Property Rights and Historic Preservation

The Third Church of Christ, Scientist, one of the finer examples of Brutalist architecture, is inching its way to demolition. The debate over its fate is between the owners, who would like to sell it, and historic preservationists, who want to compel the Christian Scientists to maintain it.

Brutalism has few fans and far more devoted enemies. It is, for many, the architectural equivalent of an erotic novel about Helen Thomas: not something that you want your eyes to fall upon. But as a matter of public policy, I agree with Jonah Goldberg that those who wish to preserve historic items always have the option of buying them:

The church doesn't want to destroy the building, the church wants to better serve its flock by selling the building. If the government or a group of folks like yourself want to save the building, I am sure the owners will gladly sell it. What the historic preservationists want is to save the building, but make the church bear the financial burden. That seems unfair to me generally, and especially problematic given that it's a church and the state isn't supposed to boss around churches.

Saying "you should save that" is always easy, when the costs are carried by someone else.

Art Blogging: Brutalism

Brutalism was an architectural movement that was popular in the 1950s through the 1970s. The movement was initiated by French architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, known more popularly as Le Corbusier. The Brutalist approach was marked by an unashamed display of building functions and construction using poured concrete in a way that did not disguise the rough materials with which buildings are made. Brutalism completely rejected the classical norms of beautification and decoration for hard angles, rough surfaces, and exposed plumbing and machinery. I like Brutalism for its geometric flow and confrontational style.

My first conscious encounter with Brutalism was the Bigelow-Rice Building on the campus of my undergraduate school, Ohio Wesleyan University. It has a blunt character in its blocky slabs of poured and raked concrete.

This building is a Christian Science Church in Washington, D.C. Very pretty, in my opinion. The owners, however, disagree and want to tear it down to build a new building. However, historic preservationists want to force the Christian Scientists to keep their old building, leading to a lengthy legal battle.
Brutalism was particularly popular for institutional buildings, such as schools, libraries, government facilities, and churches. This is one of the many Brutalist libraries across the U.S. -- the Orlando Public Library. Its blunt styling makes me think of street gangs of librarians daring any passerby to start a fight.