Prairie Skyline Foundation

How the Movie "Cars" is about Preservation and Restoration by Wood Window Makeover.com on Friday, November 26, 2010 at 9:01pm Sometimes inspiration comes when you aren't looking. My Mom and Grandmother were here from Texas for Thanksgiving Day and once the festivities ended we put on a movie - The Disney/Pixar now classic Cars. My mom had never seen it, my boys love it and I just think it contains a great message.    So this time as I watched it for probably the 100th time - I saw something new. If you've seen it you know the theme.  A hot shot race car named Lightning McQueen gets lost on his way to the other side of the country and finds new friends that change his perspective and give him a new take on life - a better take. He starts off self absorbed but discovers that relationships mean more than winning a race. Another theme though is the restoration and preservation of what is lost through progress. Lightning finds his way to an almost for...

Architecture and Music - It's Personal from Confessions of a Preservationist by landmarkblog@gmail.com (The Landmark Society of Western New York) Architecture is Frozen Music... Perhaps you've heard about that quote, from late 18th century writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe elaborated, by suggesting that architecture produces the same "tone" or effect in your mind as music. But what about the reverse? If architecture is frozen music, does that mean music is liquid architecture? Are there connections between architecture and music - or more specifically, historic preservation? Folks at The National Trust for Historic Preservation have given this some thought. Their forum list discussion resulted in contributors building a playlist of songs that refer to the designed environment. Called "Songs of the Preservationist," it's a fun read, and amazingly varied - everything from traditional songs (Little Old Sod Shanty on the claim o...

Now we will never know if the Wayne/Palace Hotel's supporting walls were structurally sound.  In the above floor plan of the fourth floor, areas shown in red are the wooden structures that let light in to all three floors.  These are not made like the exterior walls  that are six bricks thick. Now we will never know if some falling brick on the south side meant do some masonry repair, or loss of structural integrity. Now we will never know if Metro Plains would have been successful if they had tried a third time with the new state historic tax credits and/or different funding sources. Why?   Because Polk County turned down an offer of a free structural assessment from a structural engineer from the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. When we drive by on US Highways 2 and 75 and look at that ugly corner, let's remember: What if the County had replace the roof and cleaned out the building, and put up a for sale sign 10 years ago? What if the County had...

The Prairie Skyline Foundation and Preservation Alliance of Minnesota (PAM) were disappointed to learn last Thursday that Judge Michael Kraker denied their request for a temporary injunction to halt demolition of the historic Palace/Wayne Hotel in Crookston. Prairie Skyline and PAM had filed suit against the City of Crookston, Polk County, and the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) as a last-ditch effort to save the endangered building, which anchors Crookston’s commercial historic district. The building is a contributing structure to a designated historic district; under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act, an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) is mandatory for such properties before they can be demolished in whole or in part. In June, the City and County requested and received an “emergency waiver” from the EQB, allowing them to avoid the preparation of an EAW. An EAW would have required public consideration of alternatives to demolition. In his decision, Jud...

A person walks pass some of the murals painted at a closed building along Dexter Avenue in downtown Montgomery, Ala., on Friday, Oct. 1, 2010. (Montgomery Advertiser, Lloyd Gallman) Downtown revitalization must include historic preservation, expert says By Jill Nolin • October 11, 2010 age Downtown revitalization was once talked about because it wasn't happen­ing. Now, it's being talked about because it's actually taking hold in Montgomery. Montgomery's success, to date, in re­vitalizing its downtown is a major focus of the annual Alabama Preservation Conference that started Thursday and ended Saturday. Some of the sessions have offered analysis and commentary on what steps led up to the rebirth that sparked on the riverfront and is starting to push into the rest of the downtown area. "I tell you, you are doing the right things in Montgomery, Alabama. It's not there yet, but it's never there," said Don­ovan Rypkema, who is an inte...

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