City’s Iconic Buildings Face Wrecking Ball
May 11, 2013 By Bill Torpy – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Development fells historic structures. Preservationists sound alarm over city’s preservation law.
It was a hard, bleak winter for historic preservationists in Atlanta, a city already infamous for not saving the sign posts of its past.
In December, the McCord Apartments, a three-story building on Seventh Street designed in the 1920s by Atlanta neo-classicist architect Neel Reid was devoured by an excavation machine. A Youtube video shows the wrecker saving the building’s ornate doorway for last, just before delivering the coup de grace.
In February, the 1951 Gulf Oil Building, a sleek two-story building on Ponce de Leon Avenue designed by internationally known modernist architect I.M. Pei, disappeared to make way for apartments.
But what most alarmed local preservationists was a move early this year by the city to settle a lawsuit and allow the Georgia Tech Foundation to tear down most of the Crum & Forster building, built in 1926 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, after a nearly five-year battle to build a technology center.
Preservationists worry the city’s decision to allow the foundation to tear down most of a building designated by the city as a landmark sets a precedent that weakens the entire preservation ordinance and allows further destruction of historic structures.
“The Crum & Forster decision was devastating to the preservation community,” said Regina Brewer, a historic preservation consultant and former chair of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. “We lost it despite the fact that every single (city) board upheld the ordinance to keep that building intact. The Crum & Forster decision says you make all the laws you want but if the city doesn’t fight for it, then (the ordinance) doesn’t mean anything.”
The recession, and Atlanta’s head-long rush to constantly rebuild itself, allowed preservationists time to take stock in remaining historic structures and reach out to property owners to see if they will work with the groups in preserving or donating their structures to the public for tax breaks. But with the real estate picture improving, the wreckers are back in force.
May is National Preservation Month and local groups are plotting ways to get out their message and slow the pace of destruction.
Impact overstated
Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, said the
Crum & Forster decision was so detrimental that the group is considering putting the entire Atlanta preservation ordinance on the his organization’s “most endangered” listing, which is normally reserved for structures facing extinction.
“Crum & Forster was landmarked, which is the highest level of local preservation,” said Coons. “This puts into question every building.”
Simon Bloom, an attorney who represented Atlanta in the lawsuit filed against the city by the Tech foundation, noted the landmark designation came after the foundation started the process to demolish the building in 2008. In essence, he said, the rules of the game changed against the foundation.
Bloom said preservationists are overstating the effect of the consent decree, which allows the demolition of most of the building. The foundation has said it will retain the facade of the structure that stands at 771 Spring Street.
Asked if the case weakens the law, Bloom said, “Absolutely not. The preservation ordinance is completely intact.”
He said the case should spur a rallying cry: “If anything, it should create more of an imperative to move more quickly to designate buildings they want to protect. Don’t wait until someone takes action.”
Read the full story.
https://www.ajc.com/news/news/