You haven’t heard from me lately because I’ve been out of town for a couple of weeks. When I got back, probably the best thing waiting for me in the stack of accumulated mail (alongside the pile of bills) was the latest newsletter from PAC*SJ, the Preservation Action Council of San Jose.

The Fall 2008 newsletter (PDF) is exactly the kind of thing I joined PAC*SJ for. It has an update on the organization’s efforts to work with the SJ redevelopment agency to make a survey of the city’s mid-century buildings as they begin to achieve historic status, notes from a meeting on the fate of Mountain View’s historic Hangar 1 blimp hangar, a list of endangered historic buildings, and articles on the former San Jose Martin Luther King Library and on Brutalist and Googie style buildings in the San Jose area.

Most importantly, the city of San Jose is planning to demolish the 1970 Martin Luther King, Jr., library building. Although many people would currently think of this building as merely dated and not historical, in fact there’s several reasons to think we’ll regret it if we demolish the building. It was the largest public building constructed by the city when it opened, and is an example of the brutalist style that was prevalent during a period of major growth for the city. For a more detailed argument for saving this building, see the newsletter.

If you’re interested in preserving San Jose’s (and the South Bay’s) architectural history, you should consider supporting PAC*SJ by taking an affordable membership, or at least check out their newsletter.