The Preservation Foundation

Articles of Note

Fit for Fat City: A "Lite" Menu of European Policies to Improve Our Urban Form
Posted Date 01/14/2010
Urban sprawl in the United States reflects distinctive geographic, demographic, and economic circumstances, but also results from a unique combination of public policies. American and European cityscapes are shaped in part by fundamental differences in how societies have organized everything from national tax and transportation systems, to housing strategies, agricultural subventions, energy conservation efforts, protection of small businesses, and local fiscal responsibilities. While most of the public agenda abroad cannot, and should not, be mimicked here, some general aspects are decidedly worth contemplating. They suggest ways that U.S. cities could benefit from selective revisions of our tax structure, transportation budget, public housing program, and federal regulatory framework. MORE...
Preservationist has grasp on island history
Posted Date 12/21/2009
Working in Palm Beach makes sense for Jane Day.

After all, she calls herself an island girl.

The town's preservation consultant of 17 years is particularly fond of this barrier island, as well as the Keys, the Bahamas and Venice.

Those island locales have distinctive cultures and architecture, but the allure for Day, as much as those two factors, are the people.

Over the years, Day has met a number of memorable Florida characters including the late Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the legendary defender of the Everglades; the late Dade County historian Thelma Peters,; and Jane Volk, chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission when Day began surveying Palm Beach properties and chronicling their architectural, cultural and historical merits. MORE...
Peak of Megalomania: The Tower of Dubai
Posted Date 12/17/2009
The world's tallest skyscraper will open soon in Dubai, even as the emirate continues to be battered by the financial crisis. Is Burj Dubai an expression of failed megalomania or proof of Dubai leader Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's stunning vision? MORE...
The Ten Most Positive Architectural Events of 2009
Posted Date 12/08/2009
It would be churlish to call our financial troubles one of the best architectural events of the year, however much they give us a Scrooge-like sense of satisfaction. So in the spirit of this positive-thinking season, let me look instead at some things that have actually happened, rather than at some things that have not, and offer up the ten most positive architectural events of the year. MORE...
The enduring influence of architect Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language
Posted Date 12/02/2009
Do You See a Pattern? An architectural theorist who has inspired smart-growth advocates, counterculture DIY-ers, and computer programmers.

Last month, the architect and author Christopher Alexander received the Vincent Scully Prize, given annually by the National Building Museum "to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design." For the last 45 years, Alexander has been a controversial figure on the architectural scene, both revered and reviled; yet in an period burdened by flocks of architectural theorists, I would guess that he is one of very few whose work will endure. MORE...
Twelve Miles of Inspiration
Posted Date 11/05/2009
With his latest album, 'The BQE,' Sufjan Stevens takes on urban living, civic projects and Robert Moses. MORE...
Metropolitan Glory
Posted Date 10/24/2009
From Paris to Timbuktu, the urban places that have played illustrious roles in the world's story MORE...
Tales of Two Cities: What Chicago and Charlotte Say About the Future of America
Posted Date 10/08/2009
The best hope to show that America was capable of still building great cities might have been Bank of America’s hometown of Charlotte. The North Carolina city was a middling Southern metro until about 15 years ago. Then a combination of competing business leaders and a moment in history — rather like Chicago, albeit on a smaller scale — turned Charlotte into the nation’s second-largest banking center, drew a population larger than Seattle and seemed on the brink of showing how automobile-age America could still build a real city. MORE...
Proposed Royal Poinciana Way zoning overlay rapped at Planning Commission meeting
Posted Date 10/06/2009
Residents and some zoning commissioners objected Tuesday to proposed zoning changes they say will open the door to unwanted redevelopment of the Royal Poinciana Way business district.

"This is allowing you to increase density in an area that is already congested," Susan Markin, a former zoning commissioner and town councilwoman, told the Planning and Zoning Commission.

"Some of the buildings are shabby, but that is a code board problem, not a zoning problem," Markin said of Royal Poinciana Way.

Markin, who was opposed two years ago to undertaking a master study that led to the proposed zoning amendments, said she likes the street's Old World charm and mom-and-pop businesses.

Sam Boykin, a member of the Architectural Review Commission, said the town shouldn't encourage development that will attract shoppers from across the bridges.

Palm Beach is a residential community with town-serving businesses and should remain that way, he and others said. MORE...
La Ronda, Addison Mizner's last commission, begins demolition in Bryn Mawr
Posted Date 10/01/2009
The fervent pleas of preservationists, considerable media attention and an offer to move the house were not enough to save La Ronda, Addison Mizner's last commission.

Crews began demolishing the Spanish Gothic-style mansion near Bryn Mawr, Pa., Thursday morning.

