Posts tagged Architecture
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1959 alternate Kennedy Center design
Nathaniel Kelso sent over these 50-year-old renderings of an alternate design for the Kennedy Center. It looks a bit like a UFO landed on the banks of the Potomac. Keep reading…
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Just propose a Federal style store already, Apple
Georgetown’s ANC and the Old Georgetown Board, the special historic preservation review body for Georgetown, recently rejected Apple’s proposed design for a store on Wisconsin Avenue. The Current reported on it last week, and yesterday City Paper exposed the story to the Web, prompting more coverage in the tech press. Keep reading…
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2009 wish list for transit
Since it’s almost time to put on your suit/tuxedo/ballgown and party like it’s 2009, I sat down and thought about the best ways to improve transit in our region in the future. This list breaks down into two categories: near term and long term. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Actions for transit
MoCo planning staff endorse light rail: Reports of Planning Board staff endorsing a bus Purple Line have been greatly exaggerated. A staff report released yesterday endorses the surface light rail option, including the segment parallel to the Capital Crescent Trail. “We have to grow, and we have to do it in a way that is sustainable … in a reasonable way that is less dependent… Keep reading…
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British officials push modernism, call traditional architecture “pastiche”
PedShed’s Laurence Aurbach sent over this great article in the UK’s Building magazine about “pastiche.” Apparently, people in Britain are much more hostile to traditional buildings than here in the ‘States’, with many towns adopting laws saying that “[New building] proposals that provide a pastiche … should be discouraged”, and “someone senior in English Heritage [a UK preservation… Keep reading…
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Saint Elizabeths: reuse or abuse?
In mid-November, I attended the second St. Elizabeths West Campus walking tour hosted by the DC Preservation League (DCPL). Founded in 1852 as the Government Hospital for the Insane at the urging of social reformer Dorothea Dix and its first Superintendent, Charles H. Nichols, St. Elizabeths’ entire campus was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, designated… Keep reading…
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Architecture begins its road home
The December issue of Esquire magazine contains its yearly “Best and Brightest” feature, including a profile of the architect who designed the new Seattle Central Library, Joshua Prince-Ramus. Keep reading…
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Dinner links: bikes, bikinis and boorish modernists
First bike sharing, now tricycle sharing: No, it’s not a program to teach kindergarteners to share their toys. A San Francisco bike shop launched a trike-sharing program for adult-size tricycles, which can carry a lot more cargo than bikes. North Beach residents are using them for errands like trips to the local Trader Joe’s. Tip: Ben T. Keep reading…
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Preservation very different up the coast
For good or ill, it’s much, much easier to landmark a building in DC than in our fellow Northeastern cities. In New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission doesn’t even act on many landmark requests, and can’t stop developers from ripping off historic cornices to avoid landmark designation. The Commission declined to preserve St. Thomas the Apostle Church… Keep reading…
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“Persuading” or “evaluating”?
Before attending the DC Preservation League’s recent panel discussion, “Evaluating the Significance of Modern Structures,” I wondered if it would focus on differentiating the significant from the insignificant or just advocating for modern structures’ significance. I found a little of both, but more of the latter. As Reid wrote in a comment after… Keep reading…