Four historic buildings in Midtown are endangered, with their owners seeking demolition permits.

Worse yet, the owners plan to replace the buildings with nothing but vacant lots for the foreseeable future.

MARIA SAPORTA/AJC (ENLARGE)

The Georgia Tech Foundation wants to tear down the classically designed Crum & Foster Building at 771 Spring St., built in 1926. The proposed demolition is one of four that are opposed by historic preservationists.

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The proposals are strongly opposed by many, who vow to take every measure to prevent the demolition of our history.

Both proposals also run counter to the broad-based vision for Midtown as described in the powerful plan known as Blueprint Midtown.

The four buildings include a 1926 office building on Spring Street and three homes, dating to 1905, on Juniper Street near Fifth Street.

The most controversial proposal is the Georgia Tech Foundation's plan to tear down the Crum & Foster Building at 771 Spring St. The classically designed building was the home of the first national insurance firm to open a regional office in Atlanta and helped establish Atlanta as a regional headquarters town.

The building also was one of the first architectural joint ventures between local and national architects. The New York firm of Helmle, Corbett and Harrison worked with the Atlanta firm of Ivey & Crook to design the elegant, three-story building.

It's ironic that Georgia Tech is proposing demolition. Both Atlanta architects Ed Ivey and Lewis Crook were graduates.

In fact, as a Tech student Ivey led an effort to start an architectural program at the engineering school. The architecture department was founded in 1908.

The Tech Foundation's demolition proposal is spawning dissension within Georgia Tech's ranks. Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of Georgia Tech's architecture program, sent an e-mail to community leaders stating her opposition.

The foundation bought the building at the end of last year as a way to hold on to real estate for possible future growth. The building was occupied until the foundation's purchase but it is now vacant.

John Carter, president of the Georgia Tech Foundation, wrote in an e-mail that "after a renovation assessment, the foundation determined that it was not economically feasible or prudent as a fiduciary of foundation assets to bring the building to the standards required by state and federal building codes."

Long term, the foundation sees the property as a site for expansion of its award-winning Tech Square development, but Carter acknowledged there are no specific plans.

The three homes proposed for demolition are owned by Saint Mark United Methodist Church. The church recently sold land it used for parking, and it wants to tear down the three houses so it can put a surface parking lot on the site.

At some point — church officials don't know when — the property could be redeveloped to expand its ministry.

Both projects will be presented at the Midtown Neighbors Association Land Use Committee meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Peachtree Street.

Committee Chairman Tony Rizzuto said he and others are willing to help Georgia Tech and Saint Mark work on solutions that would save the buildings.

"Officially, the Midtown Neighbors Association is against the demolition of historic properties and the creation of vacant lots," Rizzuto said, adding that in both cases, future development on those sites is not guaranteed. "And once you've taken down a historic structure, you can't bring it back."

Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, said he would like to see all the buildings preserved and adaptively reused. "Do we really need more surface parking?" Coons asked.

The Rev. Jimmy Moor, Saint Mark senior pastor, said the church has its needs. But he said he is open to exploring other solutions.

"It is not the desire of Saint Mark to hurt the community that we've been part of for 105 years," Moor said. "We would be thrilled to talk to anybody who has possible alternatives for us. We want to be good neighbors. We would like it to be a win-win."

Ray Christman, interim president of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and chairman of the Peachtree Corridor Partnership, hopes "the two extremely valuable Midtown institutions" will reconsider their plans.

"Any proposal that would replace structurally sound historic buildings with surface parking lots would be a real tragedy for Atlanta," Christman said. "If you were to create a list of really bad ideas for 2008 in the city of Atlanta, these two proposals would be at the top of that list."

Let's hope Georgia Tech and St. Mark will listen to community and civic leaders and work to integrate these four historic buildings in our future.