Fresh Loaf

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.
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Architecture society DOCOMOMO’s Georgia chapter and the Young Architects Forum of AIA Atlanta will host a presentation and self-guided tour of downtown Atlanta’s central library on March 11 at 6:30 p.m.

Atlanta's central library

The library is the final work of famed Modernist architect Marcel Breuer and has been at the center of a heated preservation effort after Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts said he wanted to sell the building or move the library’s collection to a new facility near Centennial Olympic Park.

For more information about the event, part of the Atlanta Preservation Center’s Phoenix Files series which showcases the city’s “living landmarks,” visit the site. (The series, which includes tours of The Wren’s Nest and the Olmstead Liner Parks, is worth a look.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Architecture magazine Metropolis this month profiles the effort by Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts to raze — or is it renovate? — the historic Atlanta-Fulton County public library located downtown.

The library, completed in 1980, is the final work of famed Modernist architect Marcel Breuer and considered a masterpiece. The architecture community, enraged by the idea, wants to preserve the building.

From the magazine:

Having secured $85 million last November through a bond referendum, Pitts hopes to incorporate retail, dining, and performance space into a high-visibility property. An early choice was a site facing Centennial Olympic Park, a tourist destination bordered by such attractions as CNN Center, the Georgia Aquarium, and the World of Coca-Cola. But opening a new main branch would mean abandoning the existing one—a design that many argue is already a world-class piece of architecture.

It’s an excellent article and worth your time. Read it in full at Metropolis’ site.

To read more about or to join the preservation effort, visit local artist Max Eternity’s website.

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

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If Robb Pitts has his way, another architecturally noteworthy Atlanta library may soon be endangered. In March, the Fulton County Commission, of which Pitts is a member, voted to place a $150 million bond referendum on the fall ballot, with the proceeds to go toward library system construction and repairs.

That package would include about $40 million to overhaul the central library downtown, but Pitts says he plans to lobby the Atlanta-Fulton Library Board this week to instead consider using those funds on a new building.

“Rather than spend $40 million to renovate an old building, we should build a world-class, signature facility that’s more user-friendly,” ideally across from Centennial Olympic Park, he says.

Opened in 1977, the central library is a largely window-less concrete edifice that’s been compared to a giant cinder block. It also happens to have been designed by Marcel Breuer, a former Bauhaus instructor who ranks among the 20th century’s most influential practitioners of architectural modernism. The library is similar in style to Breuer’s earlier design for New York’s Whitney Museum.

Pitts, who advocates selling the old building, is aware he may be courting a public uproar similar to that which followed the proposed sale of the Buckhead branch library, an eccentric, scale-covered building designed by locals Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam. But he’s willing to give it a shot – in fact, he even wants to consider a new proposal by Streets of Buckhead developer Ben Carter to reconstruct the Buckhead library on another site.

“I don’t see how we can say no to that offer,” says Pitts.

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