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by Jill Robinson
Mon, August 27, 2007, 8:00 am PDT

Karen Gadbois and Laureen Lentz

The size and scope of Hurricane Katrina sent New Orleans residents across the country, and many still want to return. But without a house, it's not an easy task.

With Squandered Heritage, Karen Gadbois, Laureen Lentz, and Sarah Elise Lewis banded together to track lists upon lists of demolitions for the community—sometimes being the first to tell homeowners that their homes were on the chopping block. They've spend countless hours at citywide meetings, scanning through documents, photographing homes, and helping their neighbors rescue the unique heritage of the Crescent City.

In the midst of all their work, the trio still had time to share what inspires them and what they love about New Orleans.

What made you decide to start Squandered Heritage?

Karen: To capture our city as it was Post Katrina. Then tell the story of demolitions and the impact of loss.

Laureen: I met Karen at a small soirée last August. Architecture has been a lifelong passion since my teenage years in Chicago, and one reason I love New Orleans. Our streetscapes provide an enchanting background for the mundane routine of daily life and work. I was beginning to become concerned about the impact of the demolitions on our historic districts, and was already taking photos of hand demolitions done before Karen and I met. So the partnership was a perfect match. Read the full profile...

by Trystan L. Bass
Fri, August 17, 2007, 8:00 am PDT

Does grocery shopping feel like just another chore? Maybe that's because today's big-box retailers and discounts stores have lost the kitschy charm of 1950s architecture and sleek 1960s modern styling.

If you miss the pre-prefab Safeways or perhaps you're lucky enough to have a vintage Luckys down the block, you may want to join David Gwynn and the legion of "groceteria" fans who swap photos and stories about charming Winn-Dixies and A&P markets.

Gwynn's site combines well-researched history with a dash of nostalgia, a small dose of irony, and a lot of love for the days before cookie-cutter strip malls overtook America. We caught up with David in between shopping trips to see what's new in the land of old stores.

When we reviewed your site way back in 2001, you were living in San Francisco and hunting down the few '60s-'70s era Safeways left in Yahoo!'s neck of the woods. Now you're in North Carolina. How does the grocery landscape compare?

Everything is a lot cheaper. And the lines are a lot shorter. And here, we have liver pudding and Cheerwine freely available in all stores.

But as far as history—which is my primary focus—goes, there are a lot fewer old stores here. In California, land is so expensive that it's often more economical to work with the same old space you're already in rather than try to build a new store. That's not the case here, though. Thus, it's really hard to find vintage stores still in operation here. But you still run across one here and there.  Read the full profile...

by Molly McCall
Fri, July 06, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

Before the notion of separating church and state took root in the U.S., "meeting houses" that combined both dotted the New England landscape. Built by townships, often paid for by taxes, and home to Sunday morning sermons as well as weekday commerce, these handsome structures played a central role in states like Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Photographer Paul Wainwright has devoted himself to capturing large-format portraits of these buildings today. In many of the pictures, he shoots the meeting houses in black and white, capturing their strikingly modern look against the sky and clouds. In others, he uses color to highlight their gleaming white clapboard walls. In all of them, he conveys the classically American look of the design. As Paul says, "There is something moving about a structure that has long outlived the community to which it was familiar, surviving lonesomely in a new age, the life of which it has no part." May these photos help the meeting houses to find new community and worldwide respect.
by Jill Robinson
Tue, July 03, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

Every other year, World Monuments Watch makes a list of the 100 most endangered sites in the world. In compiling the roster, experts consider the significance of each site, the urgency of the threat to it, and the viability of a solution. Many of these places have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but that doesn't protect them from erosion, abandonment, development, weather damage, or from being loved too much—by tourists. Spin the globe and learn about our endangered cultural heritage. Start with these seven wonders and the causes that threaten to wipe them from our map.

  • Giant stone Buddhas in Bamiyan, Afghanistan—erosion, human destruction
  • Missions of Chihuahua, Mexico—abandonment, exposure to the elements
  • Rock art of Dampier, Australia—industrial development
  • Machu Picchu in the Urubamba Valley, Peru—development pressure, unchecked tourism
  • Historic neighborhoods of New Orleans, United States—hurricane damage, limited resources
  • Farnese Nymphaneum in Rome, Italy—biological attack, rain and flood damage
  • Historic sites of Kilwa, Tanzania—rising sea, coastal erosion
by Molly McCall
Wed, March 28, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

Shutterbugs from around the world have flooded this Flickr photo pool with images of locations past and present. We know structures and sky lines change over time. Yet, the evidence of their development or decay—or both—still provokes a thrill. Some of the portraits capture city avenues blitzed with natural disaster in one year, and blissfully serene decades later. In others, the earlier days reveal evidence of human habitation, while the latter ones expose a surprising ebb away from it. We liked many of the threesome shots, like the building that went from school (1910) to garage (1981) to private residence (2007). Rest easy, dear home. After all that change, it's also lovely to see parts of the world where the hands of time have yet to work any change whatsoever.


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