"This is a crime scene"

Another MCM landmark bites the dust in Dallas. Click thru for the after pictures -- they'll make you sick. Sez Unfair Park:

"The neighbors knew something was up yesterday: Workers were in and out of the building, removing whatever they could salvage. But no way did they ever imagine that come 8 a.m. today that 2505 Turtle Creek Boulevard would be only an address -- a patch of land atop which now sits a pile of twisted metal and busted bricks that used to be an office building designed by the late Harwood K. Smith. "It's a crime scene," said one devastated neighbor this morning, surveying the wreckage cordoned off by yellow 'Caution' tape."

I keep thinking that one day people will wake up to how they are cavalierly destroying America's Mid-Century architectural heritage. But when they do, how much will we have lost?

Mike Wallace Online at the HRC

Before there was 60 Minutes, there was the The Mike Wallace Interview. Broadcast journalist Mike Wallace's interviews from the television program which ran for two seasons in 1957 and 1958, will be available online on the Web site for the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

You can now watch interviews with Mid-Century luminaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvador Dali and Steve Allen. The only downside is you have to download their Media Player to few these. Still, I'm going to wear that thing out. I can almost smell the cigarette smoke now.

One Man's Trash

I've always contended that the Dallas-Fort Worth area is better for finding MCM furniture than most people on the coasts might think. However, sometimes that ain't always true.

Consider the Hans Olsen table and chairs above. When he lived in NYC, my friend J found a set like that left out on the street for the trashman. Something that cool would never be out by the side of the road around here. The Big Apple got us beat there.