Architecture

[Interview] Elizabeth Ellsworth, Maven of Midcentury Modern

Posted on: January 28th, 2013 by David Robert Weible 1 Comment

Elizabeth Ellsworth stands in front of her Bimel Kehm house. Credit: Elizabeth Ellsworth

After retiring from a career as a marketing executive, Elizabeth Ellsworth began buying and restoring once-beautiful homes that had been tarnished by lack of maintenance or improper additions. In late 2012, she purchased the Island House. Built in 1954, it’s one of three residences designed by Bimel Kehm in New Canaan, Connecticut.

I called Elizabeth to get the skinny on the talented but enigmatic architect, her love for the house, and her restoration work.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.

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Remembering Architecture Critic Ada Louise Huxtable

Posted on: January 9th, 2013 by Gwendolyn Purdom

"On Architecture" by Ada Louise Huxtable.

The built environment lost one of its pillars this week when renowned architecture critic and ardent preservationist Ada Louise Huxtable passed away Monday at age 91. As the first full-time architecture critic for a daily American newspaper, Huxtable won the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded for distinguished criticism in 1970, seven years after she joined the New York Times staff in 1963. In recent years, her writing appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

“Ada Louise Huxtable was one of the earliest and most consistent champions of preservation and the need for humanity in architecture,” says National Trust Executive Vice President and Chief Preservation Officer David J. Brown. “Her thoughtful perspective, along with her witty and sometimes sharp tongue, made her a force to be reckoned with in the field of planning, urban design, and preservation -- and a must-read for New Yorkers. She will be missed.”... Read More →

Gwendolyn Purdom

Gwendolyn Purdom is an associate editor at Preservation magazine. A Chicago native, Gwendolyn is passionate about the people and stories behind historic places – the quirkier the better.

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Edward Dart: Re-Discovering a Modernist Architect

Posted on: January 1st, 2013 by David Robert Weible 3 Comments

Water Tower Place, 1976. Credit: orijinal, flickr
Edward Dart's Water Tower Place in Chicago.

Although noted Chicago architect Edward Dart (1922-1975) designed everything from well-known public spaces and Modernist lakefront houses to iconic churches, I’d never heard of him. And as you’ll read in Lisa Skolnik’s article, “Discovering Dart,” in our Winter 2013 issue of Preservation, neither had the family who purchased one of his houses.

So, to get a better sense of who this accomplished but often overlooked architect was -- and why he was so obscure -- I called Matthew Seymour, a project manager for Central Building and Preservation in Chicago, who had written his master’s thesis in preservation on Dart and served as a source for our feature.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.

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Open for Business Again at Pittsburgh’s Market Square Place

Posted on: December 12th, 2012 by Julia Rocchi 9 Comments

Several years ago, Market Square Place was just a series of historic buildings on three different streets with different styles and heights, all suffering from decades of neglect. Some saw this as a case for demolition, but the City of Pittsburgh saw an opportunity to promote green urban living.

A public-private partnership brought the historic buildings together into a single mixed-use complex that now boasts residences, retail storefronts, and a YMCA, all with facades that have been restored to their original 1930s appearance. This successful reinvention as a fresh, eco-friendly community earned Market Square Place an Honor Award at the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus National Preservation Awards -- and the approval of the surrounding neighborhood.... Read More →

Julia Rocchi

Julia Rocchi is the managing editor for the National Trust. By day she wrangles content; by night (and weekends), she shops local, travels to story-rich places, and walks around looking up at buildings.

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Saving Places 101: How College Students Are Preserving Historic Indiana Neighborhoods

Posted on: December 11th, 2012 by David Robert Weible

825 Washington in the Emily Kimbrough District.

In many ways, the picture of Muncie, Ind., is the picture of communities throughout the Rust Belt Midwest: a former boomtown chock full turn-of-the-century architecture largely neglected after suburban flight and the loss of manufacturing. But the sheer number of architecturally significant buildings, and the local university project to raise awareness for them, is what sets this city of roughly 70,000 apart.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.