Atlanta central library earns spot on endangered building list
October 7, 2009 at 2:06 pm by Scott Henry in News
What does Atlanta’s much-maligned downtown central library — a building that’s been described as a giant cinderblock with windows — have in common with the ruins of Machu Picchu, a 17th-century Dutch fort in Sri Lanka and a group of pre-historic burial stones in a Jordanian valley?
Well, they are all among the dozens of structures, historic sites and geological formations included on the World Monuments Fund’s 2010 Watch List of the planet’s most endangered places.
(I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with the WMF, which bills itself as the “leading private organization dedicated to saving the world’s most treasured places.” Glad they made the distinction of being private, because I’m quite familiar with UNESCO, the kick-ass, Paris-based UN offshoot that fulfills that role in a public capacity.)
As you may recall, the central library building was one of the last designs by world-famous architect Marcel Breuer, who also designed the similar Whitney Museum in Manhattan. Last fall, Fulton voters approved a $275 million bond referendum that included funds dedicated to relocating the central library to another site. The Breuer building would be sold, presumably to a private developer who could decide to renovate it or tear it down.
According to the WMF:
Atlanta-Fulton exhibits the modernist, Brutalist tendencies of Bauhaus design, eschewing excessive ornamentation while promoting asymmetrical designs that offer plentiful and unique interior space.
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The potential plight of this building echoes that of many modern structures, particularly those of the Brutalist period, as preservationists and planners seek to ensure their functionality and relevance in the changing urban context.
So, what weight does the WMF’s designation carry? Um, actually, none whatsoever. But it could help draw attention to the building’s architectural significance. The real trick will be getting Atlantans to like the building.
(Photo courtesy WMF)
October 7th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I wonder how many 6′ x 10′ units the building could accommodate.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
The central library is so butt-ugly it should have been razed years ago. It scares patrons away and its big open spaces are haven to the homeless. Good riddance.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
When learning about architecture, most forms need to be described to make any sense — Bauhaus, Art Deco, Tudor, etc.
But Brutalism? No more needs to be said, really. It’s the style that should not have left the drafting table.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I’ve always thought they should build the new library and then convert the Breuer building into a modern art museum.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Cooper makes sense. I never liked this building, but that is not the test. The standard should recognize that Atlanta has had zero interest in history, architecture, design, or art. We have to start building an aestehtic sometime. Why not with this building? Atlanta has torn down or mucked up most everything. Let’s turn a page and keep this structure. It is highly distinctive.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Tear it down. I would pay to have the first shot with the wrecking ball. This building, a monument to the dark “urban-renewal” period of our country’s history, sits upon the ashes of what was a true architectural treasure, the Carnegie library. When the Carnegie was lost a piece of Atlanta’s character and sense of place was lost along with it. If I had Carnegie money I would buy the building, spit on it, tear it down and recreate (there is still pieces of the building around the city) what was lost.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:29 am
As much as I wish the Carnegie Library had never been touched, it won’t be brought back by demolishing this building as well. Who’s to say it would be replaced in a timely manner, anyway, or by something better?
October 8th, 2009 at 9:26 am
By all means, let’s keep an ugly building because we razed pretty ones in the past.
WTF?!?
October 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
The real scandal here is spending horribly scarce tax money for the sole purpose of enriching a contractor or two.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Judging by these brilliant comments, I say again (as would have been appropriate in 1970), a preservationist’s work is never done…
October 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Personally I would feel honored to be incarcerated at the former Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I was around when this landmark was built and spent many years working in it before I retired. It would be a shame to lose it. I hope that the Atlanta community which saved the endangered Buckhead Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library will rally to save Breuer’s work.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Simple, donate the building to Georgia State University. They can use it for their school of music, art & design, etc.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Why is anyone thinking about issuing bonds and putting up new (and unnecessary) county buildings when budgets are in extreme crisis? We’re out of our freaking minds here.
