2011

Preservation Round-Up: Gingerbread Architecture Edition

Posted on: December 22nd, 2011 by David Garber

 


The gingerbread High Line. (Photo: Friends of the High Line)

Y'all: There's a lot of gingerbread reconstruction happening this year. And although here at the National Trust we don't often highlight historical reconstructions, we figured that their popularity, high frosting content, and general sense of whimsy qualified this group for a special post.

Food Architecture: Gingerbread High Line - High Line Blog

"The mini-High Line, made entirely of gingerbread, frosting, and festive winter plants, captures some of the park’s iconic architectural details, like the art deco railing and the Pentagram-designed High Line “H” logo on the structure’s column. There are even two gingerbread people taking a pleasant wintertime stroll."

Fallingwater Now Comes in Gingerbread Form - ARTINFO

"In recent years, have your nieces and nephews been stealing the show at your family’s annual gingerbread building competition? Perhaps your designs need to be a little more ambitious. Why not up the ante with a gingerbread house modeled after a famous architectural structure?"

Make sure to click through to the full slideshow of gingerbread architectural landmarks.

Historic Muncie returns in gingerbread form - The Star Press

"Ball Stores, the old Delaware County Courthouse and the late, lamented Rivoli Theater are rising again, thanks to Ivy Tech Community College culinary students. Of course, instead of brick and stone, they're made out of gingerbread."

"There is even a Montpelier Gingerbread house!" - James Madison’s Montpelier

"‘Tis the season for holiday traditions: decorating, baking, caroling and shopping are underway across the country. As we prepare for ”A Christmas Evening at Montpelier,” we’re also decking the halls with modern and Madison-era works of art to show our guests."

A few more holidays-inspired preservation links after the jump.... Read More →

David Garber

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.

Slideshow: 2011 White House Holiday Tour

Posted on: December 20th, 2011 by David Garber

 

The white chocolate-covered gingerbread replica of the White House in the State Dining Room. (Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

A couple weeks ago we had a Twitter chat about the confluence of preservation and the holidays. After roughly 600 tweets about the subject, we decided that, you know what, this might actually be something you wouldn't mind seeing more on.

And so yesterday I bundled up, pulled out a bikeshare, and pedaled my way down to the White House for their annual Holiday Open House. For you, blog readers. For you. (But then, who turns down tickets to the White House?)

Check out our slideshow below, and keep an eye out for a few things: the ways that the White House highlighted architectural details, furniture, and art with their decorations, the wheelchair ramp that fits seamlessly into the historic East Wing entrance hall, as well as the handful of craft statues of the first family's dog, Bo.

For history, more slideshows, and a few videos, click through to the official 2011 Holidays at the White House website.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

David Garber

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.

Preservation Round-Up: Lost Beachfront Oil Wells Edition

Posted on: December 19th, 2011 by David Garber

 


Oil wells line Ocean Boulevard in Huntington Beach, CA in 1935. All of the towers are now gone, though a one and a half mile span of prime beachfront is still used for oil production. (Photo: Pomona Public Library)

Beach Oil Wells, Southern California, c. 1895-1940 - Retronaut

This is a great set of photos from a time when oil wells were all over Santa Southern California's' beaches. They were clearly a major source of economic growth, but it's crazy to think that some of the country's most famous waterfronts were lined with rows of giant oil towers. I wonder: did anyone fight their demolition?

The Joy Theater reopens - TheBestofNewOrleans.com

"It's been a heck of a process," Gowland says as he surveys the renovation work from the second-floor balcony. "It's come a tremendous way. ... We're taking something that's been out of commerce and demobilized since 2003 and bringing it back into place and reusing the entire building, the entire exterior, all the steel was repaired and reused. To us, that's really a big component of being a sustainable building."

Can I get a house with that garage? - think | architect

"Over the past year or two I have collected photos of garages in my town that were built back in a day when people may have been lucky to even own a car. However when they did, the garage was out back off of the alley and it was at least given some presence to match the house it served. Some of them had a small room or apartment built above them. The same DNA that came from the main house was injected into the design of the garage giving it meaning and a belonging to the main house without it upstaging the house."

Buffalo, Then and Now (1902-2011) - The Atlantic Cities

"There were few better cities in America than Buffalo in 1902. The city installed America's first electric street lights, one of the world's first skyscrapers (Guaranty Building, 1894) and the world's largest office building (Ellicott Square, 1896). Time has not served Buffalo well since. Fighting rapid population loss and economic stagnation, the city's attempts to revitalize itself have resulted in swaths of surface parking and clusters of vapid office towers that impede on its radial street grid."

Press Pass: Preservation of vacant churches [Audio] - WBFO 88.7

"In this week's Press Pass, WBFO's Eileen Buckley is joined by Buffalo Spree editor Elizabeth Licata to discuss her special, "Preservation Ready: Sacred spaces under a deathwatch.""

Ray And Charles Eames Documentary Tonight [Set your DVRs!] - Huffington Post

"She was a painter who rarely painted. He was an architecture school dropout. Together they would define the aesthetic and lifestyle of American modernism."

