Nice article about fellow preservationists

http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/2002-07-11/feature.html/1/index.html

It's a long piece, one needs time to read it...my quote finishes it. It's by the same writer who did the "Gods of Tiki" article last year.

An excellent article. One to print out and keep.

Apologies for my countrymen and their '1001
things you can do with concrete', which spoilt many a town center over here too. Saying that, some of the more extreme examples should be preserved:
http://architecture.about.com/library/ucsouthbank.htm

I was just reading an article about the need to save Cuban architecture as there are many many amazing buildings built in the 50's & 60's that are just crumbling. The problem is that all the rest of the buildings are turning slowly to dust too, so it would be too easy just to pour money into restoring pretty turn of the century town houses and the like.

I just hope that when Cuba finally does open up the ModCommer's get there before Big Business pulls everything down.

Trader Woody

Please visit the Modern Committee site, too. They have a good bulletin board with postings that may be of interest to some Tiki Centralites.
http://www.modcom.org

Very nice closing quote, Sven!

I concur. Very good closing quote, Sven.

Miami is going through a similar struggle with its own MiMO architecture. Fortunately, the successes and subsequent benefits of preserving the Art Deco landmarks are still in the local's collective conscience. Read about it here:

http://www.southbeach-usa.com/features/features1/mimo/mimo.htm

Yeah, great closing quote by Sven! Gives you something to think about. When I see cars of the last three decades, I'm thinking the same thing...."what if there's nothing beneficial to remember?"

Money makes greed and greed makes you dull!!

Thank you so much for that wonderful quote at the end of the piece - it gives us all something to think about....

I wish we had an equivalent group here in the Bay Area. There is less googie here but lots of modern still exists. I have been wanting to join and volunteer for such a group but I don't know of one. There is the Oakland Heritage Alliance but I haven't heard anything about their interests in saving post war architecture.

Did anyone know there is a house designed by Schindler in Point Richmond? I went to see it last weekend. It is right above the bay but it's hard to see from the street as it's a long way down a driveway. There are also all these "funky", hippie-era decorations on it (a rainbow wind sock, ecch!). However, there is an old tree carved into a tiki at the head of the drive! I'll return for a picture later because I didn't have a camera with me.

I also "discovered" lots of other modern houses and buildings that are in a book from the 1980s on Northern Cal. architecture that I picked up at a local flea market recently.

Finally got around to reading this article. Great to see there are committed souls who are putting their mouths, minds and hearts into this. There is so much to marvel at and preserve that was created in the middle of the last century. Maybe what is needed is a sort of Williamsburg, VA or Greenfield Village in Michigan for the early 60's. I think the buildings in Greenfield Village were actualy purchased and relocated by Henry Ford to Dearborn in an effort to preserve a slice of American life prior to the automobile. Ironic that we could use a similar benefactor to preserve important aspects of American life in mid-century America; the heyday of America's automobile culture. Maybe a Bill Gates or some other well-heeled person connected with a replacement technology will recognise what is being lost from their own childhood and step in to preserve some of it, thereby elevating its cultural significance everwhere. Sad to say, but only the rich and powerful are capable of such things.