"They are working at such a speed I'm sure it will be down by today or tomorrow," preservationist Kathleen Abplanalp said Thursday. She was one of the many area residents who had campaigned against the demolition. The demolition of the nearly 18,000-square-foot house could actually take longer.

In the 1920s, Mizner helped make the Mediterranean Revival style the defining architectural style of Palm Beach and South Florida.

Joseph Kestenbaum, who bought La Ronda this summer, rejected an offer Benjamin Wohl of Palm Beach made in August to buy the house for $100,000 and move it to an adjacent lot. MORE...
Royal Poinciana Way zoning proposals delivered, include redevelopment incentives
Posted Date 09/29/2009
New zoning rules for the Royal Poinciana Way area would offer incentives to property owners who redevelop using design characteristics preferred by the town.

The proposed amendments were drafted by town consultant Marcela Camblor and delivered to Town Hall on Monday. They go before the Planning and Zoning Commission Oct. 6 and the Town Council Nov. 18.

The changes would require council approval and amendments to the town's comprehensive land-use plan. Implementation would not occur before next year, said John Page, director of the Planning, Zoning and Building department.

A 30-acre zoning overlay would be created on the north side of Royal Poinciana Way, and on Sunrise and Sunset avenues. Property owners could opt to redevelop under the overlay or under existing zoning rules.

Building height is limited to two stories in the zoning district. Under the overlay, however, buildings could be three, and in some cases four, stories tall if owners provide publicly accessible open s MORE...
Winding road leads designer Margaret Kaywell to Sea Gull cottage makeover
Posted Date 09/28/2009
When interior designer Margaret Kaywell decided to return to work after her son started school, along came opportunity and fate.

Opportunity knocked when her husband, John, came home one night and told her: "I just met the nicest designer. You ought to go in and say hi."

Kaywell, who had already launched a residential interior design service — Kaywell Interiors — in Palm Beach, took the suggestion and looked up Valerie McGreevy Tatalovich of Valerie M. Interiors. They chatted, clicked, and in February formed a partnership in a new commercial design enterprise.

And here's where the fate comes in: Tatalovich had previously landed the contract for the interior revamp of Sea Gull Cottage, a storied treasure trove of Palm Beach history.

The 1886 house, the oldest in town, was in the process of getting a $5.5 million facelift to better serve the nearby Royal Poinciana Chapel.

The task at hand: design the interior so it harmonized with the 19th century exterior charm, while sti MORE...
James Lees-Milne: The Life by Michael Bloch
Posted Date 09/10/2009
Anyone who knew or knew of James Lees-Milne in his later years might have formed the impression of an exquisitely polished round peg in a perfectly round hole. Aesthete, diarist, wit, he had known everyone from the Mitfords to Mick Jagger and wrote about them amusingly. His work for the National Trust over three decades had made him personally and professionally familiar with most of the great houses of England. In some he was a regular guest, while many more owed their continued existence wholly or partly to him. If it had all really been so smooth he would probably have been an intolerable person and certainly a bad diarist, for the stuff of diaries is the uneven texture of the everyday and the comedy, or tragedy, of contrasts. But Lees-Milne, as he emerges from his diaries and memoirs, is decidedly unpolished, the anti-hero of his own life. MORE...
What A City Needs
Posted Date 09/04/2009
For urbanists and others, the battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs was the great titanic struggle of the twentieth century. Like the bout between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, their conflict has magnified significance, as the two figures have become symbols. Jacobs is the secular saint of street life, representing a humane approach to urban planning grounded in the messy interactions of the neighborhood. Moses is the icon of infrastructure established by power, the physical reconstruction of cities with great bridges and wide expressways and tall apartment buildings. The actual projects that fueled their acrimony may now be curiosities of urban history, but the ideological conflict embodied by Jacobs and Moses continues to rage in every growing city in the world. The growth of Shanghai may be described as Moses on steroids, whereas the land-use restrictions in Mumbai honor a central element of Jacobs’s legacy. MORE...
THE Q&A: ANTHONY FLINT, HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, URBAN PLANNER
Posted Date 09/01/2009
Thirteen bridges, 637 miles of highway, two tunnels, 17 parks and 658 playgrounds have the handprints of Robert Moses. He was like an imperious child determined to build his every whim, and New York City was his giant erector set. But the city's Master Builder met an unlikely match in Jane Jacobs, a self-educated journalist and housewife who fell in love with Greenwich Village. “Wrestling with Moses”, a new book by Anthony Flint, chronicles the rivalry that would forever change the field of urban planning. MORE...
Committee backs revised Worth Avenue plan
Posted Date 08/31/2009
A town committee unanimously recommended Monday that the Town Council approve a revised plan for improving Worth Avenue.

