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Kevin
Site Admin
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 1142
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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 Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 5:35 pm Post subject: Historic Building in Jeopardy - from the NTHP itself?! |
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This independently created petition at sister site PetitionOnline.com:
The National Trust's Indictment in the Crime of the Century
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/63004cb/petition.html
raises an urgent and serious preservation issue, and describes a terrible state of affairs. It is starting to get major press coverage, so there still may be hope. I've signed this petition, and you may want to go sign it yourself.
Excerpt:
| Quote: | Whereas, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is funding the demolition of the historic Century Building in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, as part of the proposed U.S. Custom House and Post Office project; and
Whereas, the Century Building from 1896 is a ten-story Classical Revival building facing the Old Post Office along one full block of Ninth Street. According to the national Society of Architectural Historians, it may be unique among American office blocks in its use of Georgia marble for all three street elevations. The Century Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 16, 2002; and
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Whereas, the Century Building is threatened with demolition despite the fact that its adaptive reuse would satisfy the parking needs of the proposed key tenants of the Old Post Office (Webster University and the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District). The National Park Service has visited the site and agreed that interior parking in the Century Building would be approved under the Secretary of the Interior's Standards. Webster University has reduced its lease arrangement by more than 35% and expects most of its increase in downtown enrollment to be evening students. Its daytime parking requirements are now estimated at only 90 spaces. The Missouri Court of Appeals requires 70 parking spaces. Both tenants will be vacating other historic buildings and other parking spaces in the downtown core. Nonetheless, the developers continue to insist upon a 1000-car parking garage on the site of the Century Building; and
Whereas, current historic preservation best practices view parking garages as anathema to the continuity of the urban environment. To quote Trust President Richard Moe on a similar case in a similar city (Detroit's Madison-Lenox Hotel, one of the Trust's Eleven Most Endangered Places of 2004, May 24, 2004): "What the Motor City needs is more preservation, not another parking lot." Like the Detroit's Lenox Hotel, the Century Building is "an asset too valuable to waste;" and
Whereas, while preservationists around the country have argued that the Old Post Office project could succeed without the demolition of the Century Building, the Trust continues to support its demolition by providing 4.3 Million Dollars of New Market Tax Credits normally reserved for preservation of historic structures and places; and
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What do you think about this?
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/63004cb/petition.html
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