I am one of the few people I've ever talked to who loved Edward Durell Stone's home for the art collection of A&P heir Huntington Hartford. Passing the enormous mass of Vermont marble, I always felt as though I were in a quarry, watching a Venetian palace being sculpted from the mountainside. It's elegant arches and simple lacy touches seemed to draw Lincoln Center further south into Clinton and the Theatre District. The gentle curves of its unusual facades were sensual and calming. It's lack of windows gave me a great sense of mystery and curiosity.
When it was announced the building, neglected for decades, would be torn down, my heart sank. But the Preservation Commission scurried for Landmark status and won. Architect Brad Cloepfil kept the shape of the building, but relinquished a lot of its boldness, replacing the marble with glazed terra-cotta and a LOT more glass. There is something safe about the redesign that troubles me. It is a mild nod to post-modernism, with some interesting detail, but not the kind of building it once was or could have been.
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