# Lost Modernist Buildings



## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

An obituary for modernist buildings that have been demolished.

The Orange County Government Center, Goshen, NY, USA (1972-2015)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Stage Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA (1970-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Palast der Republik, Berlin, Germany (1976-2006)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Prentice Womens' Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA (1975-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Cyclorama, Gettysburg, PA, USA (1962-2013)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore, MD, USA (1964-2015)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

1 Angel Court, London, UK (1979-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Drapers' Gardens, London, UK (1967-2007)

































Mondial House, London, UK (1978-2007)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Southwark Towers, London, UK (1976-2008)

























20 Fenchurch Street, London, UK (1968-2008)

















122 Leadenhall, London, UK (1969-2008)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Washington D.C., USA (1971-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Riverdale Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada (1963-2013)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Fire Station, Perth, Australia (1967-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Damen Hall, Chicago, IL, USA (1966-2010)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Riverview High School, Sarasota, FL, USA (1958-2009)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School, New Orleans, LA, USA (1954-2011)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Los Laboratorios JORBA, Madrid, Spain (1967-1999)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church, New Orleans, LA, USA (1962-2007)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Pan Am Worldport, NYC, NY, USA (1961-2013)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Queen Emma Building, Honolulu, HI, USA (1963-2015)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Beverly Hills Public Library, CA, USA (1963-1990)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Chrisopher Inn, Columbus, OH, USA (1963-1988)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Hotel Sofitel, Tokyo, Japan (1994-2006)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

National Airlines Terminal, NYC, NY, USA (1970-2011)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Sunning Plaza, Hong Kong (1982-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

AfE Turm, Frankfurt, Germany (1972-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Bayer Hochaus, Leverkusen, Germany (1963-2012)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Pimlico Academy, London, UK (1970-2010)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Tricorn Center, Portsmouth, UK (1966-2004)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan (1982-2011)


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## Skopje/Скопје (Jan 8, 2013)

For me it's always sad thing when some perfectly functional building is being demolished for aesthetic or other reason.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

^^ That's why the destructors always try to argue about how 'obsolete' and 'dysfunctional' a building is, ignoring that a proper renovation would usually solve those problems. If they could renovate Park Hill in Sheffield so well, they could renovate anything.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis, MI, USA (1953-1976)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Regent Park Complex, Toronto, Canada (1958-2015)


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## RegentHouse (Sep 2, 2012)

London had so many nice modernist buildings from the secord Churchill to Douglas-Home as well as Thatcher era which complemented classical structures well. Many have now been replaced by bombastic playful shit, which convey the country is ashamed of it's proud economically dominant past.

Limbank House, Former Barclays Bank International Headquarters (1969-1997)









Replaced by this:









Kingsgate House (1966):








http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/pictures/636xAny/0/9/8/1236098_Kingsgate_House_1.jpg

HOW IS THIS ANY BETTER?








http://www.landsecurities.com/property_images/zig-zag-and-kings-gate.jpg

Soon to be demolished Marble Arch Tower (1966):








http://www.standard.co.uk/incoming/article9476405.ece/alternates/w620/marblearch.jpg

...to be replaced by an oblong-shaped tower with a hideous base:








http://celluloidjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Marble_Arch_tower.jpg

The base of the current building should be renovated instead.

Sodomization of London in a nutshell:


Jake_the_Peg said:


> :banana:


NYC needs to be careful starchitects don't destroy the city like they've been so successful with London. However, in their case it's more toward classical architecture.


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## Marco Bruno (Aug 29, 2003)

Prentice Womens' Hospital... demolished hno:


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Eduardo Catalano House, Raleigh, NC, USA (1954-2001)


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## MrVillageIdiot (Nov 14, 2014)

ThatOneGuy said:


> Eduardo Catalano House, Raleigh, NC, USA (1954-2001)


That house.........:nuts:


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## RegentHouse (Sep 2, 2012)

ThatOneGuy said:


> Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis, MI, USA (1953-1976)


I don't think the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe was regrettable because it's a textbook example of how NOT to do modernism.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

There's a documentary on it that shows how economic mismanagement and urban flight caused its downfall.


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## RegentHouse (Sep 2, 2012)

^^It was doomed from the very beginning. You can't build something that ambitious so cheaply. While St. Louis wasn't yet in economic free-fall at the time Pruitt-Igoe was completed, spending more would have amplified the consequences in the end.

Modernist public housing is a failure as a whole for the same reasons. The remaining examples in decent condition are only so because control was handed to residents and market forces were introduced. There's a reason why the United States has Section 8.


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## steelcoco (Jun 10, 2015)

tanks for pictures


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Aérogare '58, Zaventem, Belgium (1958-2014)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Greyfriars Bus Station, Northampton, UK (1976-2015)









Northampton Greyfriars Bus Station by Chris Guy, on Flickr


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Tour AXA, Paris, France (1974-2007)
















became the Tour First.


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## UnHavrais (Sep 19, 2010)

^^ It's just because now, she look like that (Tour First, ex-Tour AXA):


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## SRQgator (Feb 2, 2015)

ThatOneGuy said:


> Riverview High School, Sarasota, FL, USA (1958-2009)


This last picture is part of Sarasota High which was also designed by Paul Rudolph, however unlike its Riverview counterpart it was recently renovated. 









