Corning, NY, between 1950-2000, experienced a unique combination of corporate-sponsored patronage of art and architecture, ground-breaking historic preservation that became the basis for the nationally acclaimed "Main Street Model," and extensive urban renewal, both before and after a deadly 1972 flood caused by Hurricane Agnes. Corning, Inc., and is predecessor, Corning Glass Works, provided a unique catalyst by investing tens of millions of dollars not only in new corporate and museum structures, but in municipal buildings and urban renewal plans as well. They brought to Corning internationally-acclaimed architects, including Harrison and Abramovitz, Robert Geddes (GBQC), RTKL, SOM, Gunnar Birkerts, Sasaki, Louis Sauer, Davis Brody, John Milner, Thomas Phifer, and Kevin Roche. At the same time, corporate leaders founded the Corning Museum of Glass, now the most important museum dedicated to the art of glass in the world, and then the Rockwell Museum, a nationally-affiliated museum of American art.
Based on extensive archival research using collections from across the U.S., and interviews with dozens of professionals and local citizens, this book for the first time details the contributions of not only well-known corporate players, architects, preservationists and urban planners, but also of early women activists who overcame opposition to build a grass-roots preservation ethos that lay the groundwork for the historic preservation which made Corning a national model. Illustrated with dozens of historic photographs detailing buildings both lost and saved, and hundreds of references which place Corning's struggles and triumphs in perspective, this volume provides unique insights into how what was in 1950 a small industrial city beat the odds to successfully transform itself into a unique American "home-town" and global art mecca.
