Why The Mechanic Theater Should Be Demolished
Last week over on the Baltimore Brew local architect Klaus Philipsen offered a defense of the Mechanic Theater and made the case for its historic preservation.
This blog, however, remains unconvinced and today we say that that ugly, useless monstrosity should be torn down immediately. It is an architectural abortion; an eyesore and an impediment to a liveable downtown. We suspect that Mr. Philipsen has been too long hunched over drawings or enamored of picture books and hasn’t spent nearly enough time on the street in this city. What he and the few other architects and preservationists who agree with him fail to realize is this:
Regular folks do not give a flying fuck about architecture.
They especially couldn’t care less about schools of design or architecture for its own sake. Regular people like being in and around buildings that look nice and function well and that’s the extent of it. The Mechanic does neither, which is why virtually all non-architects hate it and would love to see it gone.
We'd like to see the Mechanic theater destroyed as soon as possible.
Philipsen says that those people “don’t get” the historic context of Brutalist architecture. What he doesn’t get is that people understand it just fine and that we simply do not care. A handful of smarty-pants architects who spent their careers designing buildings more for their own portfolios than for their clients or tenants doesn’t interest the man on the street, and if all the Brutalist buildings in the world crumbled to dust it would be no great loss.
He goes on to argue that if the building is razed now that decision may be regretted later, but we argue the exact opposite; if the building’s owners miss this chance to tear it down now, they, and we as a city will be stuck with this awful building for decades to come.
It’s very easy and convenient for Philipsen to advocate for the theater’s preservation since he’s not the one who has to own and manage the damned thing. He would have the city dictate what the property owner can and can’t do with their building so he can… what? Give a little self-satisfied sigh every time he stops at that red light?
The substantial cost of keeping the theater is something that Philipsen does acknowledge, but he doesn’t offer any solution to the problem and doesn’t seem to mind spending Arrow Parking’s money at all. He damn sure doesn’t offer to pay for the preservation himself. The last thing this city needs to do is hand out more tax credits to big moneyed corporations, especially ones that aren’t even asking for them.
It’s not that we’re arguing against historic preservation here- it’s that this hunk of shit building is not at all historic. Compared to most other buildings in the city it’s practically brand new. Nothing of any historical importance or cultural significance ever happened there. What’s the best you can say for it? That one time Carol Channing came and sang Hello Dolly in front of a bunch of swells? Who cares???
The sooner this city is rid of this awful pile of concrete the sooner we can begin to embrace and enjoy a more livable downtown, and the sooner Klaus Philipsen can butt out of other people’s business and get back to his drawing board.
I’m newish to Baltimore and have always wondered what this piece of shit was. Yes, tear it down.
Regular folks care about WalMart and McDonald’s so lets tear everything down and just build those!
And the idea that this one building is holding the entirety of downtown back, if only this one building were demolished and some dullass glass luxury apartment building thrown up (literally) in its place, then the city of Baltimore will finally enter a new era of prosperity and happiness is about as asinine as a SRB second term.. Get real Choppenstein, building or no building Baltimore is being held back by those that run it, because the Mayor and the Council know that the only people that will keep them and their kind in office are the welfare baby makers and that an influx of educated high earners (or shit, just job holders) would vote their asses out of office.
So let’s keep the one building that isn’t like all the others, let’s give some tax breaks to some corporation to do something with it, those tax breaks would just go somewhere else anyway, and let’s have a downtown that is diverse and interesting like the population the city is trying to attract.
I’m on the record here as being against both Wal-Mart and the mayor. Perhaps you missed it. I never said one new building would be a cure-all either so perhaps you miss a lot.
Regardless, you can take that ‘welfare babymaker’ shit out of here. This isn’t the Baltimore Sun’s comments section.
I’m a classist, not a racist…and it’s a little sad (and very telling) to see how quickly you jump to inferring thinly veiled (or not so veiled) racism when someone says “welfare”. Maybe you need to think about the ways you view the people of this city before you try to correct others.
I never said anything about racism. You don’t need to bother posting anymore comments because I’m done publishing them.
Boy you’re really sticking it to those pointy-headed intellectuals with their book-learnin and their musical theatre.
Personally I like the Mechanic. It’s something different from either green glass skyscrapers and 20s era lowrises. But it’s been empty for going on 5 years, and it was low end retail prior to that, so I don’t know that a 30 story tower is going to improve anything. If no one can come up with a good use for it, I’d prefer to see it leveled and turned into a park, but there’s no money in parks.
Wow, it’s pretty upsetting that you would outright reject the historical value of a mid-twentieth-century building. History didn’t stop in 1890. And what’s with the cheap populism? “Regular people” can look at architecture and think meaningful thoughts about it – they’re not stupid.
If we got rid of all the Brutalist buildings in the world, it wouldn’t change the way you go about your daily life, but it would erase a creative vision that was valued in a specific place and time for reasons that are important for us to understand today. If we destroyed all the Gothic cathedrals in the world it wouldn’t change your daily life either, but you would consider it a devastating loss for the world’s cultural heritage.
We consider Gothic cathedrals beautiful now because the Romantic movement in the early 19th century revalued them. For centuries before that they were considered hideous piles of rocks…sound familiar? We have no way of knowing how the aesthetic sensibilities of future generations will change. The goal of historic preservation is to keep a representative sampling of these structures (whether they please our taste or not) vital and structurally sound so that people can actively relate to this part of our past.
As an empty shell the Mechanic isn’t doing much to that end, but I don’t think it’s outlandish to demand better for a city landmark.
Another architect heard from. Thanks.
uh, I’m definitely not an architect. That’s what I’m saying: I like weird buildings and try to visit them and learn about them. Does this disqualify me as a regular person?
It’s ugly. Let someone else preserve another “brutalism” example. Oh, maybe there is none because any example of brutalism would be ugly and the other folks had enough sense to not preserve their example if they ever had one.