Facadomy is generally not accepted as a suitable preservation practice for historic buildings because it does not protect all of the elements that make up a building’s significance. The result of facadomy is tokenism that literally protects one side of a place’s history. Buildings are conceived in three dimensions and so it follows that if they are significant, they should be retained in three dimensions. Protection of the whole building is far more meaningful than protection of the building’s “parts.” When designation of the Palm Springs International Airport was being considered by the City Council, they opted to protect only the front facade...Now the same strategy is being considered as a “compromise” for the designation of the Oasis Commercial Building. Isn’t it time for this town to join the real world?
Check out the new book on Facadomy. There are some really interesting case studies on the issue, and also about why Facadomy has been used by Postmodernist to repurpose modern architecture for a new market.
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