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This month, Wayfarers Chapel is being dismantled, an emergency attempt to save the structure’s irreplaceable redwood, steel and stone components in the wake of a devastating landslide. By taking it apart now, before it’s too twisted and broken to ever reconfigure, the chapel’s leaders hope to give it a second life someday on stable ground. They don’t have the cash yet for a rebuild, but they’re doing what they can at this critical moment: spending nearly half a million dollars on triage. — The Guardian
The group responsible for the Wayfarers Chapel announced its closure and plans to dismantle earlier this year following months of "accelerated land movement" beneath its 3.5-acre site in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes. The Guardian says the city is "working with chapel leaders... View full entry
The UK's Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove has approved the planned demolition of the Museum of London building and Bastion House near the Barbican. The go-ahead makes way for the revised Sheppard Robson and Diller Scofidio + Renfro-led scheme that would deliver a new office... View full entry
Lloyd Wright's historic closed Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, will be disassembled in the face of irreparable landslide damage, the group responsible for its stewardship announced via a press release Tuesday. Architectural Resources Group will handle the disassembly... View full entry
Alleging an "abuse of power" by Los Angeles city officials, the owners of Marilyn Monroe's former Brentwood home are suing the city to block an effort to have the structure declared a historic-culture landmark, which would prevent its demolition.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit [...] alleges "illegal and unconstitutional conduct" by the city "with respect to the house where Marilyn Monroe occasionally lived for a mere six months before she tragically committed suicide 61 years ago."
— NBC Los Angeles
The LA Times (which has been reporting on the story since January of this year when the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission recommended landmark status for the former Monroe residence) writes that the lawsuit was filed by billionaire heiress Brinah Milstein and her TV producer husband Roy... View full entry
The lawsuit filed by artist Mary Miss in federal court in Iowa last month has gained a preliminary injunction over the alleged breach of contract stemming from the Des Moines Art Center’s planned removal of her outdoor sculpture piece Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996). The news was shared by... View full entry
NBC Chicago is reporting on the start of planned demolition work for the Thompson Center in advance of a $280 million makeover that will turn the famed Helmut Jahn-designed building into a new office space for Google for 2026. Work will cover the exterior glass curtain facade and interior atrium... View full entry
The revised Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson-led scheme at the Barbican in Central London reportedly gained planning approvals from the City of London’s planning body. The news came last week (April 17th) after UK Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove remanded an Article... View full entry
Chris Pratt has drawn ire from architecture aficionados after news broke that the actor and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, had razed a historic, mid-century modern home to make way for a sprawling 15,000-sq-ft mansion.
Architect Ken Ungar, whose portfolio largely features high-end modern farmhouse-style residences, will design a home for the couple, Architectural Digest reported. The property [...] will also feature a three-car garage and a secondary unit near the pool.
— The Guardian
As The Guardian reported, plans for a demolition went mostly under the radar until the Los Angeles Conservancy issued a warning last January. Actor Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger purchased the home later with the apparent intention of replacing it with an oft-reviled “modern... View full entry
Artist Mary Miss has filed a lawsuit in an ongoing dispute over the planned demolition of her outdoor installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. A district court subsequently decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the... View full entry
The demolition of ‘The Tombs’ Manhattan Detention Complex to prepare for the 300-foot ‘Jailscraper’ (aka the ‘Chinatown Jail’) in Lower Manhattan is meting out further headaches for residents around the Columbus Park area, the majority of whom are elderly, ABC7 reported recently... View full entry
But nostalgia rarely makes for good decision making. Keep the tower and repurpose it as a tourist destination. With the money saved, we can erect a better stadium serving the city’s current and future needs. Not all landmarks are sacred. When fire consumed the Notre-Dame cathedral, they raced to replace the roof; Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is not Notre-Dame. — The Walrus
Quebecers face a vexing choice: Keep the stadium or pursue an even costlier demolition that would erase the landmark, which late architect Roger Taillibert called a “poem in concrete,” owing to its location over two underground metro stations. The new, $870 million replacement roof that is... View full entry
A mural painted by Banksy which first appeared not long after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) has been destroyed after the building it was painted on was knocked down. The artwork, said to have been valued at around £1m, first appeared in the coastal town of Dover in 2017, the year after Britain voted to leave the union in a controversial referendum. — CNN
The mural, located on the side of the Castle Amusements building, depicted a worker chipping away at one the 12 stars on the EU flag. In 2019, the mural vanished after it was whitewashed. And, now, despite efforts to potentially restore the work, the building it was painted on has been demolished... View full entry
Significant alterations to the exterior of Helmut Jahn’s aging James R. Thompson Center have been revealed inside of planning documents submitted for Google’s forthcoming $280 million renovation of the landmark former government office building in Chicago. The building’s glass facade... View full entry
The planning authority in London’s Royal Borough of Greenwich has ordered the demolition of a new residential development along the River Thames. In a statement, the authority concluded that the 23-story building, named Mast Quay Phase II, was “so substantially different to the... View full entry
Campaigners seeking to save Marcel Breuer’s 1949 Wellfleet Cottage residence on Cape Cod have launched a $1.4 million fundraising effort aimed at saving the home from an expected demolition that’s likely to come in the next few years. The Cape Cod Modern House Trust is spearheading the effort... View full entry