Buffalo Tours 1996 schedule announced
The Preservation Coalition of Erie County's architectural and historical tour program, Buffalo Tours, gets underway May 18 and runs through October. Full tour schedule on back page
Two Chicago movie palaces saved
Two historic movie palaces in Chicago are being transformed into venues for live
theater and musicals. The Walt Disney Company has signed a three year lease on the
Chicago Theater a State Street landmark built in 1921. And the Oriental theater,
a block away on Randolph Street, is to be acquired and renovated by Toronto impresario
and Broadway producer Garth Drabinsky. Drabinsky's company, Livent, Inc., is putting
$15 million into the Oriental, while the city is putting in $13.5 million.
The Chicago Theater was saved from demolition in 1985 by a purpose-made preservation
association, which has gone to hellñbankruptcyñand back to save the Chicago.
The halo effect of historic courthouses
Howrey & Simon (ìIn court every dayî), a nationally-ambitious law firm, has been
running an ad campaign in the Wall St. Journal which features a different historic
courthouse each week. Presumably, the firm has participated in cases heard in the
hallowed halls depicted, and the dignity, grandeur, and tradition of those buildings
is reflected in its work.
Perhaps we should have Howrey & Simon explore the fairness of the process that
may lead to the abandonment of Old County Hall in favor of a new courthouse at Church
St. and the Skyway.
Boston embarks on city-wide ëMain St.í program
The City of Boston and the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street
Center, together with area corporations, have launched commercial revitalization
programs to promote historic preservation practices. Five neighborhoods are starting
on their projects now, with five neighborhoods to be added over each of the next
three years. Mayor Thomas Menino, who 10 years ago first brought the Main Street
program to Boston as a city councilor, was responsible for the successful Rosindale
Village Main Street project.
Each of the 20 neighborhoods has an initial two-year budget of $350,000. Statistics
show that every dollar spent on a Main Street program has leveraged $25 of investment.
Wal-Mart goes after George Washington's boyhood home
On April 1, too late for this edition of the Preservation Report, the Stafford County
Board of Supervisors in Virginia will vote on whether to permit construction on the
70-acre piece of land that is all that remains of George Washington's boyhood home,
Ferry Farm, outside Fredericksburg. Wal-Mart has offered to plant some trees on a
50-foot buffer zone and donate money to create a historic attraction. 200 people
who showed up at a recent hearing were unimpressed, and pleaded with the board to
protect the ìsacred trust.î
Life in the Past Lane
The Society for Commercial Archeology is, with the possible exception of the Preservation
Coalition of Erie County, the nation's least uptight and most fun-loving preservation
organization. Pun-loving, too. The SCA's 1996 conference is called Life in the Past
Lane, and it will take place in the nerve center of, ahh, ummÖexuberant, highly individualistic
roadside architecture, Los Angeles.
SCA members get to use reams of kitschy, ironic clip art for totally legitimate,
scholarly ends. And take tours like the Suburban Metropolis bus tour: ìThe roads
themselves are part of the storyÖthe Arroyo Seco Parkway, the original I-5 alignment,
and Route 66. Highlights will include Bullockís Pasadena department store (1947)
the Covina Bowl, an Egyptian/Aztec Modern bowling alley (1955)Öand the oldest surviving
McDonald's (1953).î Another tour includes the nation's oldest Bob's Big Boy.
The conference is April 17-20. Call now for info: 213-623-2489. Otherwise, you will
miss a lecture devoted to the cultural meaning of a highway interchange: The Four-Level
Stack as Los Angeles Icon.