The Greatest Architectural Sacrileges in your cities history (Urban Renewal Crimes)

[chris08876]

Figured might be a good discussion.

What are the greatest architectural replacement crimes in your cities history? As a result of urban renewal?

I'll give one example to start off.

In NY, the NY Tribune Building was demolished for Maria's Tower (Pace University Tower).

What we lost...


Credit: bestcollegevalue

The shit that rose in its place.


Credit: http://skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/PA...RES/trib03.php

Urban Renewal has caused many great works to bite the dust. Another example is the Singer Building... among many.

[dc_denizen]

[dc_denizen]

^ what it would look like today if insane maniacs hadn't destroyed it and replaced it with a rat warren:



I can live without the singer building...weird phallic structure.

[Shawn]

Boston is guilty of one of the worst gut-jobs possible. The West End and Scollay Square were cleared for a towers-in-the-park new West End, and Scollay Square became Government Center, complete with the worst City Hall among the 50 largest cities in the country, bar none.

The old West End / Scollay Square would have been glorious today. The built environment was identical to the North End's.

[xzmattzx]

The most short-sighted demolition I have EVER heard of was the demolition of the original New Hall, next to Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. It was the workplace of the Secretary of War when it was completed in 1791.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.pa1...tos?st=gallery

The original New Hall was demolished in 1958, rather than be renovated.

What was it replaced with? A reconstruction of New Hall, completed in 1959. Why not just salvage the original?

[pdxtex]

allowing the heinous portland building to be constructed, poorly at that, and then spending millions of taxpayer dollars to basically reconstruct it 30 years later is offensive as it gets....they should burn it to the ground.

[Pedestrian]

I think most San Franciscans now think of the bulldozing of the Fillmore neighborhood, which was a sort of "Harlem of the West" as the worst or urban renewal in the city.

This is the area cleared:


http://hoodline.com/2016/01/how-urba...der-to-save-it

This is what the Fillmore St commercial strip looked like "before" (in the background 2 large buildings are seen--on the left is the famous Fillmore Ballroom and on the right the "Peoples' Temple" of Jonestown infamy):


http://hoodline.com/2016/01/how-urba...der-to-save-it

Here's the demolition in progress showing some of the sorts of potentially beautiful Victorian homes that were turned to splinters:


http://hoodline.com/2016/01/how-urba...der-to-save-it

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by pdxtex

allowing the heinous portland building to be constructed, poorly at that, and then spending millions of taxpayer dollars to basically reconstruct it 30 years later is offensive as it gets....they should burn it to the ground.

i like to listen to no shooz' i can't wait while perusing photos of the portland building

[CaliNative]

Good topic!

In Los Angeles, three egregious actions:

1. The complete bulldozing of the historic Victorian neighborhoods on Bunker Hill in the late 1950s/early 1960s. The area was rundown, but the architecture was great. A little spit and polish could have made the area into L.A.'s Nob Hill.

2. The demolition of the beautiful art deco Richfield Oil tower in 1968/69. The tower could have been preserved as part of the ARCO tower project, which could have used adjacent parcels.

3. The destruction of the wonderful original Pershing Square, which had a wonderful design and gardens, much like San Francisco's Union Square, to put in an underground parking garage. The Square when redone was quite awful. Hopefully a redesign can undo the damage, and restore some of the original design.

[muppet]

I think the one that takes the biscuit for the Western world would be this, It's one of the few places that drew criticism for being too grandiose and awe inspiring:

Originally Posted by Neric007

Dufayel department store - Paris
Said to be the biggest department store in the world at some point.
Built in 1856, closed in 1930 and slowly destroyed part by parts after that.

Dufayel - Paris - General view by Oldimages, sur Flickr

Dufayel - Paris - Galerie principale des caisses - 1913 by Oldimages, sur Flickr

Dufayel - Paris - Galerie centrale ca 1910 by Oldimages, sur Flickr



Dufayel - Paris - façade & dôme by Oldimages, sur Flickr

They did save part of the main entrance's facade (without the dome though):

Les Grands Magasins Dufayel by Jeanne Menjoulet, sur Flickr

OH WELL

[muppet]

Also, Rio could have been the world's most beautiful city ever


Reality7, http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...page=15Reality

https://diariodorio.com


tODAY!


www.riodejaneiroaqui.com

[muppet]

2013!