If approved by the council, construction would start May 1 on the design created by architect Mark Marsh in concert with landscape designer Jorge Sanchez and historian/attorney Harvey Oyer.

Key facets include returning coconut palms to the famed shopping street, creating a clock tower at the east end of the street, widening sidewalks by narrowing driving lanes from 11 ½ feet to 10 feet, adding a piazza to Hibiscus Avenue, creating a park west of Saks Fifth Avenue, and adding crosswalk nodes for pedestrian safety. MORE...
Pink paint proposal for Royal Poinciana Plaza has some tenants seeing red
Posted Date 08/18/2009
Would pink be a welcome alternative to the green-grey color now covering the walls of the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse?

Pink, a shade of beige or a brownish-purple paint called Volk's Special could adorn the Regency-style buildings in the weeks ahead.

A paint chip analysis indicated the buildings' color was originally pink, although photographs suggest the initial color may have been a form of beige, said Adam Munder, a partner with Sterling Palm Beach, manager of the 12-acre commercial/retail property.

Sterling is preparing to paint the buildings. Boston architect Ann Beha, designer of Sterling's redevelopment proposal for the plaza, will review the company's paint studies and make a presentation before the Landmarks Preservation Commission's Sept. 15 meeting. Beha will show what the buildings will look like with various potential colors, Munder said. MORE...
Leave the past behind
Posted Date 08/13/2009
The campaigns to restore lost architectural gems signify a malaise in our culture. MORE...
Knossos: Fakes, Facts, and Mystery
Posted Date 08/13/2009
Instantly recognizable with its squat red columns, ceremonial staircases, and "throne rooms," Knossos is the second most visited of all archaeological sites in Greece, attracting almost a million visitors each year. Yet none of those columns are ancient; they are all restorations, commissioned in the first half of the twentieth century by Sir Arthur Evans, the British excavator. MORE...
Bauhaus Tour
Posted Date 08/12/2009
Reconsidering the influential design movement on its 90th anniversary. MORE...
Cities of the damned
Posted Date 08/01/2009
Here are two books by two very different people, one a clear-headed British journalist and commentator, the other a veteran Finnish architect of lucidly philosophical disposition, that deserve to meet on the same civic stage. Both are concerned with much the same issue - the wilful transformation of our cities and architecture into hard and shiny playthings designed for maximum profit, that are, ultimately, as inane and as unhappy as the global workings of the pitiless neo-liberal political economy itself. MORE...
Rice's Architectural Primer, By Matthew Rice
Posted Date 07/31/2009
Can you tell a flying buttress from a vast iron member? Do you know the difference between an oeil de boeuf window and a fanlight? Do you think crocketing and tracery are something to do with needlework? And would you place a poodle at an Aedicule opening?

If your answers to all of the above questions are "yes", then you can only be Matthew Rice, author of this excellent and beautiful guide to British architecture. If you do not know all the answers, then this is essential reading, an entertaining capsule complement to Nikolaus Pevsner's inimitable guides to the buildings of England and, in its own right, a charming and eccentric lesson in things we need to know about the buildings we live among. MORE...
The World's 18 Strangest Buildings — And Why We Love Them
Posted Date 07/30/2009
This July, the American Institute of Architects forecasted steep declines in nonresidential construction spending through 2010. Spending is projected to decrease by 16 percent this year and another 12 percent in 2010. With less money flowing through the industry, high-end design projects are likely to be scaled back; architects, builders and regular folk are opting for retrofits with more practical design. While the demand may be turning to minimal and frugal architecture, unusual design still holds a place for museums and other prominent locations, primarily because it is so effective at turning heads. Here are some of our favorite unusual designs for museums, offices, homes and libraries—and why they are so effective at drawing attention. MORE...
Judge Crow Rules on Royal Poinciana Referendum Challenge Defendants
Posted Date 07/30/2009
Playhouse ballot lawsuit can omit petition signers, judge rules. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge David Crow ruled Wednesday that the town is not obligated to add more defendants to its lawsuit challenging the wording of a proposed referendum designed to shield the Royal Poinciana Playhouse from demolition. But the judge has not ruled on the primary issue: Whether the referendum's wording is constitutional. The lawsuit names the Preserve Palm Beach political action committee and its founder and leader, Patrick Flynn, as defendants.

