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Saturday
Oct302010

"A Necessary Ruin" - Union Tank Car Dome

Trailer #1 - Excerpt

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A lost architecture is a historical tragedy, one we can’t allow to happen time and again. The science to the Union Tank Car Dome is an architecture marvel. It was an architecture that was as advanced as it looked, an industrial vision and engineering wonder.

The Union Tank Car Dome originally engineered by Dick Lehr and introduced to Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller for implementation. The dome was tucked away deep in the Baton Rouge woods and demolished in late 2007. A year before the official papers for historical preservation were issued, Kansas City Southern Railway silently orchestrated the demolition.

As the railway standards and train car sizes changed the dome was deemed obsolete. The possibilities of what the dome could have been are now a distant memory. We can only hope that we learn from our mistakes and in the future protect our achievements. 

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