[/caption]I got off the phone a little while ago with Christine Madrid French, the president of The Recent Past Preservation Network and while those who are tasked with fighting for the preservation of old items think they have it tough imagine trying to save things that the general public isn't convinced needs saving.
That's just it. The RPPN has in it's name, an implied mandate that makes their job that much more difficult. They are the Recent Past Preservation Network. That is buildings which are under 50 years old. That means that much of the work by iconic architects such as Neutra, Gropius, Schindler and the like would not fall under the group's mandate.
[caption id="attachment_250" align="alignright" width="250" caption="John M Johansesn's Mechanic Theater in Baltimore falls within RPPN's mandate and is an example of Brutalism."]
[/caption]Before you recoil in horror, hear me out. This is where RPPN needs and deserves our support. They fight for those pieces of history that we don't yet realize we might want to have still around later on. Think of how much of an impact they might have made in 1963 when New York's original Penn Station was demolished.
That's the point. RPPN works to save the future landmarks we don't yet appreciate or know we'll want saved. What started as a group to help save locations such as the Richard Neutra Gettysburg Cyclorama Center, a fight which continues to this day, follows their floating mandate as it moves from early modernism into brutalism, enclosed malls and other styles and structures that seem unloved at present.
[caption id="attachment_248" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Marcel Breuer's Armstrong Tire and Rubber building in New Haven Connecticut also fits the bill."]
[/caption]Ms. French, a former National Parks Service employee who had worked in the Capital Region and done battlefield surveys at places such as Antietam was alarmed over the lack of interest and administrative attention being paid to The Cyclorama Center's history. The Center was, as part of a battlefield restoration program by the NPS, slated for demolition (it still is).
While the group focuses on United States architecture they do get emails and phone calls from around the world, "we got an email from India", she begins, "and another from England about a parking lot that was being demolished.
So as RPPN's mandate lurches forever forward let's follow their example, take a deep breath and pause before tearing anything down. You know, pretty soon we'll be looking to save examples of McMansions as examples of gross excess and architectural stupidity.
Recent Past Preservation Network.
National Register of Historic Places.
Richard and Dion Neutra Architects.
Mission 66 (for the preservation of NPS visitor centers built from 1956-66)
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