Newsletter of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County (Home Page)
June 1996
Table Of Contents
PRESERVATION NATION
Florence wonders what to do about all those tourists
Florence, Italy, about the same size as Buffalo but somewhat more intact, has more tourists in its historic center than it knows what to do with. So, starting this summer, the city will require all tour groups to book in advance and pay an admission fee of $33 to $66 per busload. Only 150 buses at a time will be allowed in the historic area. City councilor Piero Roggi says, ìOn the one hand, we want to be hospitable: It is our duty to the rest of the world to let people visit. But we also have to keep in mind the needs of Florentines, who are a very exacting population.î
Then thereís Venice, which hardly has roads, let alone designated parking for every pay toilet. About the same size as downtown Buffalo, but somewhat less intent on luring bowling tournaments, Venice has at times instituted one-way pedestrian traffic to curtail congestion in its historic center.
Jumbotron eulogizedThe lease on the 42x23-foot Sony Jumbotron electronic sign on Times Square is up. Sony does not want to renew. ìIt is an icon,î said Gretchen Dykstra of the Times Square Business Improvement District. Joseph Rose, chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, said ìThe Jumbotron has been an important phenomenon because it demonstrated that there is a need and a market for visual excitement.î
Preservationists, who fought off attempts to kill Times Square with ëgood taste,ë and helped create design standards to preserve the hyperkinetic atmosphere, were optimistic: ìWe love the Jumbotron and will be sad to see it come down,î said Brendan Sexton, president of the Municipal Art Society. ìBut if what we are seeing is the transition to something wilder, freer and more high tech, I think it would be a vindication of everybody who tried to revitalize Times Square.î
GM to abandon Kahn-designed HQThe General Motors Corporation is moving from its 76-year-old neo-classical palace on Detroitís Woodward Avenue designed by Albert Kahn ( who designed dozens of buildings for automobile manufacturers in the industryís pioneering phaseñincluding Buffaloís Pierce Arrow plant). GM is moving to the wistfully but inaccurately named Renaissance Center. The heavily subsidized RenCen weakened many existing downtown Detroit buildings when it opened in the early 1970s. Now its going to wipe out a still-vital area of Woodward. The RenCen cost $350 million to build 20 years ago (that would be over $700 million in inflation adjusted terms). It reportedly sold for $72 million to GM.
Against odds, Weeksville preservationists fight onThe rediscovered remains of ìone of the largest and earliest settlements of free black people in the Northî continues to motivate members of the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History, despite tremendous obstacles. The four houses, spotted during an aerial survey of Brooklyn in 1968 and made city and national landmarks, were built between 1840 and 1883. In 1973, one burned to the ground and was rebuilt. Vandals nearly destroyed another. Just last February, a car crashed into the third, wiping out two years of renovations. Local preservationists estimate another $500,000 is needed.
Hoboken station in $150 million projectThe 1907 Hoboken Terminal, originally built by the Erie Lackawanna Railroad and now owned by New Jersey Transit, is undergoing $18.8 million of roof, infrastructure, and public-area renovations. The station, still used by 30,000 Manhattan-bound passengers per day, is being touted by officials as the crown jewel of a 10-15 year project costing $150 million that would include a new office building and multi-modal improvements. Says one long-time vendor in the Terminal: ìIf itís fixed the way they say itís going to be fixed, this place is going to be a tourist attractionÖ When it does, itís going to turn this place into a Fishermanís Wharf.î
50th Natíl Preservation meeting in ChicagoThe Cubs will not be in the World Series, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation will still make Chicago an interesting place to visit in October, with dozens of tours and workshops for everyone from architecture buffs to hard-bitten, bloodied veterans of preservation wars. Call 1-800-944-6847 for info, a catalogue, or reservations.
Theater to be moved intact up Broadway
The L & J. G. Stickley