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Architecture

Under Threat: The Penn Station Neighborhood in Manhattan

June 28, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Gimbels Skybridge courtesy Preservation League of NYSNew York State’s Empire State Development Corporation’s proposed Pennsylvania Station Civic and Land Use Project (the “Penn Area Plan”) would demolish multiple blocks of historic buildings in the vicinity of Penn Station in Manhattan.

All told, over 40 historic buildings and structures stand to be lost while displacing thousands of residents and businesses. [Read more…] about Under Threat: The Penn Station Neighborhood in Manhattan

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, development, Empire State Development Corporation, Historic Preservation, Manhattan, New York City, Penn Station, Preservation League of NYS, railroads, Transportation, Transportation History

The Architecture of Joseph Urban: Mar-a-Lago & The New School

June 21, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Joseph UrbanJoseph Urban may be a somewhat forgotten figure in America’s annals of culture, but during his lifetime he enjoyed an almost legendary reputation. An all-round creative talent, Urban was a prolific Gilded Age illustrator, set designer, and architect of private dwellings, theaters, and a university building in the city of New York. His Gingerbread Castle was built for a fairy tale themed amusement park in Hamburg, New Jersey.

His feeling for color and choice of materials did much to revitalize American stage design and architecture. The contrast between two of Urban’s extant buildings shows the range of his talent as an architect. It goes beyond that: the marked stylistic difference seemed to foreshadow the divisiveness of contemporary society. [Read more…] about The Architecture of Joseph Urban: Mar-a-Lago & The New School

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, art, Art History, Columbia University, Cultural History, Film History, Manhattan, New York City, Opera, Performing Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, The New School, Theatre, Trump, World War One

Under Threat: Willard State Hospital at Seneca Lake

June 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Willard State Hospitals Hadley Hall c 1887Willard State Hospital in Romulus, Seneca County, NY has defined the physical landscape and cultural environment of its rural corner of the Finger Lakes region for nearly 175 years. The hospital complex was the largest of its kind in the 1870s, with dozens of buildings, open space, and working farms.

Once comprising over 1,000 acres, its current size is about 400 acres including a mile of Seneca Lake shoreline and an institutional cemetery containing approximately 6,000 burials. Despite the loss of several architecturally important buildings, about 70 buildings still stand today. [Read more…] about Under Threat: Willard State Hospital at Seneca Lake

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Crime and Justice, Department of Corrections, Empire State Development Corporation, Finger Lakes, Historic Preservation, Medical History, Preservation League of NYS, Public Health, Romulus, Seneca County, Seneca Lake, Willard State Hospital

1772 Foundation Supports Preserving Saratoga Springs

June 15, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

65 Phila Street courtesy Saratoga Springs Preservation SocietyThe Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation was one of 25 preservation organizations across the country to receive a grant from The 1772 Foundation. The $35,000 grant is to establish a historic property redevelopment program (HPRP). [Read more…] about 1772 Foundation Supports Preserving Saratoga Springs

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: 1772 Foundation, Architecture, Grants, Historic Preservation, Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation

Under Threat: The Downtown Oneonta Historic District

June 12, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

11 Ford Avenue in OneontaThe Downtown Oneonta Historic District is representative of more than two centuries of economic activity and urban development. The district remains largely intact, and contains an architecturally significant collection of commercial, converted residential, and civic buildings.

The downtown district characterizes broader trends in small urban areas where disinvestment and rural poverty are a direct threat to historic resources. Small cities like Oneonta represent important parts of the overall historic tapestry of New York State that without creative solutions could be lost forever. [Read more…] about Under Threat: The Downtown Oneonta Historic District

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, Oneonta, Otsego County, Preservation League of NYS, Urban History

Under Threat: Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church, Watertown

June 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

AME Zion Church by Richard MargolisThe Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church is a testament to the struggles and achievements of Watertown‘s African American community. Its original congregation was formed in 1878, consisting of many railroad workers, some of whom were formerly enslaved and many who were active abolitionists. Under the leadership of Frank Thomas, for whom the church is named, members of the congregation built the church themselves in 1909.