October 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Marcel Breuer: Architect of Central
by Max Eternity
Born in 1902 in Pecs, Hungary, Marcel Breuer, is remembered as one of the most influential architects and designers of the 20th Century. Early in life he developed an interest in art, which led him to Weimar, Germany where he studied and taught at the famed Bauhaus school. Once there he participated first as a student from 1920 til his graduation in 1924. Thereafter, he became a faculty member or “Bauhaus Master” from 1924 to 1928; by which time the school had relocated from Weimar to Dessau.
From the outset, Breuer had a clear understanding of the “form follows function” principle. To this, he embraced the concept of unit construction, and in 1925, with his innovative use of raw materials, Breuer was credited with being the first to use tubular steel in furniture; a now ubiquitous, modernist technique applied around the world. As well, Breuer was also one of the pioneers of minimalism.
In Europe, from 1928 to 1937, Breuer enjoyed a flourishing architectural practice. However, because of the outbreak of The Second World War, he made a decision to relocate in America. It was during this time when Harvard University, at the urging of Walter Gropius, offered him an Associate Professorship at its School of Design. Simultaneously, many of his other colleagues were or had already migrated to the U.S. including Josef and Annie Albers, and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. At Harvard, Breuer taught until 1946. And later, in 1970, he received the only Honorary Doctorate in Architecture ever awarded by that school.
Throughout his illustrious career, Marcel Breuer was commissioned for numerous, monumental civic structures, with some of the more notable being The UNESCO World Headquarters (Paris), The Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), The University of Massachusetts Campus Center in Amherst, the headquarters of The Departments of HUD and HEW in Washington D.C., St. John’s Abbey (Minnesota) and The Atlanta-Fulton Central Branch Public Library (Atlanta). In addition to his civic commissions, Breuer also received many residential commissions, including The Wolfson House, Breuer House and The Frank House, which he created in collaboration with Walter Gropius.
A major Exhibition of Breuer’s work was shown at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in November 1972, and at Paris’ Louvre Museum in the summer of 1974. More recently, in 2002 Dr. Isabelle Hyman published here authorative monograph on Breuer entitled “Marcel Breuer Architect: The Career and the Buildings” and in that same year The Smithsonian Institution created an online exhibition entitled Marcel Breuer: A Centennial Celebration.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrates this year, the 90th Anniversary of the Bauhaus, with an exhibition entitled “Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity.” By coencidence the MoMA exhibit is being presented in tandem with a simultaneous exhibition @ New York’s Frank Lloyd Wright designed Guggenheim museum, which is celebrating its own 50th anniversary by presenting the largest Vasily Kandinsky (a former Bauhaus instructor) exhibition since the 1980’s. Currently in Atlanta, in a joint exhibition–on loan from Vitra Design Museum-hosted by the Museum of Design Atlanta (MoDA) and The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public LIbrary, a 10,000 sq ft Marcel Breuer retrospective exhibition is on display, proving a resurgent interest in béton brut architecture, Modernism, the Bauhaus, and the International Style.
Marcel Breuer 1902-1981
Max Eternity, contributing writer to Artworks Magazine–editor and publisher to Art Digital Magazine, is a 21st Century Renaissance man, who creates innovative print types reflecting the Bauhaus school and Early American modernism. In 2009 in his nominating thesis, Eternity wrote the 17-page historical analysis for the Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library–a Marcel Breuer design–resulting in the library being the youngest site to receive listing on the World Monuments Fund (WMF) 2010 WATCH LIST–a prestigious architectural-archeological designation that opens the door to future historic registry designation, as well as abundant opportunities for preservation funding. An inventor, he currently has over a dozen utilities and intellectual processes in various stages of development. And via a network of informational web portals, Eternity advocates artistic and social concerns ranging from the Afro/Euro fine art construct, architectural preservation and digital literacy to government transparency and nutrition.
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“Max Eternity [creates] geometric abstractions of optically seductive, circles, arcs and angles”
Debra Wolf, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution