CBS Special On Historic Preservation

22 August 2005 - 11:00am

CBS Sunday Morning examines both sides of debates over historic landmarks in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis.

Martha Teichner, Sunday Morning Senior Correspondent, reviews three recent landmark/preservation issues in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis:

"Whether we're talking about tear-downs in Kenilworth, the sacrifice of one historic building to save another in St. Louis or, in New York City, the fight over this odd little modernist museum that's not even 50-years-old, we're talking about tough, bruising struggles, right-to- life battles over architecture..."

From St. Louis: "There is a certain irony about the public service announcement made by the National Trust For Historic Preservation, considering what happened in St. Louis. The group gave its consent to the demolition, yes demolition, of the historic, landmarked Century Building. Why? You guessed it: so a parking garage could be built in its place. As part of a $77 million jigsaw puzzle of a package to save the historic, landmarked old post office across the street."

From New York: "With the average price of office space close to $500 per square foot in New York City -- more than double the national average -- the temptation to take down the glass boxes of the 1950s and 60s and supersize is obvious..."

Full Story: Form Over Function
Source: CBS News, August 21, 2005
Bookmark and Share
In other words, our quality of life is substantially place-based; the gamut of what does and should matter in modern life is represented, in the main, by the metropolitan character of our world.