Midcentury Modern Building in Lexington, Kentucky Faces Looming Demolition

This midcentury modern building, which stood as the Peoples Bank in downtown Lexington, Kentucky since the 1960s, may be nearing the end of its days, unless donations start pouring in to move the building to a new parcel of land in the Rupp District.

To advance the preservation efforts, The Warwick Foundation has stepped in and committed $300,000 to move the building to its new location, where it would become the Peoples Portal, managed and maintained by the foundation. 

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray also supports saving the building from demolition and has proposed a budget of $150,000 to partially pay for moving the commercial structure to its new location. But with one week left in the new deadline, and nearly $250,000 needed in donations, the structure is all but wiped out of Lexington’s future.

Completed in 1962, and designed by Charles Nield Bayless of Bayless, Clotfelter, and Associates, the turquoise building with its distinctive roofline is one of the last remaining structures of its kind in the area. Its destruction would mean yet another cultural-historic design that would be lost to the city’s residents.

A 9,000-square-foot, two-story Krikorian Premiere Theatre will replace the 1960s bank at South Broadway and West High Street in downtown Lexington.

For more on the building and donating to the preservation of this midcentury modern architecture, visit The Warwick Foundation’s website.