The annual Top 10 list of endangered Minnesota buildings was released last week, and it gives you an idea what the world would look like if architects ran People magazine.
Out with the Sexiest Man in the World; in with the Hottest Tuck-Pointed Cass Gilbert Rehab.
Most of this year's endangered buildings aren't sexy or monumental, and one looks like a six-holer outhouse so fragile it would collapse if you gave it another coat of paint.
Doesn't matter; they're lonely, undervalued examples left behind by time and tastes, and as someone sympathetic to the cause, I'd like to see them all saved.
Two suggestions for next year's list:
• Suggest some buildings that aren't endangered, but should be. Unless immediate action is taken, these buildings will continue to stand. I'd nominate the Walker Art Center -- every time I look at it I think there's a 900-foot tall robot somewhere who's looking for its head.
• How about a movement to preserve the architecture of the '50s and '60s? Every year we lose another unloved modernist box, and most of us don't care: We grew tired of the style, and it looks bland and unadorned to modern eyes. (Possible reason: It's bland and unadorned.)
Rather than save a 19th-century barn, let's preserve the used-car building on Penn and 66th in Richfield. It used to be a classic '60s fast-food joint, and we don't have many of those left. Besides, it looks like a barn, so everyone would be happy.
We are doomed to rip down what we regard as common and old, and then we miss them 20 years later. The annual list is a good reminder to treat our architectural heritage with care and respect.
Until the Metrodome makes the list, that is.
Got a suggestion for a building that should go? Continue the discussion at www.startribune.com/buzz.
