UPDATE: Cashing Out (And Learning About Façadism)

From Dave "Cash Me Outside" Brigham:

While façadism may sound like a new form of dictatorship that Donald Trump is enamored of, the architectural technique is far less dangerous to society, but still controversial. Façadism is the process of preserving all or part of an old building's exterior while constructing a new internal structure behind it. This technique has become more common in recent years in Boston as the city's building boom continues and bumps up against preservationists' urgent desires to maintain some connections to the city's past.

In July 2012, I took a photo of just such a project in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood.

This is one of a handful of façades fronting the Hong Lok House project. Developed by Rogerson Communities, Hong Lok House includes 74 affordable apartments for low-income elders, community space, an adult day health program, a senior center and a green roof with tai chi deck (!), according to the developer's web site. The project replaced the original Hong Lok House, which was located in the former Normandy Lounge, which was bought by the Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center, according to Sampan.org.

So let's get to the point. Last fall I posted a photo and wrote a post about the former Lechmere National Bank in East Cambridge, Mass. (see November 1, 2018, "Cashing Out"). In that post I indicated that, after some back-and-forth between the developer and the City of Cambridge, the project would save two outer walls of the former bank for inclusion in a new CVS pharmacy.

Here's what the building looked like recently; it may be complete by now.

On the left you can see one of the walls of the former bank. The middle and right portions of this building are new construction.

"Architectural façades can be contentious," per this article on the blog of custom metal casting company Reliance Foundry. "If done poorly, façadism can appear as an architectural Frankenstein; tasteless, mismatched, and ostentatious." Writing in Arcade, Eugenia Woo agrees: "Stripped of everything but its facade, a building loses its integrity and significance, rendering it an architectural ornament with no relation to its history, function, use, construction method or cultural heritage."

The Reliance Foundry blog, however, argues that if such a project is undertaken correctly, "it is an effective bridge between the old and the new. The process retains the historic front of a structure, while renovating and reconstructing the building’s interior to match modern building practices."

I have mixed feelings about façadism. Is saving a portion of the outside of an old building better than knocking the whole thing down? Sure. Sometimes the structure is in bad shape and there's no way to save anything other than the exterior. Fair enough. Other times, the building, although it may look cool and have nice details, is deemed of no historical value by town or city officials, and the developers hash out an agreement with those officials, and preservationists, to save part of the building. More often than not, of course, developers just let fly the wrecking ball and nothing is left.

I'm not opposed to progress, and to shiny, new buildings entirely. But I just love the human scale of buildings under, say 10 floors, and especially ones with the types of attention to detail that you just don't see in modern architecture.

I recently took a picture of the former Littlest Bar building on Boston's Broad Street, which has been incorporated into the Folio Boston condo tower. In this case, I like the façadism that the developer agreed to. Frankly, the old fella is so classy looking, he makes his big, doofy neighbor look stupid.

(This building may or may not be home to Vintage Restaurant and Lounge. The sign is no longer there, and you can see a ghost sign for The Littlest Bar below the first floor windows.)

I wrote about this project more than two years ago, and learned that the building whose exterior was saved dates to 1805 and was once a warehouse for goods coming off nearby wharves (see November 21, 2016, "The Buildings That Time Forgot").

For more about Boston buildings that have undergone (suffered?) this treatment, read this article. And for a look at similar projects north of the border, read this article about Toronto.

So, what do you think of façadism?