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The Hand and Eye of Genius
Posted Date 07/29/2009
The Guggenheim Museum has chosen to honor the 50th anniversary of its (you should pardon the word) iconic building by Frank Lloyd Wright with a monumental exhibition that pays tribute to the architect’s life work and fills the spiral ramp from top to bottom, or bottom to top, depending on how you choose to see it. Curiously, the only meaningful gesture the installation makes to its dramatic setting is the view of the gorgeous curtain Wright designed for the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in 1952, glowing colorfully across the spiral, and the presentation of the Guggenheim Museum itself as the climax of the show. The display neither challenges nor exploits the building’s unique spatial possibilities. It would fit just as well into any set of conventional galleries. MORE...
Architects and Their Books
Posted Date 07/27/2009
In November Yale University Press will publish “Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books,” a co-publication with Urban Center Books that features the personal libraries of Stan Allen, Henry N. Cobb, Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori, Michael Sorkin, Bernard Tschumi, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. The book was first conceived as an exhibit, which is currently on view at the Municipal Art Society of New York until February 2010. The following essay is the story of how the author and her colleagues conceived of the project, found their architects, and then spent the rest of the time trying to track them down. MORE...
Fred Rush, On Architecture Reviewed by James Dodd, New School for Social Research
Posted Date 07/26/2009
Fred Rush has written a lucid, engaging essay on architectural theory and practice. Among its many merits is that it is limited to being neither a pure work of aesthetic theory, nor one of architectural criticism, nor a manifesto for a future architecture, though there is much here that could be employed in the pursuit of any of these projects. Rush writes with a formidable knowledge of classical aesthetics, does not shy away from taking a critical stand on a number of modern and contemporary buildings, and argues persuasively for the value of a phenomenologically inspired architecture. Still, this book is more about engaging, in the spirit of the series Thinking in Action, a broad audience on important questions of architecture than presenting a theory or taking a particular critical stand. MORE...
At a Border Crossing, Security Trumps Openness
Posted Date 07/26/2009
It has been nearly eight years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but the fears and anxieties they gave rise to continue to take a toll on the design of public buildings. Even the words “United States,” it seems — when spelled out in the wrong size and color — can be an unacceptable security risk. MORE...
Town Crier: The latest chapter in America's obsession with the small town.
Posted Date 07/22/2009
Americans love the myth of the small town, while the reality is a little harder to come by. Small town culture is actually in decline, which maybe explains the renewed nostalgia. We are an increasingly urban species. Timothy Clack states in Ancestral Roots that by 2020, 60 percent of the Earth's population will live in cities. We crowd together in our big city centers while the small towns face dwindling populations and increasingly destitute main streets. Kids who grow up in small towns, myself included, talk of "getting out" and "escaping." Those left burdened with running the family farm or trapped by poverty or bad luck are looked upon with pity. When couples decide they'd like a slower way of life these days, they don't move to the small towns — they move to a suburb, many of which try to recreate the small town ideal. Unsuccessfully. The lawns might look the same, but while small towns often painfully feel like they're sealed off from the outside world, suburbs exist in relation MORE...
Grow Your Own Skyscraper
Posted Date 07/22/2009
Three young German architects are designing structures made completely out of living trees, including a pavilion for concerts in downtown Stuttgart. But designing the ultimate treehouse turns out to be trickier than one might expect. MORE...
Exploding the Myths of Modern Architecture
Posted Date 07/20/2009
Millais’ proposition is that a century of progress has led to inefficient, ugly, unpopular buildings that we have been duped into accepting by an elite conspiracy of incompetent, arrogant architects who believe they are artists.

Millais recounts tired tales of sub-standard housing, of iconic buildings with leaky roofs, of minimalist glazed offices that become greenhouses in summer and deep freezes in winter. And of course, he is right.

