The Baroque city palace in the St. Johanns-Vorstadt in Basel has proved in the recent restoration, treasure chest. Under centuries-old layers of the original substance came to light and revealed a surprise: The house is older than previously thought.

The architectural design interested visitors will quickly establish in Basel, the city known as architecture capital of Switzerland, not only promotes modern building, but also maintains a careful handling of their historic buildings. Obvious example, the facades: Where dominate in other cities long ago modern and functional window shutters – which most historic buildings is visually detrimental unfortunately – in Basel, the original glazing and shutters kept and restored. “It is indeed the case,” said Dr. Thomas Lutz, Adjunct conservator of Basel, “that we promote the protection zone in the preservation of old windows and Vorfenster. But even with the population there is a tradition of preservation and care, so many historic districts are very well preserved. “

A treasure trove that makes the heart beat faster every conservator, Thomas Lutz did recently when he was invited to the evaluation of a baroque palace in the suburb of St. John, the house at the hospital Faesch road. “The property has indeed been around since the forties, under protection,” he says, “but we had this time to do so little, as it is since the end of the 19th Century, family-owned and was structurally nothing has changed. “This also lacked a detailed inventory. When Thomas Lutz entered the house about three years ago for the first time, he noted with pleasure that the building – up to a few, was conditional mode simplifications – get integral. The only downside was the modernization – that is commonplace – two upstairs rooms and the courtyard side of Pompeii salons. Deprived of its former glory, this room does, in contrast to the richly painted and seldom ausgetä other salons a bit miserable impression. Pragmatically, the new owner of the space has therefore painted white and fitted out the temporary office. He is a definite lover of old buildings and has made it his task to find objects such as the Baroque city palace to buy and renovate together with the preservation of monuments.

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This week, the highlight is the fence pier of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, built in 1904 and demolished in 1950, with the exception of this one lone artifact. The fence pier, on Swan Street, is all that remains of Wright’s masterpiece, what was considered by architecture critic Henry-Russel Hitchcock to be “the most important building ever demolished in the 20th century.”

The pier was an obscure piece of urban archaeology until local Larkin buffs, among them Jerry Puma, succeeded in 2003 in seeing the pier restored to some semblance of its original state. Prior to the restoration, the few Wright experts in the know were chipping away at the pier to get their own souvenir of the Wright icon. The fence pier, not actually a pier of the building, but a pier of the fence that surrounded it, was perhaps a tangible enough connection to the complex to merit, in their minds, such incremental acts of destruction.

Here’s a ponderous thought for our readers: Why was this fragment spared? When everything else was smashed and pummeled, why was this left behind? One wonders… did the demolition contractors step back, after destroying a world-significant artwork, and seeing that all that was left was part of a fence, decide to keep this solitary remnant for future generations to rediscover? Is this the only evidence of their sense of guilt?

Or are these questions too charitable? Is the real story that the contractors simply ran out of money after expending far more than they ever imagined to demolish what was meant to last for centuries, and said “the hell with it” when the job was nearly finished?

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Commentor David Steele, a writer for Buffalo Rising and architect in Chicago, underscores what may be a preservation dilemma in the potential restoration of what was dubbed Larkin Station #6 in the mail-order company’s property inventory – if, as time goes by, such an opportunity emerges. In this unique preservation case, there is the potential to restore both a highly-intact, rare 1960s metal panel facade, or to unveil and restore an even earlier, and more rare, 1929-30 Art Deco facade.

Here’s the problem, according to Steele: a decision would have to be made that would involve either removing a retro 1960s facade that has itself gained historical value over time, or continuing to hide what may be an older, and potentially more interesting facade of Roaring Twenties vintage. The 1960s facade has real value, as Steele points out. It is the sort of pop architecture that is evocative of Route 66 and the highways and biways of America’s forgotten hinterlands, about which many writers and photographers have devoted significant interest in recent years.

The question is a happy one. Inherent in the seeming dilemma is the reality that there may eventually be an opportunity to restore at least one of the facades. That’s a good thing. The former gas station has been vacant for as long as many current high school students have been alive. It’s a miracle it still stands, given the mixed record of preserving interesting buildings in the Hydraulics.

Time will certainly tell. Gas stations, as building types, have yet to gain considerable traction as targets of historical preservation, especially in cities where landmarks of arguably greater significance are still at risk. But as things continue to look up in the Hydraulics, finding a reuse for this unpolished gem of roadside architecture seems not too unlikely a possibility.

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