Bayfront Smokestack
sent October 16, 2005
Dear Editor:
A recent letter by C. Barbato characterized the bayfront smokestack as having "long outlived its time." Is the writer commenting that the smokestack, once attached to a coal-fired power plant, is no longer funneling toxins into the air?
The former Front Street Station smokestack rises 120' , in comparison - the Washington Monument is 555' tall. Our stack's impressive masonry work is interrupted with an arched window that faces the bay - a nice perch for Rapunzel. Barbato writes that this structure has no architectural merit or "aesthetic value." At least one authority disagrees. Last May, while participating in the seminar on The Role of Historic Industrial Architecture in Erie, Youngstown University Professor (and President of the Ohio Chapter of the international Society of Industrial Archeology) Mr. Thomas Leary, noted that the former Front Street Station smokestack is an important visual element of the waterfront's built environment.
Barbato concluded stating "...there are people who drive by it, and don't even know what it is." This is hardly a lucid argument for demolition. Erie would be empty if we knocked down whatever could not be identified by passing drivers.
Avoid unnecessary - and costly - destruction. Retain the smokestack as a legacy of Erie's industrial past, and make use of it's powerful form for the continued revitalization of the bayfront.
Sincerely,
CIVITAS
A recent letter by C. Barbato characterized the bayfront smokestack as having "long outlived its time." Is the writer commenting that the smokestack, once attached to a coal-fired power plant, is no longer funneling toxins into the air?
The former Front Street Station smokestack rises 120' , in comparison - the Washington Monument is 555' tall. Our stack's impressive masonry work is interrupted with an arched window that faces the bay - a nice perch for Rapunzel. Barbato writes that this structure has no architectural merit or "aesthetic value." At least one authority disagrees. Last May, while participating in the seminar on The Role of Historic Industrial Architecture in Erie, Youngstown University Professor (and President of the Ohio Chapter of the international Society of Industrial Archeology) Mr. Thomas Leary, noted that the former Front Street Station smokestack is an important visual element of the waterfront's built environment.
Barbato concluded stating "...there are people who drive by it, and don't even know what it is." This is hardly a lucid argument for demolition. Erie would be empty if we knocked down whatever could not be identified by passing drivers.
Avoid unnecessary - and costly - destruction. Retain the smokestack as a legacy of Erie's industrial past, and make use of it's powerful form for the continued revitalization of the bayfront.
Sincerely,
CIVITAS