The history of modern architecture is certainly rich in failure. But what the author forgets is that architecture responds to a brief. The deep floor plates of corporate offices demanded more glazing than the small chambers of Victorian commercial buildings. Building technology and land value led buildings to grow taller and it became cheaper and easier to extrude them upwards in repetitive sections. MORE...
Daniel Libeskind's 17 words of architectural inspiration
Posted Date 07/01/2009
Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture -- raw, risky, emotional, radical -- and that offer inspiration for any bold creative pursuit. MORE...
Lincoln Center Rejoins the City
Posted Date 07/01/2009
This is a big year for golden anniversaries. Lincoln Center is marking its first half-century with a year-long celebration and an ambitious rebuilding program, and the Guggenheim Museum is honoring its 50th with a huge show that pays homage to its famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who died in 1959, the same year the building was completed. Miles Davis recorded "Kind of Blue" that year, and in case you hadn't noticed that 50 years have passed, consider the fact that the Harvard Business School now uses that jazz classic as a case history of how innovation is generated and why such acts of genius have a competitive advantage. MORE...
Rebuilt Rome
Posted Date 07/01/2009
The well-preserved ruins of the Roman Forum are nineteenth-century reconstructions, obscuring the Baroque past MORE...
The problem with measuring climate change impact in GDP
Posted Date 06/27/2009
There will be no Everglades in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is marginal. There will be no Venice in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is tiny. There will be no New Orleans in 100 years. The economic cost of that change to US GDP is extremely small. ... But the worth of many precious things cannot be measured in money. MORE...
Non-Places and the End of Travel
Posted Date 06/23/2009
Frank Bures on airports, Dubai and Marc Augé's "Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity" MORE...
Stinking, splendid Versailles
Posted Date 06/17/2009
The life of a palace noted for its grandeur, expense, symbolic importance and unhygienic residents MORE...
The Triumph of Frank Lloyd Wright
Posted Date 06/01/2009
The Guggenheim Museum, turning 50 this year, showcases the trailblazer's mission to elevate American society through architecture. MORE...
Spiralling Upward
Posted Date 05/25/2009
Celebrating fifty years of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim. MORE...
The Luxury City vs. the Middle Class
Posted Date 05/13/2009
The sustainable city of the future will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities. MORE...
Breaking All the Rules With New York's Public-Building Design
Posted Date 05/13/2009
Now that the age of irrational exuberance and outrageous excess is apparently over, can we please talk about real architecture again? It has been fun seeing just how far talent can stretch itself before achieving irrelevancy, but there are diminishing returns in watching more become less in an escalating game of real-estate toys for the superrich. It has been less fun to see how easily, and paradoxically, in a time of extreme affluence, the social contract that is an essential part of the art of architecture has been abrogated. Or at least driven under the radar by the kind of showy construction where creativity and cost are terminally confused. You do begin to wonder what happened to the art that could build with genuine grandeur and still serve and elevate ordinary lives. MORE...
Town & Country
Posted Date 05/01/2009
How architects are dealing with the problems of housing the 600 million rural immigrants moving to Chinese cities MORE...
Polyphilo’s Dream
Posted Date 04/01/2009
In the 1940s Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer defined the culture industry as a combination of cinema and radio. How has the Internet affected new definitions of a contemporary culture industry? The imaginary architecture in a 15th-century book may provide the answer MORE...
The Brutal Truth
Posted Date 04/01/2009
Many of Europe and America’s most controversial buildings currently await an uncertain fate, raising the issue of aesthetic success versus social function MORE...
All He Surveyed
Posted Date 03/30/2009
How Palladian was Palladio? MORE...
Pure Palladio
Posted Date 03/18/2009
The modesty, usefulness and scholarly calm that Palladio brought to the hinterlands of Venice MORE...
Toddlin’ Town
Posted Date 03/09/2009
Daniel Burnham’s great Chicago Plan turns one hundred. MORE...
How the Crash Will Reshape America
Posted Date 03/01/2009
The crash of 2008 continues to reverberate loudly nationwide—destroying jobs, bankrupting businesses, and displacing homeowners. But already, it has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America’s economic landscape will look very different than it does today. What fate will the coming years hold for New York, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas? Will the suburbs be ineffably changed? Which cities and regions can come back strong? And which will never come back at all? MORE...
The Beauty in Brutalism, Restored and Updated
Posted Date 02/25/2009
For a maverick movement begun by little old ladies in tennis shoes fighting bulldozers in the urban renewal demolition wars of the 1960s, historic preservation has achieved some astounding successes, from the passage of landmarks preservation laws and the establishment of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to the recognition, restoration and reuse of an impressive part of this country's architectural heritage. Guidelines have been established for a wide range of buildings, from the monumental to the vernacular -- repair first, restore second, rebuild last; make clear what is new or added, and honor the original materials and construction. MORE...
Center Stage
Posted Date 02/02/2009
The new Alice Tully Hall bodes well for other Lincoln Center renovations MORE...
Drawing Attention: a renowned American architect weighs in on his life and a century of design
Posted Date 02/01/2009
