Two Walter Burley Griffin Homes Demolished In the Past Year
It has been a devastating year for Walter Burley Griffin's Architecture. Two of the homes he designed have been demolished in the path of the insane tear-down phenomenon that is devastating the stability of neighborhoods throughout this country. One of the diseases of an over-affluent society, the decadent spoiling of our built, historic national heritage is shocking and sickening. When will it stop!!??
Though removing a historic building from its site is not the ideal way to save it, these houses could have easily been moved. However, there is no system of marketing and communication set up whereby these buildings could be advertised and sold to potential buyers, who would then be willing to make the investment to move and save them.
The physical moving of historic structures would also certainly capture the public's attention, much more than the almost invisible publicity that now occurs when these structures are demolished.
In an (almost) ideal world, realtors and developers might expand their marketing protocol to include this kind of strategy. Of course, that might decrease the profit margin - and that's what it's all about, isn't it!
The Stephen J. Beggs house, 1910 - Elmhurst, Illinois. Demolished 2002
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| Click on photos to enlarge |
(photo courtesy of Tim Loftus) |
The J. B. Marsh House, 1910 - Winnetka, Illinois. Demolished 2003
(photo
courtesy of Tim Loftus)
Copyright © 2003 Martin Hackl