preservation + restoration

Most American students well-versed in history know the story of President Lincoln's assassination in the Ford Theater. What they might not know is how the building has barely survived. About 30 years after the fatal night (April 14, 1865), the government bought the building for offices; excavation in the basement caused a wall to collapse. From that point, the building was called "cursed," which didn't help in efforts to restore the historic structure. Speed forward in a time machine to May 2007, well after the theater was to original use. It was announced that the Ford would be renovated in time for Lincoln's bicentennial this year. This too, was long before Lincoln admirer President Obama was a major contender in the elections. Typical of so many renovations, there was some stalling on bids and contracts, leading officials to worry that work wouldn't be done in time for festivities. Thankfully, paperwork and whatnot were settled quickly. The biggest change in a new entrance adjacent to the old. The new spae contains a lobby, gift shop, even a elevator to parking and the upper theater floors.

The $50 million project received monies from private, corporate and public sources - well before the current economic crisis. Now all the spiffing up is done. Bicentennial kicks off Feb. 8, at the Ford, of course.

To look at the Fox Oakland today, it's hard to believe that the 1928 Oakland, Calif. theater was nearly demolished to make way for a parking lot. It's also survived a 1990s attempt to turn it into a multiplex. Now, thanks to the ardent support of local preservationists, the East Indian style movie palace will reopen February 5. It won't be showing movies, however; instead it will be a venue for live shows, paying homage to the likes of Bing Crosby, Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra and the Jimmy Dorsey band who appeared on stage years ago. The Fox showed first-run movies until 1962, and second-run flicks until 1973. The theater was used for other events until the city purchased the building in 1996 for $3 million. Here's to a successful reopening of a fabulous theater, and a great piece of architecture.

The ghost of arts patron, museum founder, and sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (looking rather sculptural herself in the ca. 1895 photo at right) can rest a little easier tonight. Her once glorious and now crumbling Greenwich Village sculpture studio, located in the backyard of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture (NYSS), will soon undergo much needed renovations. The New York Times reports that Whitney's 90-year-old former workroom, rife with what an NYSS representative described as "worrisome cracks," has received a $50,000 grant from the World Monuments Fund to finance repairs that will include "stabilizing the delicate crumbling corner [of the ceiling] with vegetable-fiber paper, acrylic adhesive, and temporary beams." In early 2009, historic preservation students will research the studio's original decor, which included "cobalt-blue windows depicting bats, fish, and dragons amid seaweed and constellations." Whitney, who died in 1942, was apparently quite a fan of sea creatures. According to B.H. Friedman's 1978 Whitney biography, the bathroom of her Long Island studio (she also had studios in Paris and Newport) included "a sunken marble tub [that was] turned into the 'Jules Verne' nacreous grotto full of fish and marine life."

We admit to watching The Interpreter on mute to better scrutinize the threadbare Modernist zeal of the United Nations headquarters, situated on 18 acres worth of Manhattan. Now comes word that—like many an aging star after a close-up—the 56-year-old UN HQ is gearing up for a face lift. Slated to begin early next year, the five-year, $2 billion renovation will "strip the the [39-floor Secretariat] building down to the pure, flat surfaces that made it innovative when it opened, while replacing the outdated innards like air-conditioning, lighting, wiring, and plumbing," notes The New York Times. And so it's out with the asbestos and in with the photovoltaic cell-studded glass, but what about all that art?

Large items affixed to the walls of the Secretariat will be encased in their own structures with heating and air-conditioning while the rest of the interior is exposed to the elements. These include...two large murals by the Cubist artist Fernand Léger, who was eventually barred from the United States for his association with the Communist Party. President Truman, on first spotting the murals, is said to have commented that one looked like a bunny coming out of a hat, and another a fried egg.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), an independent federal agency established in 1949 as the government's procurement arm and landlord, plays a critical role in preserving the buildings that symbolized national ideals, says Jim Williams, the GSA's Acting Administrator. The oldest buildings in GSA's inventory date to 1810. They include impressive custom houses, post offices, and office buildings constructed of simple brick and stone. Eight percent of GSA's historic buildings were constructed before 1900 and most are still in use.

Some of the greatest structures were created between 1900 and 1941, with more than half the historic buildings in GSA's inventory constructed during the Great Depression. Historic buildings occupy about 25 percent of GSA's federally owned space. Tenant agencies include most of the entities that conduct the public's business: the U.S. Courts, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and many more.