The Philip Johnson Tapes, edited transcripts of ten conversations conducted in 1985, provides portraits of both interviewer (Robert A. M. Stern) and interviewee (Johnson) as no less than besotted with architecture, the history thereof, and, not inappropriately, their respective roles in shaping its discourse. As someone who, beginning in the 1980s, spent many hours in conversation with both Stern and Johnson, I found that the voices captured in these transcripts sounded amazingly familiar. While the presence of a tape recorder can often result in a deadening sense of historical self-awareness, Stern and Johnson display an intense familiarity—and comfort—with the mechanics of history. As they both so clearly understood, one of history’s most important tools in its own creation is talk—not chatter or gossip, but serious talk. MORE...
Setting the Record Straight About Ed Stone and Brad Cloepfil
Posted Date 12/10/2008
It may seem low on anyone's list of priorities at this moment of political change and economic crisis, but now that Ed Stone's little seraglio has been converted into the new home of the Museum of Arts and Design and the reviews have set some kind of record for irresponsible over-the-top building-bashing, it is time to look at the facts and close the books on 2 Columbus Circle. MORE...
CONSTRUCTION PAPERS: Le Corbusier’s daily life is examined in his first major biography
Posted Date 12/01/2008
Few architects have generated as much interest as the master theorist, builder, urban designer, and visual artist born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in the Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1887. Starting as early as 1910 and until his death in 1965, the man who would be known as Le Corbusier produced letters, pamphlets, books, schemes, plans, villas, cities, and even shacks (his beloved quasi-monastic cabanon at Roquebrune Cap-Martin on the French Riviera) that have revolutionized the way architects and designers conceive of themselves and their work. Traveling incessantly around the world, he devoured information about the cultures he encountered, the latest inventions and innovations, art both new and old, and, of course, architecture. Le Corbusier was a tireless advocate for novel ideas about buildings, urban environments, and our place in them; his groundbreaking constructions, with their strong lines, bold colors, and combinations of materials such as steel, glass, and reinforced co MORE...
Preserving the City part 3: Church and State
Posted Date 11/30/2008
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Preserving the City part 2: Preservationists See Bulldozers Charging Through a Loophole
Posted Date 11/28/2008
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Preserving the City part 1: An Opaque and Lengthy Road to Landmark Status
Posted Date 11/25/2008
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Partying for Charity
Posted Date 11/12/2008
"Yes, children are starving and puppies are dying, and you should probably support these causes", writes Allison Schrager. "But better to support a great museum than my local pub" ... MORE...
James Bond: the enemy of architecture
Posted Date 11/04/2008
From Venetian palazzos to fantastical submersible lairs, the buildings in Bond films dazzle - what a shame they get blown to smithereens MORE...
Minor elements in Town Hall renovation win Landmarks Preservation Commission OK
Posted Date 10/16/2008
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Demolition of Manus house begins; neighbors lament loss
Posted Date 10/15/2008
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Alfred Browning Parker unable to salvage from Manus house before demolition
Posted Date 10/15/2008
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New Buildings Among Old: Historicism and the Search for an Architecture of Our Time
Posted Date 09/19/2008
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Hello, Columbus
Posted Date 08/25/2008
A building that can’t break free of its predecessor. MORE...
Donations pour in to agenda pushers
Posted Date 08/04/2008
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In the Park: Frank Gehry's Pavillion
Posted Date 07/31/2008
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Testa's seeks new zoning changes
Posted Date 07/31/2008
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New houses are universally horrible, and eco-houses are the most horrible of the lot
Posted Date 07/28/2008
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Royal Poinciana Plaza owners hire theater expert to assess Playhouse
Posted Date 07/28/2008
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We aim to restore Royal Poinciana Plaza; hiring Wheelock firm not politically motivated
Posted Date 07/27/2008
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Palm Beach board gives reluctant nod to Manus house razing but rejects rebuild plan
Posted Date 07/27/2008
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Palm Beach ARCOM's Morgan Wheelock shouldn't work for Royal Poinciana Plaza developer
Posted Date 07/20/2008
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'Old World' Mizner estate on market for $72.5M
Posted Date 07/14/2008
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Palm Beach Town Council creates board to judge variances
Posted Date 07/13/2008
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Ann Beha Architects, Morgan Wheelock hired for Royal Poinciana Plaza redevelopment
Posted Date 07/13/2008
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Palm Beach council grants appeals of Manus house owners; clears way for demolition
Posted Date 07/09/2008
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Medieval Spells
Posted Date 07/03/2008
Pugin, Ruskin, and the Gothic Revival MORE...
Laura and Lee Munders' oceanfront Palm Beach mansion reportedly sells for $30 million
Posted Date 07/03/2008
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A Vision in Concrete
Posted Date 07/01/2008
Oscar Niemeyer’s work continues to enchant and appall students of architecture and urban planning. MORE...
Forbidden Cities
Posted Date 06/30/2008
Beijing’s great new architecture is a mixed blessing for the city. MORE...
El Mirasol arch: Is it Addison Mizner's or Maurice Fatio's work?
Posted Date 06/29/2008
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Proposed Palm Beach budget reflects zero spending growth
