Tear it down! It's so ugly! ( No save that building. It's historic and pretty. It would be a shame if we tore down such a neglected building. )

People say that all that time about buildings. Today, it is trendy to banish the buildings of the 1960s as ugly, outmoded, and inefficient. In the 1960s, it was trendy to demolish buildings from the 1920s and 1930s as being ugly, outmoded, and inefficient. Now we say save those buildings—they're historic and have character.

I don't understand why people get so riled up about the Howe Library windows. First installed in 1920s, they are old and inefficient and contaminated with asbestos. Indeed, the whole Howe Library is old, small, inefficient, and would be probably cheaper to replace with a modern 1 or 2 story building then it would be to renovate it. So why don’t we just tear it down?

People are excited about the prospects of tearing down the Troy City Hall. They say the building is ugly and outmoded. They say it has no value to keeping that building, and it would be cheaper just to move Troy City Hall into a new building and demolish the old.

Why is brutalist architecture seen as inferior as turn of the century architecture? Many of buildings of the 1950s and 1960s were quite technologically advanced for their time and have distinctive features. Indeed, brutalist buildings like Troy City Hall are in far more danger of being demolished then some of the older buildings in the South End.

The Historic Albany Foundation seems quite upset about relatively minor modifications to so-called “valuable” buildings, but has nothing to say on it’s website about the significant renovation of the historic Empire State Plaza, that when completed, will forever alter the Albany skyline. The entire Llenroc façade (brown rough rock) is going to be replaced with granite, due to safety concerns.

Sixities-era architecture is trash to the preservationists. Buildings that are decades older then that are considered wonderful, even when they are in terrible condition and are incredibly energy inefficient. The Knitting Factory is unique, but not Troy City Hall.