Originally Posted by new brisavoine

in france it's even worse. Some cities are now even demolishing old churches.

Here in abbeville, a medieval city in northern france that was almost entirely destroyed by the germans in 1940, and now the local socialist municipality is finishing the work left unfinished by the luftwaffe.

The saint-jacques church until 2013:









and then came 2013...















some helpless inhabitants left some flowers, but that didn't stop the machines.





















the site has now been turned into a parking lot:





it made the national headlines, but to no avail (title of the magazine is "those who massacre france"):



in the same city, the 18th century chapel of the medieval hospital is now marked for demolition by the socialist municipality. Demolition should start in 2017.



out of more than 40,000 churches in france, perhaps one-quarter of them could be in danger of demolition in this century (city coffers are empty, religious attendance is at its lowest since the end of the roman empire, many municipalities show disregard for christianity, if not frank hostility in some cases). Note that since the 1905 law separating the church from the state in france, it's the municipalities which are in charge of taking care of the church buildings, not the church (don't ask me why!).

[muppet]

For London, too many to count

But ones that stand out include:


The Imperial Hotel


www.victorianturkishbath.org


http://skyscrapernews.com, http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk


replaced with this wonderment of the imagination:


http://manchesterhistory.net


Carlton Hotel


www.british-history.ac.uk

bulldozed for this now highly protected architectural 'classic', New Zealand House


www.radionz.co.nz

[muppet]

the huge London Opera House




demolished for this rare gem:


www.londontheatredirect.com, www.arthurlloyd.co.uk



Franco-British Court of Honour, 1908


www.dakotaboo.com,
/www.lib.lsu.edu


www.building.co.uk



To-dayyyyyy




Columbia Market demolished 1958-66


www.mernick.org.uk, https://assets.londonist.com


www.victorianweb.org


It's replacement:


http://towerhamlets.filmoffice.co.uk


St Thomas's Hospital, damaged by war and piecemeal demolished until 1998


www.florence-nightingale.co.uk


It's hi tech, futuristic upgrade. This building actually FACES Big Ben.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk


Imperial Institute, demolished 1957, except for one of the towers

x
www.flyingpioneers.com


Yay:

www.fotozerui.com



Largest domes in the world, the International Exhibition building




http://sarahjyoung.com


the world's biggest ferris wheel (not far off the London Eye in size)




the gigantic Crystal Palace (though tbh it wasn't demolished, but destroyed by fire and left in ruins to this day)


https://assets.atlasobscura.com


and of course, Old London Bridge, demolished in the 1830s


http://tampereclub.ru


And its striking incarnation today, circa 1972

[hauntedheadnc]

Well, that was certainly a delightful start to the day.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

Well, that was certainly a delightful start to the day.

Just wait until someone from Chicago starts posting our shit list. We are about to wipe out a white and orange terrain cotta Daniel Burnham designed timber frame warehouse. Only the finest senseless demolitions will do for Chicago!

[TimCity2000]

Birmingham, Alabama's biggest loss is almost certainly the Terminal Station, demolished in 1969. In its place currently? The Red Mountain Expressway.

[JManc]

I read somewhere that London Bridge was demo'ed because of structural failure. All those buildings were deteriorating due to moisture. The replacement is in Arizona...bought (supposedly) by a guy who though he was getting the Tower Bridge. Or so I was told...

[dave8721]

In Miami we lost the Roney Plaza hotel on the beach for a generic blah condo hotel tower:


replaced with this:

[ColDayMan]

Dayton lost countless grand gems, as most rustbelt cities have.

Columbus lost the majority of an Italianate downtown to 1970's "vision of the future" aka parking. Most of what you see below (aside from the more monumental buildings) are gone.


www.urbanohio.com/forum/


But Cincinnati lost, well...for the 1,346th time...


http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/

And most of this...


http://cincinnativiews.net