KUNSTLER'S CLEVELAND "EYESORE OF THE MONTH"

This will be a rare example of a posting on this blog that, on its own, won't say very much. Instead, we invite you to take a look at a link that appears in this blog's Link List, but is otherwise provided below. This will link you to a page on the website of James Howard Kunstler, renowned for, among other things, his authorship of the book "Geography Of Nowhere". He has been keeping a monthly 'serial' of usually modern buildings that he, wisely, considers to be "Eyesores". The October "Eyesore" just happens to be a very well-known Cleveland building. Although generally praised by Those Who Know Nothing About Architecture, this building looks like either something out of a cartoon, or, at the very least, a reflection in a funhouse mirror. Mr. Kunstler's take is much better. Check it out!

www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200510.html

"too costly to renovate"

When is this cliche excuse ever going to go away? Everyone in any way involved in historic preservation knows that this lame excuse is rarely anything more than a convenient lie. Unfortuneately, there are still too many people that believe this lie, therefore, it continues to be used. One of its latest uses was to "explain" why two houses, located nextdoor to each other on E. 115th Street, just off of Euclid Avenue -- both built for brewery magnate Simon Fishel in 1908, one occupied by a son and the other occupied by a married daughter -- were recently demolished by the owner, a prominent institution in the C. W. R. U. vicinity. Additionally, some reference was made to some vague retail/residential development that they expected to occur, sooner or later -- and, so, why not just make a couple more parcels available? Regardless of the stated excuses, this is just another example of the indifference toward local history and the built monuments that are the remaining testimonies to that history. Will some of us see the day when all the historic buildings are destroyed??