The Portland Building is now on the National Register of Historic Places. (Photo: Flickr user camknows)
Portland Building gets a place on national history list - Portland Tribune
"The Portland Building is now a part of national history. The 29-year-old building designed in the early 1980s by architect Michael Graves was named in late October to the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service, which oversees the national history register, announced the decision Friday. ... The nomination was to primarily honor the building that launched the post-Modernism architectural movement across the country."
GW to Demolish Last of Pennsylvania Avenue Rowhouses - The DC Mud
"George Washington University plans to demolish a group of townhouses along Pennsylvania Avenue, dating back to 1910, to make way for a large office building designed by Gensler. The townhouses are nearly the last remaining historic structures on Pennsylvania, excepting the Mexican Embassy."
Prentice watch: The Goldberg-designed building sits empty and in limbo - Chicago Tribune
"The battle over the future of old Prentice Women's Hospital has degenerated into a stalemate. Last week, a rumor circulated that the Emanuel administration had told Northwestern University that the university would not be permitted to demolish the Bertrand Goldberg-designed hospital unless it had a plan for a new building and could show that it had the money to construct that building. In other words, the city wasn't ready to preside over the creation of another Block 37-style vacant lot."
Falling façade speeds plan to fix Detroit's Wurlitzer Building - Detroit Free Press
"The three-year scrap about the building's condition, pitting city officials and neighbors against Curtis, reached a crisis last weekend when sections of the brick facade peeled away from the poured-concrete walls and crashed into the alley."
Preservation man: Landmarks chair Robert Tierney - Crain's New York
"Robert Tierney is on a tear. In his eight years atop the Landmarks Preservation Commission, he has anointed 27 districts “historic”—six more than in any other mayoral administration. Since February alone, the Landmarks chair has added five neighborhoods with a total of over 800 buildings in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx."
15 coffins unearthed when property owner digs for pool on edge of French Quarter - Nola.com
"When Vincent Marcello began planning to install a swimming pool on his French Quarter property, he suspected construction crews might find something other than dirt in the backyard. Specifically, Marcello thought workers may unearth human bones, knowing his luxury condo near North Rampart and Toulouse streets sat on part of the city's first burial grounds."
Breaking the Mold in North Carolina - Knight Arts
"This is a fascinating 1800′s tale of the well-to-do and a master craftsman, who was also an entrepreneur and a free man of color. All of this right here in North Carolina. How interesting it is that Thomas Day - a black man in the South during the 1800s - is one of North Carolina’s most famous furniture craftsmen and cabinetmakers?"
David Garber is a member of the Digital and New Media team at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
David Garber
David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is a native of Washington, DC, and loves the intersection of preservation, innovation, and sustainability.
Patrick Lally
November 21, 2011
Just a little correction. The six buildings slated for demolition by George Washington University cited in your “DC Mud” article are not from 1910 as the “Roundup” teaser states. At least four of them are from the nineteenth century.