Slated For Demolition

As a member of the LA Conservancy, I get notices of buildings that have design or architectural significance that are slated for demolition.

As an active developer, I don't like people telling me what I can or cannot do with my property.

I was on a panel discussing urban planning and I will never forget one panelist telling the crowd: "You can't save everything" And I agree with that.

Having said all that, it is amazing to me that cities and municipalities don't realize the significance and importance these types of buildings have for their respective communities.
Case in point: the city of Long Beach.
Ugh!
Slated for demolition:"Designed by prominent African American architect Roy Sealy, the hotel was completed in 1963 and originally called the Edgewater Inn. The large site features two sprawling zigzag guest room wings originally housing 200 hotel rooms. These two-story buildings are symmetrically arranged to create partially enclosed courtyard spaces and offer each room a courtyard or ocean view. A separate building houses the public components, including the hotel office, restaurant and lounge spaces, and meeting rooms.

Although the complex suffers from deferred maintenance and later additions, the buildings maintain a high level of architectural integrity, with distinctive features including unique Y-shaped piers supporting a diamond-patterned roofline of the main building; a folded-plate roofline of a circular office wing; decorative concrete block screens; and original diamond-patterned metal railings."

Talk about a diamond in the rough.

Sometimes cities are like the homes I buy; most of the authentic integrity that made the homes so great in the first place has been ripped out to make way for some gross Home Depot remodel.
Hopefully Long Beach realizes what it already has.