An interesting analysis of the White House can be found at
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/08/subs/08_b05.html

They give Harry (and the people who were actually responsible for planning
the renovation) a little more credit than you do. The alternative was to
tear it down before it fell down, which makes it relevant to contemporary
cases.





                      Ron May
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                      >                        cc:       (bcc: Vergil Noble/MWAC/NPS)
                      Sent by:                 Subject:  Re: How Do You Feel About Gutting an Historic Building?
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY
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                      06/21/2005 01:24
                      PM AST
                      Please respond to
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY





Vergil,

The building permit is in the planning process, but the staff were only
seeking comment from the Historic Resources Board, not the public
stakeholders. I
think someone in management challenged staff and sought to "dodge the
bullet"
by sending the case to the board for their opinion. This is pretty common
in
California land development, to seemingly override staff opinion by seeking
a
hearing board opinion. The only architect on the board agonized over the
"facadectomy" but caved-in to pressure from the developers and their
lawyers. I
suspect the same team whined to department management that staff unfairly
considered the gutting of the building a significant adverse effect and
tried to have
management say it was ok.

As to President Truman, American probably was in a time of war when he
ordered the White House gutted. He was a really difficult person and
probably saw
historical matters from a very narrow viewpoint. I do not consider this to
be a
relevant example for historic preservation anywhere else in America because
of
the special circumstances.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.