UNFINISHED SPACES

The New Orleans Film Society, in partnership with the Prytania Theatre and Mathes Brierre present:

UNFINISHED SPACES

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Prytania Theatre
5339 Prytania Street

Official film synopsis: In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba’s National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school’s first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream. View trailer here.

Tickets may be purchased online through theprytania.com or at the box office. 

Help Protect Landmark Neon Signage

The Preservation Resource Center's Advocacy Department has announced that the Walgreen's Pharmacy located at 900 Canal Street has applied to the Historic District Landmarks Commission to replace its Moderne neon signage with LED (light-emitting diode) signage.

Louisiana governor Huey Long’s favorite firm, Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, designed this pharmacy (1938) as well as the State Capitol (1932). The Moderne pharmacy is illuminated by its original neon sign. The year of the structure's completion, Canal Street was awash in neon lights and colored paving:

“A breadth of 171 feet is distributed between two spacious sidewalks, and a wider neutral ground; both the sidewalks (called banquettes in New Orleans) and the neutral ground are paved in modernistic style with red and white terrazzo marble, reflecting the brilliant sunlight by day and the flood of electric lights by night.” (WPA Guide to New Orleans, 1938)

From the 1930s-1960s, Canal Street’s signage was almost exclusively neon (undated postcard shown above). Today, very few of its historic neon lights survive. To see other pictures of the signage and comment on the proposal, click here.

Preservation Meets Sustainability

Modernist Architecture Comes of Age

Image Credits:

University of Vermont

Join the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program for a day-long symposium exploring the preservation of historic modernist buildings and how to rehabilitate them to be sustainable and functional in the 21st century. DOCOMOMO US President Theo Prudon will be a featured speaker at the event.

Registration Fee: $100

For more information click here for a PDF.

Register online: www.uvm.edu/~modern