Frank Lloyd Wright's Banff Pavilion could be rebuilt.

[Calgarian]

Looks like there is growing interest in rebuilding this long lost FLW building, one of only 2 built in Canada. It was never the nicest building and looked kind of out of place, but is fairly significant nonetheless.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...uilt-1.2434406
http://www.banff.ca/index.aspx?NID=487

[Chadillaccc]

Ohhh sweet!

[Calgarian]

It really is a shame we lost a building from the guy that is arguably the most famous Architect ever. I wonder if it would have affected the path that design in the town went.

[Airboy]

It would be nice to see this gets redone. I believe the last new FLW building was completed in 2007. The Fontana Boat House in Buffalo.

[Tropics]

I love heritage buildings and if this thing still existed I would be first in line to fight to see it preserved.

But it is gone, it was destroyed over 3/4 of a century ago and less then 30 years after it was constructed. It was not even popular with the people in Banff at the time it was built.

You cannot "rebuild" it. The original materials are gone, the building is gone. You can build a identical copy but I question that having much historical value. The architect may have been tremendously famous and people might look back and wish the thing still existed, but it does not. I myself think it would be great if the original still stood, if it did and was in need of repairs then I would be all for that, but building a copy of the original? Meh. I see little point TBH.

If the great pyramid was destroyed or the Great Wall of China was destroyed that would be a huge loss and building a carbon copy would not erase that loss. The originals have value "because" they are the originals and they ARE actually from the past and actual artifacts of history that were built by long gone people from a long gone era.

[Daveography]

^ What's more important, though, the building itself, or the design? Wright designed the building, but didn't build it himself; what's wrong with bringing the design back to life? The building would be no less unique, as it would still be the only one.

As for historical value, that is something that is built up over time. If it was rebuilt today, do you think that 100 years from now people will write it off as "oh, it's only a re-creation of the original." How many historical or ancient buildings that stand today were themselves re-creations after the originals were destroyed by fire, raids, war, etc.?

[Tropics]

Originally Posted by RTA

As for historical value, that is something that is built up over time. If it was rebuilt today, do you think that 100 years from now people will write it off as "oh, it's only a re-creation of the original."

It would certainly be relevant that what "would" have been a 200 year old building is in fact a 100 year old building.

Originally Posted by RTA

How many historical or ancient buildings that stand today were themselves re-creations after the originals were destroyed by fire, raids, war, etc.?

Some. If a building that was built in 200 BCE was destroyed in 100BCE and then rebuilt in 50 BCE then that still makes the rebuilt building ancient by todays standards and as such it would still have historical significance by it's own merits and not the building it recreated.

Buildings that are recreated or rebuilt recently that replace ancient buildings certainly do not replace the buildings that were lost when it comes to the sense of history that comes from actually walking through a structure that was built during the time when the Roman Empire was at it's peak.

There is something to be said about touching a wall that someone 2000 years ago also touched. There is something to be said about holding a coin that is 2000 years old that someone else who lived in an entirely different world then us once held. The recreated building loses a lot of the wonder just as holding a reproduction of one of those coins simply is not the same.

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by Tropics

There is something to be said about touching a wall that someone 2000 years ago also touched. There is something to be said about holding a coin that is 2000 years old that someone else who lived in an entirely different world then us once held. The recreated building loses a lot of the wonder just as holding a reproduction of one of those coins simply is not the same.

But again, if it was recreated and allowed to build its own history again over time, it would also be allowed to build up that same sense of wonder of its own. As time passes, the fact that it was a re-creation of the original would lose significance as it establishes its own "mythos", and that fact would diminish from collective memory.

[harryc]

This gave me a chuckle

Although the town’s residents had unanimously proposed a multi-use winter sporting facility with curling and hockey rinks, Wright and Sullivan designed a prairie-style picnic shelter.

Looks sweet

[Design-mind]

Wow I had no idea that F.L.Wright built anything this far North. Will be interesting to see if this gets rebuilt.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Airboy

It would be nice to see this gets redone. I believe the last new FLW building was completed in 2007. The Fontana Boat House in Buffalo.

Frank Llloyd Wright was truly a great American architect, if not a tad too arrogant and obsessive. I hope the Banff pavilion gets re-done.

here's The Fontana Boat house (used to store row boats/equipment by the century old West Side Rowing club)

by Peter Swiatowy on Flickr

another posthumous re-creation is the Blue Sky Mausoleum in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery. http://www.blueskymausoleum.com/

FLW designed many buildings in Buffalo, the most important two being the 15,000 SF Darwin Martin House, and the Martin summer estate (Graycliff)on the shore of Lake Erie in the suburbs (Derby, NY)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...d_Wright_works