Daily digest: The Brady Bunch house is for sale, Charlotte’s Polk Park is now demolished, and other news

Happy Friday! As the much of Canada and the Northeastern U.S. come out of a smoke-filled week that drew comparisons to Bladerunner 2049, AN has news on a park demolition, corporate ESG (environmental, social, corporate governance) approaches in architecture, the Brady Bunch house, and a new video profile of Julie Bargmann.

The Brady Bunch house in Los Angeles is on sale for $5.5 million

While the interior scenes of The Brady Bunch were filmed on a stage, the house featured in the opening shot of the blended-family’s California house is in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood. The residence, a ranch-style home with a single gable, is now for sale for $5.5 million after a major renovation led by HGTV stars and the actors who played the Brady children on the sitcom.

The renovation to make the home a near replica to the one depicted in the 1970s television show cost $1.9 million, and involved the addition of 2,000 square feet and the construction of a second level. Prominent architectural elements of the set’s design have now been realized, including the stone fireplace, the “floating” wooden staircase, and furniture and decorative objects were matched. (Don’t forget Mike Brady was an architect.)

According to the listing, the house is second most photographed in the country—following only the White House. It goes on to call the house “a collector’s dream.” While many of the furnishings and decorations come with the sale, the listing mentions that the fireplace and some appliances are for decorative purposes only.

HKS announces carbon neutrality

HKS has announced that it is a carbon neutral business, a step toward the global firm’s goal to be net zero. The firm hopes to eliminate operational carbon from all of its design work by 2030, and it further endeavors to reduce its net carbon emissions from business operations to as close to zero as possible.

“I am proud of our firm for prioritizing this effort by adapting our business practices to address critical environmental challenges that impact future generations,” said HKS President and CEO Dan Noble. “Our goal as an organization is to enhance communities and the lives of people.”

To achieve, this the firm worked with sustainability consultants, including Nebraska-based Verdis Group on a system for tracking and analyzing carbon emissions. HKS also worked with Cloverly on a “portfolio dedicated to carbon offsetting through carbon avoidance and carbon removal.”

Following a vote for its demolition, Charlotte’s Polk Park has been razed

As previously reported by AN in March, Charlotte, North Carolina’s Polk Park faced demolition after the City Council voted for its razing. The public space featured a 30-foot-tall manmade waterfall and reflecting pool designed by Danadjieva & Koenig Associates in 1986. The vote authorized the park to be replaced with a new one that will be named after Bank of America executive Hugh McColl.

The terms of the measure, calling for the park’s demolition, stated “the park should be demolished as soon as public engagement is complete.” Now, group and individuals that have been leading the charge to save the park from this fate, including The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) and Mecklenburg Historical Association, are speaking out saying that no public engagement occurred between the vote and the start of demolition in late May.

Charlotte’s Shame – Was Polk Park Legally Razed? – the @CLTCityCouncil voted “the park should be demolished as soon as public engagement is complete” – but there was NO public engagement. A city spokesperson said there was. Turns out, that’s NOT TRUE: https://t.co/QVOIxzXwRw pic.twitter.com/4cStke2Gxy

— The Cultural Landscape Foundation (@TCLFdotORG) June 6, 2023

TCLF published an article on its website chronicling the demolition that asks “Was Polk Park legally razed?” On its website, the City of Charlotte shared its intentions for the landscape, saying that the overhaul “will include preserving and relocating some features” of the park. Preliminary work is expected to complete in July, after which the site will be graded and resurfaced for its new use. A project architect will be named in the near future, and project completion is expected for summer 2025.

A new video from The Cultural Landscape Foundation documents the life of landscape architect Julie Bargmann

In other TCLF news…the foundation has announced a new video in its series Pioneers of American Landscape Design. The oral history documents the career and professional practice of landscape architect Julie Bargmann, who was the inaugural recipient of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, an award from the TCLF honoring an individual who has made a significant contribution to field of landscape architecture.

The profile on Bargmann is the eighteenth program in the series, which TCLF started in 2003. The video consists of 25 one- to five-minute video clips under themes of “biography,” “design,” and “projects.” Bargmann, who has taught at University of Virginia and founded the studio D.I.R.T. (Dump It Right There) has focused her career on post-industrial sites and other derelict locations. The video compiles archival imagery from Bargmann’s youth, while also featuring footage captured on-location  of projects in Philadelphia and Detroit, and at her home in Charlottesville, Virginia.