Central Market, as you’ve never seen it: Linked in to York County, Pa., history, June 7, 2013
Creativity Unleashed, Spelling bee, Wright Bros. & preservation
‘The First Supper” is opening on First Friday in York, Pa., tonight. The glasswork will be shown in Rudy Collective’s exhibit, ‘The First Supper.’ That exhibit features a variety of media from woodwork, mosaics and stained glass to light fixtures, birdhouses and sculptures. That’s York’s Central Market visible through the stained-glass panel, which places the exhibit at 38 North Gallery, 38 N. Beaver St. Also of interest: York artist illustrates Creativity Unleashed.
Rudy Collective’s spokesman Steve Mitchell told ydr.com that the goal of the group is to attract local visitors as well as architects and design firms.
He explained that potential clients will be invited to tour the space to keep pieces in mind for upcoming projects. It could turn into an economic development tool.
So the Rudy Collective is another in a series of initiatives to add to a growing arts district in the Beaver Street area of York.
Neat stuff from all over … .
Site work is continuing on the old Wright Bros. Lincoln Mercury lot, as developers get ready for a Hampton Inn and no doubt a restaurant.
This is the site that planned for and then unplanned for a Red Robin.
Tom Warman is a thoughtful observer of the local scene.
He raised interesting questions about local preservation a few weeks back:
“Within the last year, I had the opportunity to do some environmental work at two recently demolished landmark buildings in the York area: the Meadowbrook barn and the former Wright Bros. Lincoln Mercury.
“The loss of Meadowbrook has been decried, but I doubt that any tears were shed over the demolition of Wright Bros.
“Yet both were built for very specific purposes, both were commercially successful for many years, and both had been empty for years, victims of the Great Recession. So why no outcry over Wright Bros.?
“The interesting thing to me was how distinctive they were on the exterior—what the public sees—and how unremarkable they were in the interior—arguably, their functional space or raison d’etre. (In fact, Wright Bros. looked cheap and almost shabby.)
“So why was one mourned and not the other?
“Why was only one deemed worthy of preservation?”
I replied:
“Tom, I think long and short was that Wright Bros. was believed to be new or modern and architecturally not significant vs. the barn. That’s how I saw it and probably true of others.”
He got back to me:
“I think it goes to the classic question of which is more important: form or function?
“In this case, the form of Meadowbrook won out over the form of Wright Bros., as both were negligibly functional.
“If so, when does the determination of a building’s worthiness shifts from the owner who, most likely, owns a building for what it can do (its function), to those who may never have even been inside a building and can only value it for what it looks like from the outside (its form)?
“Or is it another illustration of your “agriculture versus industry” historical tension?
“It is interesting to think about , especially here in the rich culture of York County.
“Please feel no need to respond to these questions. I had fun just thinking about them and writing them down.”
‘How good is your spelling, York County’ is a fun look at a special type of spelling bee.
