Current design with older buildings - San Francisco (images)

Forums: Architecture, New Design With Old Buildings, Architecture Classics, Architectural Preservation, Keeping Old Facades
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Link to article in today's San Francisco Chronicle -

Commentary on keeping the facades..

article has additional images to this one -

http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/09/20/ba_facade19_ph.jpg

photo credit - SMWM architects

Start of the article here -

SAN FRANCISCO

Classics preserved -- or are they?
In a changing city, vintage buildings often must adapt or get out of the way. Gutting them while leaving the facades intact at least allows for partial preservation.
John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Depending on how fervently you believe in the sanctity of aged buildings, 150 Powell St. and 50 Oak St. in San Francisco are either triumphs of preservation or hollowed-out abominations.

At each address, the outer walls are as fresh as when they were erected nearly a century ago. But the look of a restored landmark is deceiving: Nearly everything behind those walls is brand new.

This sort of architectural sleight-of-hand isn't new to San Francisco or other large cities wrestling with how to grow in a way that doesn't include erasing all that came before. And the Bay Area is about to see one of the most ambitious -- or impudent -- examples yet when a mall that includes a Bloomingdale's opens on Sept. 28 behind the old Emporium facade on Market Street.

Many preservationists scorn the technique known as facadism as an insult to history. But a visit to the projects on Oak and Powell streets shows that partial salvation can be its own reward as long as you accept it for what it is: the display of souvenirs from another era.
end quote, more to article

Personally, I like the concept of retrofitting old buildings by keeping facades or other segments of old buildings and providing for contemporary usage by rebuilding much of the inside - as opposed to demolitioning a building - given that the building is of architectural interest in the first place, and given that keeping it as it is except for refurbishing won't work.
At least I think that in a city like San Francisco, which has such a developed sense of place.

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As a person who likes to go to antique shops and just sit with "old stuff" because it is full of memory, I would prefer that we preserve our structures as much as possible.

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Before these magnificent structures are torn down completely, this works for me as an alternative. I guess it is cheating in a way and maintaining only the facade does seem superficial but for now, it's better than nothing, I guess.

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I agree.

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I once did a painting of the inside of an antique store..
actually a painting of a man sitting with a cat in a dimly lit antique store, in Gilroy, CA, which, as it happens, is an old center for garlic production...

It wasn't one of my more successful paintings, but I'm sentimental about it.

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ossobuco wrote:

I once did a painting of the inside of an antique store..
actually a painting of a man sitting with a cat in a dimly lit antique store, in Gilroy, CA, which, as it happens, is an old center for garlic production...

It wasn't one of my more successful paintings, but I'm sentimental about it.

That's understandable.

My aunt has a pen and ink illustration of the women's dress dapartment of Carson Pirie Scott when she worked there in the mid-1960's. I asked her about it just the other day, since Carson's on State Street is no longer, or soon to be, and she assured me that she does still have the drawing.

I'm going to ask her to put my name on it for when the time comes.

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I see your point, Walter. And so much execrable tearing out has happened in so many cities. It's hard in a lively city to keep everything fully intact, given needs for whatever new high tech thing "progress" seems to mandate and economics seem to dictate. I'd rather have the answer in the article than see the building gone...

As an aside, I've personally been nearly giddy with the bad reviews for Richard Meier's new building enclosing the Ara Pacis in Rome, giddy from an 'I told you so' point of view, though still sad that turned out to be the design.
That wasn't quite the same situation - the Mussolini era building surrounding the Ara Pacis was not the most terrific building either, but this new one covering the two millennia aged Ara Pacis is inexplicably unfitting for its space and place. (sorry, going off on a tangent again, maybe I'll start a thread on that one.)

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Interesting and somehow related about the situation in London in today's The Observer:

Quote:

When it was built in 1963, there was outcry over Centre Point's ugliness. By 1995 it was listed. Now plans for Seifert's landmark offer an opportunity to transform the area

At last, things are looking up at the end of Oxford Street

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An alternative -- When the huge Bell Canada corporation wanted to build a landmark in Toronto, they came up against the local historical society. The solution was to incorporate the original building completely within the new one.

http://www.hunkabutta.com/photos/fullsize/20020104f.jpg

I love the interior space of the galleria of the BCE Place, except for this compromise. Somehow, they've relegated architectural history to a museum, a curiosity. And that just seems wrong.

I prefer when they leave the historical building intact, and work within its parameters (upgrading for public safety and modern conveniences, of course). When CIBC (a bank) wanted to build a modern tower in the banking sector, they kept the existing 1920's building and linked it underground to the new tower that provides a foil for the original.

http://www.ctn.etsmtl.ca/dbauer/ctn605/ctn-605/Photos/Commerce_Court.png

And the interior of the old building:

http://www.travelandtransitions.com/interviews/images/doorsopen_commercecourt.jpg

On any weekday, people are working at those desks. The public can walk through -- it's a shortcut to the subway and the underground concourse that links most of the buildings of the financial district.

This, to me, is the optimum solution. The building is preserved and used and woven into the fabric of the city.

And we're in danger of losing some of our 1960's international style buildings, such as the Bata Shoe headquarters:

http://www.heritagecanada.org/grfx/Bata_01_eng.jpg

Many of these low-rise and sprawling complexes were built on what was then suburban acreage. Now the city has grown up around them and the developers see prime underdeveloped real estate. Not only do I value the architecture of these buildings, but also the extensive landscaping which is now mature. I guess the question is: Do we need links to the past and grand spaces as much as we need more housing units and corporate offices?

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http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/156/soldierfield2gy4.png

And here's an example of why the mix oftentimes doesn't work.
What they did to Soldier's Field in Chicago was criminal.

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Oh! I hated even looking at Soldiers' Field when we saw it on our trip to Chicago..

Bata shoes... isn't that the situation where the owner is doing a planned housing development.. If so, I read about that a while ago. Didn't remember that the factory was going to be demo'd.

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Osso, I had to look it up, because there's so many of these redevelopments and I don't pay enough attention. But it's definitely not a factory -- I think Bata operates factories in many third world countries ... but that's another story completely.

Quote:

Last September, Toronto city council voted 36-1 to reject a special heritage designation for North York's former Bata shoe headquarters, a hallmark of modern architecture designed by prominent Toronto architect John C. Parkin.

This decision made it possible for the 40-year-old building to be demolished. It sits on the site of an Aga Khan Council of Canada proposed complex that would include an Ismaili spiritual centre, a museum of rare Islamic art and a public park.

The Bata building is a white pavillion-esque, low-rise concrete and glass office structure that sits on the brow of a hill at the Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Avenue East. It has been long recognized as a fine example of 1960s-era Modern Movement architecture. Recently, the Toronto Society of Architects identified the building as one of 96 significant buildings and public spaces in Toronto built between 1953 and 2003.

Because the Aga Khan Foundation supports the development and heritage of regional architecture in many third-world countries it was hoped the building could be incorporated into the development plans.

Many heritage activists, architects and planners are lamenting the loss of good examples of mid-century modern design and the role it played in the original site planning for the area of Don Mills.

A motion was tabled at city council that requires the Aga Khan Council to defer demolition of the Bata building until site plans are approved and a building permit obtained.

from here

(Actually that website looks interesting ....)

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Current design with older buildings - San Francisco (images)

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