The interior was largely gutted to make more room, used to have floating walkways.


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## JMGA196 (Jan 1, 2013)

That's amazing


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Good to know. Great looking building, btw


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## Hofguy (Jun 12, 2015)

the the natural lighting for the interior is one of the more interesting features and design gems of that building.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

The former Birmingham Central Library (1974) will finish demolition in 2016


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## JMGA196 (Jan 1, 2013)

hno:


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## DrVotum (Jun 22, 2015)

Excellent photo, thank you for the sharing!


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Seamen's Church Institute Building, NYC, NY, USA (1969-1989)










Battery Park, New York, New Year's morning 1972 by Eric Hardy, on Flickr


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Prudential Building, Houston, TX, USA (1952-2012)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Keybridge House, London, UK. Built 1978 and will finish demolition in 2016.


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## Marco Bruno (Aug 29, 2003)

Don't understand why they demolish such buildings. Most of them are good.


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## Weissenberg (Jul 31, 2014)

Marco Bruno said:


> Don't understand why they demolish such buildings. Most of them are good.


It's very subjective. IMO the main problem with modernist structures from the 1960s-1990s was that they interfered with their surroundings. Placing modernist architecture anywhere near historical blocks is always very risky.


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## That_G (Nov 16, 2013)

Many look very sculptural and this is especially true of brutalist buildings but the reality is there were many poor design decisions made when building them. I actually love the style of them though.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Windsor Tower, Madrid, Spain (1979-2005)


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## LSky (Jul 16, 2015)

here have to be Torre Agbar from Barcelona)


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Rossiya Hotel, Moscow, Russia (1967-2006)


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## RaymondHood (Feb 5, 2014)

ThatOneGuy said:


> Rossiya Hotel, Moscow, Russia (1967-2006)


Lost, but no great loss.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Technische Rathaus, Frankfurt, Germany (1974-2011)
Architects:Wolfgang Bartsch, Anselm Thürwächter, Gerhard Weber


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## Rev Stickleback (Jun 23, 2009)

ThatOneGuy said:


> Rossiya Hotel, Moscow, Russia (1967-2006)


I stayed there once. The rooms weren't actually that bad, but it took an hour and half to check in as they wouldn't accept that the room they'd given me was in part of the hotel closed for renovation.

It included an example of famed Russian customer service, where the reception staff who dealt with me previously, suddenly decided to pretend they didn't speak English any more.


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## danielkovacs (Feb 11, 2015)

Dear Forum members, 

Hungarian collective 'Translations of Modernism' or Transmodern is organizing a two-day-long forum for architects, researchers, historians and enthusiasts interested in post-war Central- and Eastern European architecture, in Berlin, Germany, between 28 and 29 April 2016. The open call for participants is here: http://transmodern.eu/2016/03/03/ope...m-2016-berlin/
Please consider participating and applying or sharing the news, also on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/238722233131890/

Thank you, 
Daniel Kovacs, organizer


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## iamcharlottewang (Mar 5, 2016)

Those buildings are amazing!


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## de flatneuroot (Sep 11, 2002)

This topic makes me sad.  Lot of lost beauties.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Midland County Courthouse, Midland, TX, USA (1974-2015)


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## TRTL (Sep 25, 2011)

No really ? Why ?


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## Chengkit88 (Jun 6, 2006)

Menara Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur (1983-2014)


































To be replaced by this building


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## Chengkit88 (Jun 6, 2006)

Crown Plaza Mutiara Kuala Lumpur Hotel (Formerly KL Hilton Hotel) (1973-2013)


































To be replaced by this Project









Current progress of the site


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## Chengkit88 (Jun 6, 2006)

Wisma Angkasa Raya, Kuala Lumpur (1974-2011)


































Current progress now


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Unbelievable, I had no idea they demolished this one 
Bernstein House, Charlotte, NC, USA (1970-2016)
Architect: Lawrence Allen Bernstein

















































































http://www.ncmodernist.org/charlotte.htm


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## Architecture lover (Sep 11, 2013)

What was the reason?


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

No idea. Probably to build another McMansion.


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## Architecture lover (Sep 11, 2013)

It's bad to read that, it's like tearing down a little piece of valuable historical art. I think we won't see that sort of modernist buildings constructed again, as architecture develops and explores new designs.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

City Hall, Bodegraven, Netherlands (1967-1995)
Architect: K.F.G. Spruit


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Hall of Nations, New Delhi, India (1972-2017)
Architect: Raj Rewal


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## Shadow on the Wall (Nov 13, 2014)

^ Oh no!


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## SRQgator (Feb 2, 2015)

Drive by this one every day, most would be shocked if they knew what this building used to look like.

Galloways Furniture Showroom - Victor Lundy, 1959










Turned into this:


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## Bond James Bond (Aug 23, 2002)

^
Wow! Somebody with deep pockets needs to buy it and restore it.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

That's so sad. What were they thinking.


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