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News
& Documents:
We are urging all
those involved to rescind their previous approval of this ill-advised
demolition.A renewed effort to save the building is underway, led by
the Recent Past Preservation Network
in cooperation with the Neutra Institute
of Survival Through Design, DOCOMOMO
U.S., and other allied organizations. This coalition of preservationists
is calling upon key public officials, including Pennsylvania Gov. Edward
Rendell, to "pardon" the building and provide funds for its
restoration. Only public support can save this building now. Sign
on here to save the Cyclorama!
The
Low Down on the Future of the Cyclorama
The whole story in five paragraphs--check it out!
 What
Would Bloggers Do? Advice
and outlook from bloggers around the world
Design
Within Reach, Design Notes, Jeremy Stoner 2 January 2007
Mike's
Civil War Musings 11 March 2007
George
Wallace, attorney 7 December 2006
Determining
the Significance of the Cyclorama Building
Read full text
of the following documents and more...
Historic Resources Committee, American Institute of Architects (AIA),
1997 Resolution for preservation
National Register
of Historic Places Determination of Eligibility
Section 106 Case Report: Cyclorama Building
National Historic Landmark Nomination, Denial, & Appeal
From Richard
Longstreth, Society of Architectural Historians Appeal of NHL determination,
to Fran Mainella, Director, NPS, 24 February 2004 "The failure
of the National Park Service to recognize this building as a National
Historic Landmark is without foundation. Furthermore, the loss of
this building, which is scheduled for demolition in the foreseeable
future, would constitute an impairment of the first order, in direct
violation of the Park Service's stated mission..."
Link to PDF Image of Letter page
1 | page 2 |
Letters
Supporting Preservation & Reuse of Neutra's Cyclorama Building
Full
text and PDF copies of support Letters from Frank Gehry, Kevin Roche,
Robert A.M. Stern and other prominent architects!
Related
Documents & Interpretations
"Gettysburg
Visitor Center: Too Old to Be Chic; Too Young to Be Revered" by
Dion Neutra Download
a PDF brochure with a history of this issue and photographs
Reprinted from AIArchitecture, February 1998 with permission.
Landscape
Preservation and Interpretation: Issues of Use, Historical Experience,
and Myth at Gettysburg National Military Park. Excerpt of thesis
by Nathan Jefferson Riddle (Columbia University, 1998). Critical analysis
of National Park Service interpretive policies at Gettysburg NMP and
the slanted perspective of the in-house-authored National Register Determination
of Eligibility with special coverage of Neutra's Cyclorama Building
(ca. 1961) and its place on the battlefield of Gettysburg.
| "The Gettysburg
park staff tendentiously approached writing the DOE with the intention
of portraying the building�s mechanical and maintenance problems
as inherent design flaws. The motive of the park service was to
portray the building as a lesser, pitiful example of Neutra�s work,
designed when he was in poor health and at the end of his partnership
with Robert Alexander. Based upon an anti-modern conceit of the
park Superintendent, the analysis is slanted and misleading. Latschar�s
intentions and the arguments used to support his proposals pose
dangers more general than to just Neutra�s building. The National
Park Service acts as a preservation mentor for the nation, and in
this regard, if the argument becomes accepted that the technical
failings of a structure render that work of negligible significance,
then the country would lose many cherished architectural icons."
Read more... |
Preservation
Timeline of Events
Documents
regarding the 1884 cyclorama painting, "Battle of Gettysburg"
by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux
Conservation Considerations
and Recommendations Regarding Exhibition of the Gettysburg Cyclorama
Painting (Full-Text Document--Released by
National Park Service, November 1998)
Links:
Richard
and Dion Neutra, architects. This is the official web site of
the still-in-service Neutra firm, now over seventy years old, sponsored
by the Institute for Survival Through Design. Dion Neutra coordinates
preservation efforts of historic Neutra buildings using this site. Cyclorama
information on the Neutra site.
| OLD
NEWS
From
the National Park Service: The Cyclorama Program, featuring
the cyclorama painting of "Pickett's Charge" will close on November
20, 2005 to complete the painting's removal and rehabilitation.
The fully restored painting will reopen in 2007-2008 with the
opening of the new National Park Service Museum and Visitor Center.
The Cyclorama Center will also close on November 20 and remain
closed until April 2006, when it will reopen to the public and
remain open through the spring and summer until mid-November,
2006, when it will close for the winter.
July
2005 - GETTYSBURG'S CYCLORAMA CENTER SELECTED FOR 2006 WORLD MONUMENTS
FUND WATCH LIST OF 100 MOST ENDANGERED SITES
U.S. National Park Service Intends to Demolish Internationally
Significant Building
This week, at the 142nd anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg,
preservationists are renewing their call for the restoration of
the Cyclorama Center, a premiere American modern building that
overlooks the famous battlefield and commemorates Abraham Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address. On June 21, the World Monuments Fund (WMF),
the foremost private, non-profit organization dedicated to the
preservation of historic art and architecture worldwide, included
the imperiled Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg on its biennial Watch
List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. More
Information Here
June 2004....As
seen in this week's L.A. Times Sunday magazine. The Cyclorama
Building is slated for demolition by the National Park Service
to make way for a conjectural "restoration" of the battlefield
landscape. Architectural firm Neutra and Alexander designed the
structure in 1961 as part of the commemorative celebration of
the Battle of Gettysburg. The building was also a showpiece of
the "Mission 66" program, a $1 billion effort to improve visitor
facilities at the national parks. The National Register-listed
Cyclorama Building is the only Neutra-designed structure east
of the Mississippi open to the public and a unique late-period
work of this master architect. Numerous architects, professionals,
and organizations have endorsed preservation of the Cyclorama
Building.
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