Thursday, July 26, 2007
Hot Fuzz: Historic Preservation or Bust
Posted by: lain // Category: Atlanta, Birds other than wrens, Good Questions, Historic Preservation, Historical Quagmires // 12:20 pm
[So, I wrote this post a few weeks back and promptly forgot about it. Yikes! Since Mercenary Amelia is on vacation and I'm currently immersed in techsoup.org, this seems an appropriate time as any.]
Mercenary Amelia and I caught a movie the other day–Hot Fuzz–at the local theater.
It was both hilarious and explosive. See?
Not only that, but the film is really well done, surprisingly subtle, and thought provoking.
Here’s the rundown–a straight laced London cop is reassigned to a sleepy community because he’s making all the other officers look bad.
The town is notoriously peaceful, bucolic and historic, but there’s something sinister just beneath the surface. All of a sudden, members of the community start suffering from fatal and improbable “accidents.”
Without spoiling too much, I can tell you that one community member, whose home doesn’t match the community’s historic fabric, meets a brutal demise.
Hot Fuzz is a lot funnier now that I’ve attended my fair share of community meetings dealing with development and preservation. And the film really got me thinking about what is and isn’t historic preservation.
Take the Wren’s Nest–it’s a McMansion Original Gangsta. See the before:
And the after:
Worth preserving? Of course! It’s a significant structure, one of only two of its kind remaining in Atlanta, and the home of one of the more significant authors of the 19th century. Plus, it was originally built by George Muse when he was 16. Muse, for those of you native Atlantans, went on to found Muse’s, a men’s clothing store downtown, now lofts.
Okay, now how about something like the Plaza Theater itself:
Worth preserving? Totally! It was built in 1939, maintains a sleek art-deco character, and that sign! Wow. It’s the only one of its kind in this town, and has some neat sordid history.
But just because something is old, does that make it worthy of preservation?
What about, say, for those of you in Atlanta, Emory Village in Historic Druid Hills? Or Buckhead’s East Village?
Or the rundown shack next to your house that’s about to be bulldozed to make way for a new three-story “craftsman bungalow”?
What about the Plaza in the 70s, when it was an adult theater and probably pretty decrepit-looking?
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And what about the I.M. Pei office building on Ponce that’s likely to get bulldozed for another live/work/play complex? (At least that was the plan last I read– the AJC seems to have stuck the article into their pay-only archives now.)
http://www.preserveatlanta.com/endangered07_04.htm
Good point, Rachael.
That particular building way interesting! Especially because–I’ve heard–Pei doesn’t really consider it his own. Even though he designed it, apparently the developers changed enough for him to disown it.
I wonder if that makes it more or less important to preserve (actually, I don’t wonder–it makes it more important)! Here’s even more information:
http://docomomoga.org/wordpress/?p=76
Hey Lain, this has nothing to do with the topic but wasn’t sure of the best way to get ya. But I was reading an article about the Atlanta Black Arts Festival and I saw all the locations it is taking place in and thought to myself “hey, why isn’t the Wren’s Nest one of the locations? I mean if Greenbriar Mall can be a location, why not the Wren’s Nest?”
Seriously, it could be a nice draw. Besides isn’t one of the black arts the oral story telling tradition that JCH published?? I don’t know if this is a yearly thing or not but if so might be worthwhile to investigate for next year.
Then again you probably looked into all this and are sitting there thinking “Ah, no duh Deb! We do know what we are doing, thank you very much”. So I’ll be quiet now….
Deb
The Wren’s Nest = OGMcM!
Good post, Shakespeare.
Deb and Amelia, you are both correct.
First, Amy–why do you post comments under like eighteen different names? O(riginal)G(angsta)McM(ansion), or OGMcM has a great ring to it!
Deb, that’s an excellent suggestion, and one that I’ve vaguely thought about it before, like this–
“We should get involved with the National Black Arts Festival!”
But that’s about it. Had we wanted to get involved in 2007, we’d of had to start that process probably in July of ‘06, which happened to be my first two weeks on the job.
Finally, in conjunction with the National Black Arts Festival, the Horizon Theater is putting on The Bluest Eye, originally by Toni Morrison. One of our Ramblers, Donald Griffin, has a key role in the production.
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