from www.gcbl.org

Bauhaus at the brink

Currently we are slated to lose a large modernist building in our Northeast Ohio community, The Ameritrust Tower designed by world-renowned Bauhaus-trained architect, Marcel Breuer with Hamilton Smith in 1967, and completed in 1971 as the Cleveland Trust Co. Building. Recently, permission was granted to raze the 36-year-old, 29-story, 280,000 square foot building in downtown Cleveland.

The decision to not reuse the building has raised questions about what constitutes an historic landmark, and what environmental responsibilities we share when it comes to demolishing or reusing buildings.

Artists, architects, and the sustainability community have an opportunity to discuss and consider the intersection of landmarks and green buildings, historic preservation and modernism in architecture.

A series of educational events with opportunities for dialogue on these issues will take place here in Cleveland this fall:

• Bauhaus in America: a film by Judith Pearlman followed by a panel discussion with Cleveland architect, Peter Van Dijk and Associate Professor of Art History at Kent State University, Carol Salus, moderated by Christopher Diehl, Director, Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.
At the Cleveland Cinematheque. $8 general admission/$6 CIA students, staff and Cinematheque members. For more information, go here.
• What Would You Do With The Breuer Building? (from Ingenuity 2007) will be displayed in the hallway of the CIA Building for those who missed it or would like to view it again -the show features 27 entries from Australia to Italy with several local architects offering innovative thoughts.
  At the Cleveland Institute of Art