Descendants of Frank Thomas continue to live in the community, linking the past to the present. From its early days and connections to the Underground Railroad to its consistent use for worship service through 2012, the church long served as an anchor for the African American community of Jefferson County. [Read more…] about Under Threat: Thomas Memorial AME Zion Church, Watertown

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, Preservation League of NYS, watertown

Under Threat: South of Union Square Historic District, Manhattan

May 31, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Proposed South of Union Square Historic DistrictThe proposed South of Union Square Historic District in Manhattan contains a remarkable concentration of sites connected to key civil rights and social justice movements, as well as influential literary, artistic, and music movements.

It offers a unique window into New York City‘s development in the late-19th and early-20th century, with an eclectic array of buildings, many designed by world-class American architects.

Despite its historic importance, this neighborhood is severely lacking in landmark and zoning protections. [Read more…] about Under Threat: South of Union Square Historic District, Manhattan

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Civil Rights, Historic Preservation, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Manhattan, New York City, Preservation League of NYS, Village Preservation

Lake George Boards Seek More Active Role in Historic Preservation

May 26, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

Towers Hall by Walt GrishkotThe Town and the Village of Lake George in Warren County, NY may play a more active role in preserving historic sites and significant architecture if both adopt laws creating a joint Historic Preservation Commission. [Read more…] about Lake George Boards Seek More Active Role in Historic Preservation

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, Lake George, Warren County

An Adirondack Lumber Camp at Twitchell Lake, 1860-80

May 25, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

5a Objects dug up in Lumber Camp #2 about a half mile east of Twitchell Lake, Noel SherryMy uncle Frank Sherry taught my brother Tom and I orienteering, using a map and compass to navigate through the woods and find a remote pond or other location. We were teenagers and it was an exciting way to spend a Saturday.

On one of these adventures we were in search of Silver Dollar Pond to the east of Twitchell Lake in Northern Herkimer County,when we stumbled on our first lumber camp. The telltale signs were pieces of metal hanging from a tree and protruding from the ground, with old bottles half-buried in the forest floor. We made note of the location on our map, a half-mile from Twitchell, and returned to explore it. It wasn’t long before we located the camp dump, from which we dug up the items pictured here.

These and other objects triggered an active discussion on the date of this old camp, with an imaginative re-creation of what life might have been like for a lumberjacks living and working there. [Read more…] about An Adirondack Lumber Camp at Twitchell Lake, 1860-80

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondacks, Archaeology, Architecture, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Big Moose, Black River, Brown's Tract, Copenhagen, Croghan, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forestry, Hemlock Trees, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Labor History, Lewis County, Logging, Moose River, Tanning, Totten Crossfield Tract, trees, Twitchell Lake

Architect Adolf Loos and the American Legacy in Vienna

May 22, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Golden Arch at Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition A chronology of cultural interactions between Europe and the United States tends to be a narrative about identity formation. It concerns the transfer of the American artist from a pilgrim to the shrines of European achievement to an active participant in redefining the boundaries of art and literature.

European modernism was the spontaneous expression of gifted but rebellious youngsters. It was rooted in urban settings and the post-war influx of young American writers fleeing the puritanical spirit at home added energy to the avant-garde. The presence of African-American performers and musicians boosted the raucous mood amongst the cosmopolitan mix of artists in Paris and Berlin.

Modernism had started with joyful artistic irreverence, it suffered in the trenches and, under the repression of the 1930s, was forced to seek asylum in New York. As war in Europe became inevitable, most cultural exiles returned to America, bringing with them a bounty of experience to fructify the cultural landscape at home (the term “lost generation” is a misnomer).

Such an account however obscures the fact that young and curious visitors to the United States – unlike their elders who resented the prospect of “Americanization” – returned home inspired by what they had experienced whilst questioning Europe’s haughty pretension of cultural superiority. [Read more…] about Architect Adolf Loos and the American Legacy in Vienna

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, Chicago, Cultural History, German-American History, Jewish History, modernism, Urban History, World War Two

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