Architectural highlights

The grey house with multi-hued radiating green stripes features an arched roofline that breaks midway through its curve and returns to a flat profile, creating an angled clerestory window that lights a dramatic twenty-foot high living space.Rectilinear windows jockey for position among arches and curves. It’s a brainy rumination on sun, landscape, and the adjacent bridge. Venturi and Scott Brown’s work is always provocative, but the old joke is that their most interesting buildings are the ugliest.

Threat

The new owners of the Giovannitti House are in the process of extensive restorations. They purchased the Abrams House when it went on the market following Betty Abrams’ death and immediately filed a permit to demolish. Interiors were immediately gutted following the sale, but prior to the nomination for Landmark status. The exterior remains intact and no further demolition can occur until the nomination has been reviewed. A city Landmark designation will nullify the Snyder’s demolition permit, but even then, they are only obligated to maintain the exterior of the structure. Any changes they wish to make would need to be approved by the review commission. Even with Landmark status, the property could still be demolished if someone makes a convincing case that the review commission approves. The Snyders are not willing to preserve the property but have offered to donate it so that it can be disassembled for storage or reconstructed elsewhere. The question now is how to finance the deconstruction and whatever follows.