PRESERVATION CORNER
Endangered Public Art and Landscapes
.
Saved! Renewal Project at Last Underway
back issues
for Allegheny Commons in Pittsburgh
tesy of TCLF
Reborn as a part of Pittsburgh’s 1967 urban renewal project, Photo Cour
John Ormsbee Simonds’s Lake Elizabeth sits within the city’s
oldest mapped parkland, Allegheny Commons, and signi- aims to communicate the impor-
fies the place of modernism on the landscape’s 200-year tance of design elements from
timeline. A master plan for Allegheny Commons will help the recent past, allowing them to
renew its signature features, including Lake Elizabeth, which take their place alongside their
have suffered from neglect and deferred maintenance. picturesque ancestors. For more
Representing a century of landscape design, the master plan information, visit www.tclf.org.
Seymour Fogel Mural under Threat in Austin
A public mural by American painter, muralist and sculptor
Seymour Fogel (1911–84) is under grave threat in Texas.
Fogel began his mural painting career as an apprentice
to renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and later
worked under the auspices of the federal Works Progress
Administration. In 1946, Fogel accepted a teaching posi-
tion in the fine arts department at the University of Texas
and joined the vanguard of Texas artists who comprised
the Texas Modernist Movement. In 1954, Fogel was award-
ed a commission to paint a ten-by-thirty-foot mural for vation Project.
the American National Bank in Austin. Now known as the
Starr Building, the former bank and the mural are currently
owned by the Permanent School Fund of the State of Texas
and administered by the General Land Office. Recently the
building was “moth-
balled” for potential
tesy of Seymour Fogel Mural Preser
sale to the private sec-
Cour
Austin National Bank Lobby, 1956.
vation Project.
tor. Due to its prime
tesy of Seymour Fogel
downtown location
Cour Mural Preser and lack of historic
Commission, PO Box 13497,
Seymour Fogel’s Austin National Bank
designation, the build-
Mural, 1954.
Austin, TX 78711. For more
ing and mural are information, contact Toni Turner,
both at risk of destruction. The Fogel Mural Preservation THC Development Officer at
Project was founded to raise the estimated $500,000 512/936-2241 or toni.turner@thc.
needed to safely remove, restore and relocate the mural. state.tx.us, or Robert Summers,
Contributions can be sent to Friends of the Texas Historical Project Director, at 512/657-2371.
110 www.modernismmagazine.com