I do salute KSI for planning to tear down this eyesore, of course, but the market now and for the indefinite future precludes spending any money on this undertaking.

The most troubling fact is that local historical groups have run out of stuff to preserve. All of the old-time stuff is either preserved or gone.

So now we are reaching back into the recent past for “treasures” put up during a time in America’s history where architects seemed to not care a bit about a building’s interaction with its surrounds (modernism).

I find it not a far stretch that the next candidates to preserve might be the old Maryland Motors building on the pike, or perhaps some condo built around 1984 in college gardens.

I invite a look at:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29830

I’d like to thank Cindy and Rockville Central for posting this excellent summary of the outcomes of the Pink Bank charette. I participated in the public comment phase on Saturday, and I enjoyed meeting the team of U of M School of Architecture faculty and students and exchanging ideas with them and with my fellow Rockville residents.

For myself, I wholeheartedly agree with Cindy that the Pink Bank is too good a structure not to save. Yes, its style happens to be at a nadir of popular acclaim right now–four decades seems to be the danger spot, when a style is most deeply out of fashion. But rent the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” and you can see the first wave of nostalgia beginning to build–Leonardo DiCaprio’s character would look right at home strutting out of our Pink Bank with a flight attendant on each arm.

The swinging 60s look the PB embodies and evokes so well will come back, and in time will come to be part of our accepted library of treasured styles–or it will, that is, if it’s given a chance.

I also agree with the charette students that adaptive reuse is a real possibility for this building. This is not an either-or case in my mind: it doesn’t have to be a question of saving the PB preserved in amber on the one hand, or knocking it down on the other. The happy medium would be to adapt the building to a new and vital role in our downtown while preserving the style and design cues that create its terrific period feel.

I personally feel this is both technically feasible and financially viable–and that the charette students offered some valuable ideas as to how to achieve those ends.

Thanks to the professors and students at at U of M for giving so generously of their time and expertise, to Peerless for organizing the event, and to the current owners, KSI, for observing the exercise with good will and an open mind.