Tastes in architecture swing back and forth over the decades and centuries. There is debate of sorts on another thread regarding Jewelers Row which is perhaps a microcosm of this debate. Or a question of tastes.
This mid-century cutoff from the tastes of the past from brick and mortar was also a transition of technology to steel and glass and the price of construction. That I can remember of half a century ago in my youth cliches like "that's progress" comment in the disposing of old buildings in favor of mostly highways.
That even L & I could lose track of a historic building like Ben Rush's house and shake the dust from their hands and move on with impunity, when something like that old farm house was probably holding up a new development or such, as conveniently it fell off some old manual pencil driven bureaucratic spread sheet. Wink, nod?
Well I do not like the looks of Broad Street Station from photos and much else of Frank Furness still standing. I lament the loss of the Karl Bitter's Terra Cotta art that in the end was not in corporate's view cost worthy and or worth (PR) the effort to save it. That Bitter's death as a relative young age also left his reputation obscured / diminished into history. That to even pry off his American Cities bas reliefs off the old Chinese Wall part of the BSS was something only one city I can detect bothered to take the P.R.R.'s offer. on. That in 1950s, the United States was intact after WWII but most of its historic buildings then were perceived and or treated like European war salvage.
Broad Street Station Blog Entries
Which brings to me to Mayor "Martini Dick" Dilworth, 91st mayor of Philly 1956/1962, who wanted to tear down City Hall in favor of the then flavor of those decades' glass and steel box office buildings as in Penn Center. That I don't know what stopped them except the cost of tearing it down or his quick exit from office in pursuit of the Governor's chair. But whatever the reason I look upon the sacrifice of Broad Street Station in terms of a costly project to the P.R.R. as an incentive and or demolition deferring reason that probably saved City Hall, which I like btw. On a metaphoric level it is not unlike Pennsylvania Station in New York's ugly corporate driven demise as the energy necessary to save Grand Central Terminal from the wrecking ball which caused the creation of historic building status in NYC to stop or at least delay the quick demise of historic and or aged structures.
If I had to vote on the demolition of Broad Street Station, I would vote thumbs down except for the exterior art. Pile of Victorian bricks in search of a purpose of being.
In terms of BSS buildings surviving to modern day in mixed use, commercial and condos, I could live with it. I would also fully accept and expect all the modern towers now built on the top of the old ugly and dysfunctional, except for the railroad, urban "Chinese Wall" viaduct.
1912
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This mid-century cutoff from the tastes of the past from brick and mortar was also a transition of technology to steel and glass and the price of construction. That I can remember of half a century ago in my youth cliches like "that's progress" comment in the disposing of old buildings in favor of mostly highways.
That even L & I could lose track of a historic building like Ben Rush's house and shake the dust from their hands and move on with impunity, when something like that old farm house was probably holding up a new development or such, as conveniently it fell off some old manual pencil driven bureaucratic spread sheet. Wink, nod?
Well I do not like the looks of Broad Street Station from photos and much else of Frank Furness still standing. I lament the loss of the Karl Bitter's Terra Cotta art that in the end was not in corporate's view cost worthy and or worth (PR) the effort to save it. That Bitter's death as a relative young age also left his reputation obscured / diminished into history. That to even pry off his American Cities bas reliefs off the old Chinese Wall part of the BSS was something only one city I can detect bothered to take the P.R.R.'s offer. on. That in 1950s, the United States was intact after WWII but most of its historic buildings then were perceived and or treated like European war salvage.
Broad Street Station Blog Entries
Which brings to me to Mayor "Martini Dick" Dilworth, 91st mayor of Philly 1956/1962, who wanted to tear down City Hall in favor of the then flavor of those decades' glass and steel box office buildings as in Penn Center. That I don't know what stopped them except the cost of tearing it down or his quick exit from office in pursuit of the Governor's chair. But whatever the reason I look upon the sacrifice of Broad Street Station in terms of a costly project to the P.R.R. as an incentive and or demolition deferring reason that probably saved City Hall, which I like btw. On a metaphoric level it is not unlike Pennsylvania Station in New York's ugly corporate driven demise as the energy necessary to save Grand Central Terminal from the wrecking ball which caused the creation of historic building status in NYC to stop or at least delay the quick demise of historic and or aged structures.
If I had to vote on the demolition of Broad Street Station, I would vote thumbs down except for the exterior art. Pile of Victorian bricks in search of a purpose of being.
In terms of BSS buildings surviving to modern day in mixed use, commercial and condos, I could live with it. I would also fully accept and expect all the modern towers now built on the top of the old ugly and dysfunctional, except for the railroad, urban "Chinese Wall" viaduct.
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