The documentary American Masters Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter premieres tonight at 10p.m. EST on PBS.

Watch Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter on PBS. See more from American Masters.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

David Garber

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.

Sustainability and Preservation: Looking Back on 2011

Posted on: December 16th, 2011 by National Trust for Historic Preservation 1 Comment

 

Written by Rachel Bowdon

Don't miss the link to the Preservation Green Lab's year-end update at the end of the post.

Over the past year, we’ve brought you news on exciting developments and milestones regarding the intersection of preservation and sustainability. From Buffalo to Des Moines, from presidents and billionaires to Main Street ,we are heartened that the message that reusing existing buildings and maintaining historic communities are essential to ensuring a sustainable future is catching on.

As we near the end of 2011, two more developments give us hope that we’ll see even more focus on existing buildings (and older and historic buildings in particular) in the coming year. First, on December 2, President Obama announced a nearly $4 billion investment in energy upgrades to public and private buildings. The $4 billion investment will be at no cost to taxpayers and “builds on a commitment made by 14 partners at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June to make energy upgrades across 300 million square feet, and to invest $500 million in private sector financing in energy efficiency projects.”

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) followed up with an exciting announcement concerning LEED for Existing Buildings. As reported by Ashley Katz of Green Building Pro: “LEED-certified existing buildings are outpacing their newly built counterparts…As of this month, square footage of LEED-certified existing buildings surpassed LEED-certified new construction by 15 million square feet on a cumulative basis.” And according to McGraw Hill’s Green Outlook 2011 report, growth of the green renovation and retrofit market is expected to continue well into the future!

Finally - if you are interested in learning more about how our work at the National Trust is helping to advance building reuse and retrofits, check out our Preservation Green Lab year-end update for more info on the following newsy items.

We’ll continue to provide updates on Preservation Green Lab’s efforts to drive reuse and retrofit policy in the coming months, so stay tuned. Happy New Year!

Rachel Bowdon is the program assistant for the Sustainability Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, works to save America's historic places.

Preservation Round-Up: Julia Child’s Kitchen Edition

Posted on: December 15th, 2011 by David Garber 1 Comment

 


(Photo: Flickr user Kevin H., used under a Creative Commons license)

Smithsonian Shutting Down Julia Child's Kitchen - NBC Washington

"The Julia Child exhibit at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. will close down next month, according to the Smithsonian. The last day to see the kitchen is January 8th, 2012, until it reopens as part of new exhibit focusing on American food and wine late next summer."

The History of Julia and Paul Child's House In Georgetown - Curbed DC

"Julia and Paul Child bought [their] Georgetown house in 1948 but only lived in it briefly before being transferred overseas. It wasn't until the mid fifties, when they returned from Paul's assignment in France, that they moved in and made it their own. Armed with new French culinary skills Julia taught cooking classes out of this kitchen and saw her cookbook gain mainstream success. However, even before the Childs moved in the house could claim historical significance since it was built by an African-American man shortly after the Civil War (when very few African-Americans had the funds to do so)."

Frank Lloyd Wright's Emil Bach House to be Polished Up and Opened to Public - Curbed Chicago

"James Pritzker, man with the military library and heir to the Pritzker family fortune, is turning his preservationist attentions to Frank Lloyd Wright's Emil Bach house in Rogers Park. Beginning in Spring, he will restore the exterior and open the house to overnight guests and events."

The Human Spirit: Shabbat in Harlem - The Jerusalem Post

"Two decades before Lady Ella sang “A Tisket, a Tasket” at the Apollo, a Ukrainian-born cantor named Yossele Rosenblatt revolutionized Jewish cantorial music at the neighborhood’s Ohab Tzedek synagogue. Rosenblatt introduced tearful sounds – krechts, as they’re called in Yiddish – before an adoring congregation. As the Roaring Twenties opened, Harlem was the thirdlargest Jewish community in the world, after the Lower East Side and Warsaw, Poland. Between 175,000 and 200,000 Jews lived here. More than 100 synagogues and Torah study centers flourished."

Buildings with Mesker facades found in all but two states - Evansville Courier & Press

"A project launched more than six years ago by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to identify buildings with facades of ornamental Mesker sheet metal and cast iron has turned into a nationwide campaign. Their building facades have been documented now in 835 communities in 48 states and Canada. Only Hawaii and New Hampshire so far have no remaining documented Meskers, although organizers believe some may eventually be identified in New Hampshire."

Gilbert company buys another historic Detroit building - The Detroit News

"Dan Gilbert's real estate unit bought a sixth Woodward Avenue building in downtown — another historic structure that was being underused, according to the commercial real estate agent involved in the sale. Gilbert's Bedrock plans to invest up to $4 million to make a pedestrian-friendly retail space with offices or apartments, according to the company's website."

Who Named Orlando? - The Craftsman

"There are at least five versions of how the name change happened that circulate amongst its residents. Locals have their favorite version and some will defend their belief quite fervently, but a definitive answer has continued to allude Orlando’s residents up to the present day."

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

David Garber

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.