconstruction started later that day.
via Demolition Has Begun at Old United Artists Studio in WeHo – Destruction Watch – Curbed LA.
Lexington – We are writing as dismayed residents of Precinct 6 to protest the demolition of what was a 100-year-old house at 31 Somerset Road. The property sold on Feb. 29, and two weeks later all 11 rooms were destroyed and carted away in a dumpster. Neighbors were given scant warning by the new owner, who has not decided on what will replace the elegant home. Ironically, the garage must stay because it is within a historically protected zone.
We live nearby, and have discussed the many positives associated with continuing to reside in Lexington as our families change and we eventually face the decision to downsize. However, the character and feel of the town is being threatened by teardowns gone out of control, and we have serious doubts about the availability of appropriate housing in the future.
What process allows such a quick demolition of a home of historic value? As a town, we have embraced anti-idling and tree planting initiatives. If the White House is (ever) rebuilt we’ll use green building codes. We have meetings ad nauseum on good ideas such as the use of Busa Farm and the Dana Home proposal. But where is the discussion about the overall character and ongoing values of our community? How can we continue to approve space-and-resource-wasting mansions to be shoehorned in where small ranch homes once stood? 31 Somerset does not fall precisely into that category of mistake, but it was a large, elegant home, and it was razed flat in a day two weeks after papers were passed. How utterly wasteful. Where is our sense of sustainability?
We don’t know exactly how this issue could be summarized and brought before Town Meeting, but it should be. Town officials must examine the process that gives so little opportunity for input to residents and neighbors. — Barbara and John Tarrh, Oakland Street, and Diane Garmon, Chandler Street
via Neighbors: Saddened by home demolition – Lexington, MA – Lexington Minuteman.
This is one of the former Facemate buildings which has been razed to make way for a new Senior Center.
“Behind us are the remenants of an earlier era of manufacturing,” Bissonnette told the crowd. “Once these buildings are gone a bright new building will be in its place.” The property has a long history. The Chicopee Manufacturing Company, built around 1830, is believed to have been the third major water-powered industrial site in the state, Stephen R. Jendrysik, a retired history teacher and the city’s historian, said. The property was always used for textiles. The first developer, Johnathan Dwight, sold it to Johnson & Johnson in 1915, which made bandages during the war and later switched to making cloth diapers. The Facemate corporation purchased it in the 1970s and made collar stays until it closed a decade ago.
Read the entire article here Reuse of old mills in Chicopee, Easthampton examined by state, local officials | masslive.com.