Mightier Than a Wrecking Ball: How Ada Louise Huxtable Saved Salem
September 25, 2015 |
Fifty years ago, an urban renewal plan was set to build a four-lane roadway through downtown Salem. As many as 103 buildings covering more than 39 acres of Salem’s historic core would have been affected to make way for roadways and parking lots. What interrupted the wrecking ball was an act of journalism. An article by renowned architecture critic and champion of preservation, Ada Louise Huxtable, published in the New York Times in October 1965, decried Salem’s urban renewal plans and became a harbinger of the National Preservation Act of 1966.
A September symposium, conceived by Historic Salem, Inc. and jointly sponsored by the PEM, Historic Salem and Historic New England, will assemble prominent architecture critics, historians, and experts to consider what almosthappened in Salem and how the issues at play in 1965 continue to be critical today. Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times will give the keynote address. A scholars panel, moderated by Carl Nold of Historic New England, will include Eric Gibson of the Wall Street Journal; Elizabeth Padjen, FAIA and former editor of Architecture Boston; and Donovan Rypkema, authority on the economics of preservation.
Time: 1:30 - 6pm
Tickets available at http://my.pem.org/single/SelectSeating.aspx?p=950
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Website:
historicsalem.org/events/mightier-than-a-wrecking-ball-how-ada-louise-saved-salem/ |
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| Location Information |
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PEM Morse Auditorium |
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Salem, MA 01970 |
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| Contact Information |
| Email:
info@historicsalem.org |
| Phone:
978-542-1211 |
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