Mark Byrnes reports for CityLab: The ‘Old Met’ In Its Final Days. A look back at one of the first failed preservation efforts in newly preservation-minded 1960s New York. “Detail, Broadway elevation,” May 1966. Shortly after New York City’s old Metropolitan Opera House opened on Broadway between 39th and 40th, the Real Estate Record and Guide called it “a good design robbed of its rightful
Ephemeral New York: A 34th Street renovation reveals a 1902 facade. Since 1985, the elegant limestone building at the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and 34th Street—originally the Herald Square home of Saks—has been sheathed behind ugly blue mirrored glass. The store had a long history as Saks 34th Street; in the 1960s it became a Korvette’s and was most recently occupied by
Chris Bentley reports for The Architect’s Newspaper: Mortgage Fraud Money to Remake Historic Homes in Chicago’s Pullman Area. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced Tuesday $1.9 million—most of which comes from the state’s portion of a federal settlement with banks over mortgage fraud—will go to rehab historic homes in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. Some $1.5 million of the money comes from a 2014
Michael R. Allen reports for Next City: No, Historic Preservation Does Not Inhibit Urban Growth. La Samaritaine was once Paris’ most famous department store. There is perhaps no city in the world where the tension between historic preservation and the drive to modernize plays out more vibrantly than Paris. That tension was throw into sharp relief last month, when the French capital