Posted Date 06/29/2008
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Retroactive enforcement of code unfair
Posted Date 06/29/2008
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Preservation Trust offers to help save Manus house
Posted Date 06/29/2008
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Don't let former Manus residence on Wells Road be destroyed like other Parker homes
Posted Date 06/22/2008
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Alfred Browning Parker's Manus home gave Palm Beach architectural art, beauty
Posted Date 06/22/2008
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Palm Beach Town Council must protect Manus house as a landmark
Posted Date 06/22/2008
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Preserve historic Alfred Browning Parker home on Wells Road
Posted Date 06/22/2008
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Move to landmark Wells Road home 'contrary to law,' owners say
Posted Date 06/20/2008
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Owners appeal Landmarks Preservation Commission move toward landmarking Manus house
Posted Date 06/19/2008
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Landmarks Preservation Commission seeks to landmark Manus house
Posted Date 06/19/2008
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The Olympics Scam
Posted Date 06/19/2008
When did it start, this intimate liaison between developers and government, to reconstruct the body of London, to their mutual advantage? Dr Frankenstein with a Google Earth program and a remote-control laser scalpel. MORE...
Manus house architect's environmental, ecological trademarks still in step with times
Posted Date 06/15/2008
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Town Council defers Manus demolition decision
Posted Date 06/09/2008
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Palm Beach should preserve historic Manus house, by Alfred Browning Parker, from demolition
Posted Date 06/08/2008
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Manus owner appeals delay in obtaining demolition permit
Posted Date 06/08/2008
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Preserve historic Manus house as landmark, not memory, in Palm Beach
Posted Date 06/08/2008
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Out of the Blocks
Posted Date 06/02/2008
Beijing’s Olympic architecture is spectacular, but what message does it send? MORE...
Cities for Living
Posted Date 05/30/2008
Antimodernist Léon Krier designs urban environments to human scale. MORE...
Critics of the Lincoln Memorial Insult Its Designers' Intelligence
Posted Date 05/24/2008
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Trump acknowledges Russian is buyer of $100 million house
Posted Date 05/16/2008
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Donald Trump $100M mansion deal could break Palm Beach record
Posted Date 05/16/2008
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Critics: Gene Lawrence should step down from zoning board if he is under contract with Donald Trump
Posted Date 05/15/2008
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Munders buy Palm Beach penthouse condo at Il Lugano for record $12.1 million
Posted Date 05/15/2008
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Trump snares $100 million contract on oceanfront estate
Posted Date 05/14/2008
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Mizner-designed Louwana mansion in Palm Beach on market for $30M
Posted Date 05/14/2008
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The Heatherwick Effect
Posted Date 05/12/2008
What can a designer bring to the world of architecture? MORE...
Natural Phenomenon
Posted Date 05/01/2008
This fall, after eight years and almost half a billion dollars, world-famous architect Renzo Piano will complete the greenest museum ever built—the new California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park—housing its aquarium, planetarium, and natural-history museum under a two-and-a-half-acre “living roof.” Todd Eberle photographs Piano’s fusion of nature and structure, while Matt Tyrnauer learns about its genesis. MORE...
Where Mother Saw Best
Posted Date 05/01/2008
How a revolution in American domestic architecture put women in command MORE...
Situation Terminal
Posted Date 04/21/2008
Can anyone design a nice airport? MORE...
Huzza for Commerce!
Posted Date 04/01/2008
The emancipatory power of the American hotel MORE...
Richard Norman Shaw: Creator of Queen Anne style architecture
Posted Date 03/29/2008
In the late 1800s, Richard Norman Shaw was ranked alongside Wren as one of the England's greatest ever architects. Rosemary Hill on the man who helped create Old England in industrial Britain. MORE...
Landmarks Preservation Commission approves Flagler Museum addition
Posted Date 03/20/2008
Board members back $2 million proposal for research library, office space. MORE...
Town Council says Palm Beach Public School parking is district's problem, rejects garage idea
Posted Date 03/13/2008
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Palm Beach Planning and Zoning Commission opposes proposed safety standards for intersections
Posted Date 03/06/2008
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Royal Poinciana area plan receives positive reviews with debate predicted
Posted Date 03/04/2008
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Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council unveils plan for Royal Poinciana Way area
Posted Date 03/01/2008
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The Next Slum?
Posted Date 03/01/2008
The subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in American life may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements. MORE...
Make Royal Poinciana district pedestrian friendly, say Palm Beach charrette participants
Posted Date 02/24/2008
Session yields ideas, from creating more vias to preserving the theater or building a new one MORE...
Investors to take control of Royal Poinciana Plaza to settle Playhouse impasse, Sidney Spiegel says
Posted Date 02/21/2008
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Bill Brooks leaves Town Council
Posted Date 02/12/2008
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Post-war suburban houses are found to be worth preserving
