Help Save a Rudolph Building

© New York Times- Tony Cenicola

Paul Rudolph's 1971 Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York is threatened with demolition, as reported by James S. Russell on the Bloomberg web site (link here).

Please sign this petition to help try to save it:
http://www.change.org/petitions/orange-county-new-york-legislature-oppose-the-demolition-of-the-orange-county-government-center-in-goshen-ny#

Paraphrasing a note I wrote to Jim, we’ve got to fight harder for things like this. If they don’t like it, they should turn it into a library or a bed and breakfast or a luxury condo (quite a bit better than some of the latest in NY  by Nouvel, etc.). Take it apart and ship it to someplace that appreciates it, and give the county the cowshed they are pining for. Or let it alone; it would make a magnificent ruin. If we let things like this go we might as well pack up and give up.

Addendum April 8, 2012:
The debate reaches The New York Times, see article here.

One of the points made is that Victorian architecture was once just as unpopular. Here's how I explained it to a Facebook friend:  

"Brutalism is actually an architectural style, Lord Help Us. From the 1960s and 70s. It's all the rage among students now, just as the buildings are deteriorating and find few fans amid the general public. It's like what happened to Victorian architecture in the 1960s [and probably already in the 1930s] -- a lot of great things were torn down before people learned to appreciated their kinks and caprices. Now love for the Victorian is a mighty cliché. "

Images from a handsome report on the building in Archdaily Classics from various sources. Last two photos by James S. Russell for Bloomberg,

© "U Mass Dartmouth"

James S. Russell

James S, Russell