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Some families support education, others health care, still other cancer research, but at least one is putting its wealth and weight behind historic preservation in Indiana. A decade ago, the Efroymson family headed by Lori Efroymson-Aguilera, started a fund for historic preservation projects. The Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) program administers the program and funds initiatives statewide. Since 1998, projects have received 156 grants totaling about $2.6 million. Most of these funds have spurred further restoration.

Volunteers in Vallonia have worked for years to save a 1914 hotel, holding fundraisers and sending out flyers. A $13,000 grant from the Efroymson Family Fund gave the group the additional leverage they needed. Now they're still having fish-fries but the hotel's fate is secure. Family funds have also helped save the partially dilapidated 1828 Askren House in Indianapolis, allowing officials to repair the roof and masonry, and eventually sell it after restoration was complete. Other important structures have also been saved from demolition. "I can point to landmarks that would not be standing without Efroymson support," says Historic Landmarks' president Marsh Davis of the Efroymson Family Fund. So if you're in Indiana and you're trying to save a building, now you where to go.

It's been said they don't build 'em like they used to, and that's most certainly the case with movie theaters. Instead of glorious edifices that truly showcase the best of the widescreen films, today we've got bland multiplexes for the masses. Landmarks Illinois wants to share what it was like back in the day when designing movie theaters was a calling, even a specialty. Sculptor/architect/designer Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965), a Frank Lloyd Wright associate, is one of those people. He was famed for his movie theater ornamentation at cinemas such as the Pickwick in Park Ridge, Ill. and the Catlow in Barrington, Ill. He is also known for designing posters for vaudeville acts at the Orpheum in Los Angeles, and he collaborated with Wright on Midway Gardens and designed several pavilions at the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago. Builder Sam Guard, who worked as a student in the 1950s at Iannelli's Park Ridge workshop, will discuss the artist's works on Thursday afternoon in Chicago. For more information, click here.

The ship's post-exhibition life was largely spent on land in a Chicago park until a local group offered to take and fix it up. That plan didn't materialize. Landmarks Illinois finally put the deteriorating hull on its 2007 endangered list. In the last 12 months, the boat, now in Geneva, Ill., has been slowly being repaired. Liz Safanda and the Preservation Partners of Fox Valley (PPFV), have worked together to and many others to bring the ship back to life with the assistance from a Partners in Preservation grant and local fundraisers. A steel
cradle was altered with new supports, the ship was returned to its original position, a dozen frames added to support the stressed structure. Finally, a new ramp was added so visitors could look at the ship, up close and personal like Larson might have liked to do.

If wishes were wrecking balls...well, then Manhattan would have some gaping holes courtesy of Nicolai Ouroussoff (who wouldn't look half-bad in a hard hat, we must say). The New York Times' Man on Buildings recently penned a demolition wish list for Gotham, because, Ouroussoff notes with a Dickensian flair, "Even the most majestic cities are pockmarked with horrors." Although notable for its restraint when it comes to the AT&T building ("Its farcical Chippendale top was an instant hit, and a generation of architects grew up believing that any tower, no matter how cheap and badly designed, could be defended if you added a pretty fillip to the roof"), Ouroussoff's list is both ruthless and amusingly annotated. Here's what he'd just as soon see vaporized:

We're almost glad that Sophia Petrillo didn't live to see this one: hill-top houses in Salemi, Sicily are going for a mere $1.50. The catch? The homes were damaged in an earthquake 40 years ago, and once you've forked over that euro, you'll have two years to restore your new home—according to the town's standards and using local architects, designers, and workers. And did we mention the labyrinthine bureaucracy? This sounds like a job for a can-do spirit and a whole lot of stucco!

The program is the brainchild of Salemi's colorful mayor, Vittorio Sgarbi, an art critic and former deputy culture minister that the Times of London describes as "noted for his outspoken views, not to mention his distinctive wavy hair" and "a television celebrity...and man-about-town with a host of friends in the worlds of politics and show business." And the plot thickens: photographer Oliviero Toscani is somehow involved: he's Sgarbi's adviser on "creativity and human rights." Peter Gabriel has reportedly already expressed interest in one of the deeply discounted houses. Good thing he's handy with a sledgehammer.