Watch Out!

I knew there was a watch list for endangered animals but I was shocked to find out that someone was looking out for endangered libraries as well.  The World Monuments Fund is a non-profit organization based in New York that advocates for the protection of all “significant” buildings, monuments and sites around the world (not just libraries).  Their goal is to save and preserve places that have cultural or historical importance in order to protect our society's heritage for future generations.  To raise awareness, the Fund announces a “Watch List of Endangered Sites” every two years.  The list sends a wake up call to the world that a place is in danger due to war, disaster, neglect or vandalism.  The sites can be nominated by any concerned group or individual and then 100 are selected by an international panel of smart people.   

While a site is on the watch list it is eligible for WMF grants and funding but, just as importantly, the site can use the list to highlight their plight and attract donors.  A frightening slide show on the WMF website offers beautiful photographs of places in peril and with a click you can read the whole story for each location - a great history and architectural lesson.  

There were nine places in the United States chosen for the current list, including the 30 year old Atlanta Fulton Central Library.  As you may recall from yesterday, the original Atlanta Central Library was an ornate classical building, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and built out of white marble in 1902.  The library that replaced it in 1980 was the exact architectural opposite.    After The Carnegie Library was renovated twice,  the citizens of Atlanta approved a bond to build a new library in the 1970s and the Carnegie. 

Isabelle Hyman, a professor at NYU, explains that Carlton Rochell, the Director of the Library at the time, convinced the library board that Atlanta should construct a  “world class building” and proceeded to interview world renowned architects for the job. At the time Marcel Breuer was famous for his design of ‘The Whitney Museum’ in NY and his contributions to modern architecture.  Although Breuer’s steel frame and concrete panel design,  massed in a heavy geometric form was acknowledged as masterpiece, its brutalist design (remember the Geisel Library) was and is not very popular in Atlanta.  Since it was opened in 1980, the building’s theater roof has collapsed, the restaurant has been closed and $5 million was spent to make the building more ‘cheerful’.  Now it risks being demolished for a more ‘contemporary space’.  In 2008 legislation was passed to use public funds for yet another Atlanta Public Library.  Flushing $25 million down the drain during a economic downturn is a crime that can be prevented.  The citizens of Atlanta should not turn their back on this architectural treasure - they should appreciate it, and Breuer, for the modern monument that it is.       

Certainly not every building is worth saving but there are some that represent a time in our history, an architect, or a belief system that is crucial to our understanding of our heritage as people on this planet...we need to be careful that we are balancing our desire to make progress with our respect and appreciation of our past.  If we don’t, the reminders of who we are and where we came from will be bulldozed away forever.