Historic Preservation
Michael Morrissey
Latest Articles
Historic Preservation Links - Part I
The first in a series of cool and useful web sites. If you're restoring an old house you should find some of these quite useful.
Beatrix Farrand is one of America's foremost landscape architects. Her works are worth admiring, preserving and emulating.
Modern Thinking – Part II - Modernism
The second in a series of digressions from preservation. This article is a study of Modernism, its philosophy and execution.
Modern Thinking: Part I - The Victorians
The first in a series of digressions from preservation. This first article is a study of Victorian architecture and how it portrays the philosophy of the era.
Like the Mir Space Station, human beings have endured long beyond their useful life. How much longer can it go on? The answer to that question is beyond the capabilities of our staff of noted gadabouts, but they have managed to compile a short list of what’s to come in the ...
Zoning Laws Are The Real Culprit
Zoning laws are behind the destruction of many older buildings and neighborhoods.
The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building
The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, America's oldest savings bank, built America's first "modernist" skyscraper. Now the Lowes corporation has rehabilitated it.
I dread the day when the raised ranches and the split-level colonials begin sporting the blue and silver badges of a national historic landmark.
Farnsworth House. Plano, Illinois
The Farnsworth House is as enlightening as it is unnerving.
Designed and built by Mies van der Rohe as his first piece of domestic architecture in the United States, it has become the standard bearer for Modern American Architecture.
Trash or Treasure, How to Decide
Are the nails from Paul Revere's Uncle's friend's old barn worth saving? How does someone know what is worth saving and what isn't?