Posted Date 02/07/2008
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The restoration of the Apafi manor house in Romania
Posted Date 02/01/2008
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Mizner's Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1904 (February)
Posted Date 02/01/2008
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Brooks to face Rosow; Kleid, Markin keep seats
Posted Date 01/09/2008
Caucus yields only one race in Feb. 5 election MORE...
Protect and preserve
Posted Date 01/04/2008
Every two years the World Monuments Fund, the New York City-based conservation group, announces a list of the 100 “most endangered” architectural and cultural sites around the world. Chosen by an international panel of experts in archaeology, art history and preservation and based on hundreds of nominations, previous lists have included famous landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and Pompeii as well as more obscure places such as the Larabanga Mosque in Ghana and the National Art School in Cuba. The goal is to rescue these buildings and over the past 10 years the WMF has granted more than $47m to 214 sites. As a result of the attention, an additional $124m has also been raised from other sources – mainly foundations, private donors and corporations. The Financial Times takes a look at some of the lesser-known former settlements and homes included on this year’s list. MORE...
Mizner's Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1904 (January)
Posted Date 01/01/2008
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January-February 2008 issue of Preservation magazine
Posted Date 01/01/2008
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New Urban News January-February 2008 issue
Posted Date 01/01/2008
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Landmarks Preservation Commission OKs Bath & Tennis Club remodeling
Posted Date 12/20/2007
Kitchen, tennis locker room to be updated; arch to be reinstalled. MORE...
Britain's Lost Cities
Posted Date 12/14/2007
What the Luftwaffe began, arrogant, philistine town planners finished off. Now a new study names the guilty men. MORE...
Town of Palm Beach Planning and Zoning panel backs guidelines to lock out formula eateries
Posted Date 12/06/2007
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Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
Posted Date 12/04/2007
The Economist reviews the book Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits. MORE...
The rise of the “starchitect”
Posted Date 12/03/2007
On the fusion of celebrity and architecture. MORE...
Mizner's Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1904 (December)
Posted Date 12/01/2007
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Consultant Day lauds work of Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission
Posted Date 11/30/2007
Preservation consultant says commission approaches changes to landmarks with 'organic' viewpoint. MORE...
Recreation board stands firm against Day Academy parking lot plan
Posted Date 11/29/2007
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Op-Ed: Town Council evaded decision on landmarking Royal Poinciana Plaza
Posted Date 11/25/2007
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Editorial: Town should take over Royal Poinciana
Posted Date 11/25/2007
Denis Coleman's idea may spark new dialogue on future of Royal Poinciana Playhouse MORE...
Andres Duany video from the film Subdivided
Posted Date 11/23/2007
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Flagler Pavilion and Architect Jeff Smith Awarded by AIA
Posted Date 11/22/2007
Flagler Museum's Kenan Pavilion wins American Institute of Architects chapter award. MORE...
The Charmed Life of a Socialite Gardner
Posted Date 11/21/2007
Was Norah Lindsay a social gadfly or a garden designer of real merit? MORE...
Heaven on Earth
Posted Date 11/20/2007
Antoni Gaudí was a fervent Catholic whose fantastical buildings burst with colour, freedom and hedonism - is he the greatest urban architect of modern times? MORE...
Op-Ed: Preservation needs to be full-time town priority in Palm Beach
Posted Date 11/18/2007
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75 Years of Architecture at MoMA exhibit reopens
Posted Date 11/16/2007
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The Stunning Homes of Frank Lloyd Wright slideshow
Posted Date 11/09/2007
A travel guide to the architecture of Frank LLoyd Wright. MORE...
November-December 2007 issue of Preservation magazine
Posted Date 11/01/2007
The official magazine of the National Trust's November-December 2007 issue. MORE...
Mizner's Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1904 (November)
Posted Date 11/01/2007
The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for November 1904 by Oliver Herford, Ethel Watts Mumford and Addison Mizner MORE...
Hotel: An American History by A.K. Sandoval-Strausz
Posted Date 10/23/2007
About the book Hotel: An American History by A.K. Sandoval-Strausz which includes information of Palm Beach and Henry Flagler. MORE...
'Picture a City' urban redevelopment video
Posted Date 10/17/2007
Award-winning video illustrating how urban design and planning can re-develop towns. MORE...
The Sustainable Architecture ofTed Cullinan
Posted Date 10/15/2007
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Architecture Critic Herbert Muschamp Obituaries
Posted Date 10/03/2007
The famed architecture critic has died at the age of 59. MORE...
Florida History & the Arts Fall 2007 issue
Posted Date 10/01/2007
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New Urban News October-November 2007 issue
Posted Date 10/01/2007
Covers the latest developments in the fields of new urbanism and smart growth MORE...
The New Privatization
Posted Date 08/13/2007
States and cities are selling their roads, bridges, and airports for eye-popping sums. MORE...
A book review regarding one of the leading architects of the Gothic Revival
Posted Date 08/11/2007
Alan Hollinghurst takes a whistlestop tour of the manic life and prodigious work rate of an architectural genius through Rosemary Hill's God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain MORE...
101 of the World's Most Exiting New Architects
Posted Date 07/12/2007
Wallpaper* magazine's 2007 Architects Directory MORE...