Lost, Saved, Threatened Landscapes

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Docomomo US Staff

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Saved, Threatened, Lost
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Lost, Saved, Threatened Landscapes

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Courtesy Brian Snelson/Flickr

As cities and communities continue to rethink and reclaim public space, modern landscapes, many of which lack proper maintenance and understanding, have been placed in a vulnerable position. Here are just a few modern landscapes featured the Docomomo US Explore Modern Register that have been lost, saved and are currently still threatened.

 

Love a modern landscape that is not featured? Add it here.

 

Lost

After a long, controversial battle, demolition of Baltimore's McKeldin Fountain began this past November despite there not being a plan for a permanent replacement in place. Fresno, California's Fulton Mall, a pedestrian mall designed by landscape architect Garrett Eckbo in colaboration with Victor Gruen Associates, is also currently being redeveloped to reopen the street to traffic.

View more lost sites from the register HERE.

Featured Sites

McKeldin Fountain

An example of Brutalist architecture, the McKeldin fountain was built in 1982 as part of a master plan created by the Philadelphia firm Wallace, McHarg, Roberts & Todd (now WRT) to guide development around Baltimore’s harbor basin. Dedicated to the former governor and mayor of Baltimore Thomas McKeldin, the fountain was designed made with a series of concrete prisms and walkways and intended to be the centerpiece and physical link from the hotels and convention centers downtown, to the pavilions at the redesigned waterfront.

Featured Sites

Fulton Mall

Fulton Mall is a pedestrian mall and urban park in downtown Fresno, California, that was created in 1964 by excluding vehicular traffic from six blocks of Fulton Street as well as some segments of three of the streets that transected Fulton. The Fulton Mall was designed by Garrett Eckbo as the centerpiece of the plan by Victor Gruen and Associates to transform Fresno’s downtown area. As specified in the earliest planning stages, Fulton Street, at one time Fresno’s main shopping street, was to be “converted into a high-quality dense activity pedestrian Mall” (Victor Gruen and Associates, Central Area Fresno, California, vol. 1, Research and Basic Planning, March 16, 1959). (taken from the National Register Nomination prepared by the Downtown Fresno Coalition).

Saved

Both St. Louis' Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and Pittsburgh's Mellon Square have been revitalized by recent renovations.

View more saved sites from the register HERE.

Featured Sites

Gateway Arch National Park

At 630 feet in height, the stainless steel St. Louis Arch at the Gateway Arch National Park (formerly known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) dominates the landscape of its surroundings. The arch stands as the first major design by renowned architect Eero Saarinen and is shaped in an inverted catenary curve. Each section is a double-walled equilateral triangle of carbon steel on the interior and stainless steel on the exterior, all held together by welded high strength steel rods. The Gateway Arch is the largest monument in the United States and has become the unofficial symbol for the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where it continues to draw millions of annual visitors.

Featured Sites

Mellon Square

The Civic/Institutional Design Award of Excellence is given for the restoration of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Square. Envisioned as a cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s post WWII renaissance by Richard King Mellon and Mayor David L. Lawrence, this space was collaboratively designed by architects Mitchell & Ritchey and landscape architects Simonds & Simonds. It opened in 1955 as the nation’s first urban plaza designed with an underground garage and retail space as an integral composition. After falling into decline due to weather, system failures, and use, a Preservation, Interpretation & Management Plan was first developed in 2008 that informed the five-year restoration and revitalization project focused on recapturing the original design intent and solving persistent issues of decline.

Threatened

Tampa's Kiley Gardens and Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes are two landscapes still currently threatened. Docomomo US and our partners are continuing to monitor the situations surrounding these sites.

View more threatened sites from the register HERE.

Featured Sites

Mitchell Park Domes

A beloved Milwaukee institution for generations, a unique engineering marvel, and a nationally significant example of Midcentury Modern architecture, the Milwaukee Domes have been a center of community life and a tourism destination for more than 50 years. In 1958, Milwaukee architect Donald Grieb won a national design competition for the Domes, which were constructed between 1959 and 1967. His design featured three domes (The Show Dome, the Tropical Dome, and the Arid Dome) which contain a vast array of flora that one observer called “a zoo for plants.” First Lady Lady Bird Johnson officially dedicated the Show Dome at its opening ceremony in 1965. In addition to their stunning architectural features, the structures are marvels of modern engineering, featuring the world’s first “conoidal”—or cone-shaped—domes. They remain the only glass conoidal domes in the world in use as conservatories. (Adapted from the National Trust for Historic Preservation website)

Featured Sites

Kiley Garden

In 1988 Kiley was invited to work on the North Carolina National Bank plaza in Tampa, later known as NationsBank. Landscape architect Dan Kiley and architect Harry Wolf worked together to provide a harmonious plan for the NCNB headquarters building and the surrounding plaza. The design is based on the fibonacci mathematical sequence which Kiley used to determine the plaza’s checkerboard pattern of grass, concrete panels, and water features. Tree types and their placement were based on height also in relation to the fibonacci sequence. The tower and plaza opened in 1988, and the plaza was quickly praised as one of Kiley’s master works. The NationsBank tower designed by Harry Wolf is one of the most iconic structures in Tampa.

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