Aren't there a few egregious examples of this worth noting in NYC. I
remember being told that NYU has gutted the interiors of an entire row of
splendid houses on the north-east side of Washington Square Park, putting
modern offices behind the retained facade. And the wings of the Villard
houses on Madison, behind St. Patrick's, I believe, were likewise gutted
and refitted when the Helmsley Palace Hotel was built on the site of the
central portion, which, incredibly, in response to the preservationist
furor that met the Hotelier's plans, includes several public rooms that are
recreations of some that were lost in the demolition.

Most bizarre of all  is the announced plan of the New York Mets to recreate
the facade of Ebbett's Field (of Sainted memory) as a shell around the
modern stadium they are building in Flushing Meadow- like Ebbet's Field got
lost in the space-time continuum for 40 years and accidentally found its
way back one Borough over!

Maine, also, suffers terribly from this practice, if only on numerous
attractive 18th and early 19th Century residences that populate our
countryside. Some of the best-preserved looking houses I have been in turn
out to have been almost completely gutted and "modernized", with not even a
trace of the original floorplan evident.

Bruce