THREATENED at rduwtf.com

THREATENED: the former First Federal Bank Building, built in 1960 at 300 S. Salisbury in the now-churning heart of downtown Raleigh. Currently it’s the Garland Jones Office Building. It was designed by Howard T. Musick of the Bank Building Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri. Now it’s on death row, planned to be demolished in the Wake County Courthouse Complex expansion.No major local preservation organizations have stepped up to save it in any arena beyond blogs, probably because those folks are already overburdened here in Teardown City. Has the County explored all possible options to re-use the building? Do they appreciate the quality of materials that went into it? The AIA’s 20th Century Architecture Guide Map to Raleigh lists this building as one of 88 modern landmarks in Raleigh. Several of these have been destroyed since the guide map’s publication in 1998. This building “employs a version of the Miesian vocabulary but in the form of white marble cladding and curtain walls with a playful pattern of multi-shaded blue spandrel glass.”What can you, the taxpaying citizen, do about this? Probably not much.
Write your County Commissioner, but don’t hold your breath waiting on a response. Is this one of the great buildings of the world? No. But it is an important part of the lively fabric of downtown Raleigh, and an important piece of history. Before destroying it, the county should at least do a feasibility study to determine what it would take to upfit it
to keep it viable as a county office building. We can guarantee that anything that goes up in its place will be uglier and made of something a lot cheaper than white marble and blue glass.

7 Responses to “THREATENED”

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1 pissedoff May 30th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Clearly somebody out there is listening. The responding dialog on the Urban Planet blog was directly correlative to the jeopardy this building is in. Our Raleigh community does not understand or appreciate all periods of important, contributing structures. We love what our grandparents built, but hate what our parents built. Preservationist and Architectural organizations have been extremely hands off as this is political roulette. All careerists are staying clear. The commissioners want this one gone, end of story. Besides, without citizens to first, appreciate the structure and second, complain to their Commissioner, no preservationist group can get this one saved. PreservationNC and the NCAIA need to spend equal effort with community education as they do with political lobbying. Why bother with job security if the all the work left is substandard crap?
2 yeahyeahgirl Jun 7th, 2007 at 3:56 am

if you want to see how much we *love* what our grandparents built take a little tour of the once-beautiful-now-becoming-increasingly-packed-with-butt-ugly “architecture” neighborhood of hayes barton. sad face.
3 hmmm... Jun 7th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

Just looking at the exterior of the building, I always thought it would make a really cool bookstore or library. We need a good big bookstore downtown anyway.
4 SMcDonald Jul 17th, 2007 at 12:50 pm

I use to hate the looks of this building. But as I’ve grown older–and, dare I say, wiser–I really appreciate the architecture. This building should stay standing if only for it’s unique character alone. That’s something that downtown needs more of. And I haven’t seen a county/local government building built in the last 50 years that meets that criteria.
5 Clyde Smith Jul 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

At a successful blog, bloggers typically interact with their commenters, even if only briefly.

Check you guys later. I’m looking for the conversation, not the broadcast.
6 Clyde Smith Jul 17th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

My bad, I see yeah yeah girl’s here. Guess I’ll go look for the conversation that includes me. Great blog. Best of luck.

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THREATENED

7 Responses to “THREATENED”

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