Jonathan Eller, Director of the Bradbury Center at IUPUI is not quite on the same page as fans who are upset that Ray Bradbury’s house has been demolished.
While Eller was commenting here yesterday —
I share the feelings expressed by Donovan, Brian, and all the rest of you who are saddened by the loss of the Bradbury home and his enchanting basement office.
— KCRW reports he was writing this to architect Thom Mayne who owns the property:
I wanted to thank you for the care you are taking with some of the “bones” of the Bradbury home, which I understand will be reworked into wood projects in the future. I also want to let you know how pleased I am that you are planning a home for your family on this historic lot. I think Mr. Bradbury would be glad to know that an architect owns the property (he was a lay visionary in urban architecture who occasionally worked with Jon Jerde on projects in the 1970s). He also worked with young writers in much the same way that you have taken time in your distinguished career to teach and encourage young architects. It’s sad to see the Old Yellow House go, but there is also great promise in this new beginning.
I think you might like to know that we are re-creating Mr. Bradbury’s basement office here at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies on Indiana University’s Indianapolis campus (IUPUI). Through a gracious gift of artifacts by the Bradbury family, we now have the papers, working library, office furniture, and many of the awards and mementos from the Cheviot Drive house. It’s a bit of a logistics and funding challenge, but we make a little progress every day.
In the station’s post “Ray Bradbury Center Supportive of Mayne’s Changes to Bradbury’s Former Home” Eller is further quoted as telling Design & Architecture (DnA) host Frances Anderton, “an abiding interest in the history of this property will carry on with the new owner.”
DnA says an interview with Jonathan Eller, as well as architect Thom Mayne and his wife and partner Blythe Mayne about what they plan to do with the site, will air soon.
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Maybe the architects will be inspired by the previous occupants to design a house based on a Hugo Award, which would then on to draw the ire of the rest of the neighborhood. Landscape with some red sand, and the artistic vision would be complete.
As far as I’m concerned, Bradbury survives in his books. The physical environment in which they were created is… meh. (“meh” seems to be the modern version of “I don’t give a damn”, amd that’s what I mean here.) Mind you, I think some/many of his books are quite silly, but… they’re there.
And maybe you wouldn’t visit the Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia — we still have flags, too.
Betsy Ross had a house?
I’ve visited Mark Twain’s house in Hannibal, and the Joseph Preiestly House in Pennsylvania. There may have been others, but they don’t come to mind. Your house doesn’t count, I take it.