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Present: Jack Alvarez, Olga Bachilova, Bart Bauer, Matthew Bronski, Cynthia Chabot, David Coe, Leslie Donovan, Marilyn Fenollosa, David Fixler, Jack Glassman, Sarah Gray, Jean Marie Hall, Susan Hollister, Kimberly Konrad, Arthur MacLeod, Doug Manley, Henry Moss, Deborah Robinson, Lance Robson, Brian Roche, Susan Schur, Leigh Seifert, Jonathan Smith, Laurie Soave, Stacey Thomas, Eric Ward, Sara Wermiel 1. Satanic Mills: A recent Tour of Historic Textile Industry Structures in Great Britain: Sara Wermiel presented images of over two centuries of large structures raised to enclose equipment and workers for the rapidly concentrating, then mechanizing textile industry in Scotland and England. Structures from the Stroud region of Gloucestershire in the Nailsworth River valley and from New Lanark in Scotland, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, were unusually striking in Sara's intimate illustrations and illuminating observations about their physical and social contexts. C. F. Bodley, more noted for his Victorian ecclesiastical work, was the author of a striking textile mill building. Sara wangled her way into an early 19th century mill with an extraordinary cast iron internal structure of wishbone columns and foundry designed spanning elements. It was interesting to see the shed dormers of our Rhode Island mills thoroughly at home on British roofs, and strange to learn that it was economic to move weavers under a single roof (good-bye cottage industry) well before their looms were driven by water power. 2. ArchitectureBoston Topics: Elizabeth Padjen confirmed that the editorial board of ArchitectureBoston is prepared to build their March 2002 issue around historic preservation themes. Please send ideas to Elizabeth Padjen, Editor, ArchitectureBoston (see enclosed announcement). Elizabeth is looking for ideas for all sections of the magazine: the roundtable (topic and possible participants); feature stories (topics and/or potential writers); photo essay; interview subject; "Two Views" (point/counterpoint essays); book reviews; a building for the "Other Voices" essay on the last page. A list of "hot topics" in the field as well as the people who are considered to be at the cutting edge of preservation thinking would be helpful. Copies to Henry Moss or Sara Wermiel would be appreciated. 3. Save Fenway Park: Save Fenway Park, the advocacy group that spans two millennia, is in their fourth embattled year but hanging tough. The Mayor is adamant in his support for a new stadium, meanwhile the historic ballpark is up for a Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) study report as the result of a petition for listing as a Boston Landmark six years ago. This might become a situation where the Commissioners vote to list the ballpark and Mayor Menino exercises his veto. One theory is that the Red Sox has launched the proposal for a new park to enhance the value of the club in order to sell it. They are still searching for privately raised funds required to unlock the infrastructure funding support from state and local government. 4. Revised Energy Code: When he visited the March committee meeting, Wagdy Anis said now that Article 13 is revised, he and David Weitz are now working with a group on changes that will affect Chapter 34 of the Massachusetts State Building Code. He expects the revisions to exempt solid masonry from insulation requirements. This is meant to discourage the introduction of vapor barriers and plasterboard finishes on the interior surfaces of heavy brick construction, as these walls should be able to dry towards the interior during the winter. 5. St. Aden's Church, Brookline: A group of local residents is pressing the Brookline Historical Commission for a study report on this disused Catholic church. Designed by McGuinness in 191, this modest building was Rose Kennedy's church, with associations to John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his siblings. The former congregation has been shifted to St. Mary's a couple of years ago. The Archdiocese is seeking to raze the church and redevelop the site for affordable housing. Committee members who attended Carol Ann Nelson's talk on brownstone work at the Providence Cathedral, noted her observation that the church where JFK and Jacqueline Bouvier were married is one of the two least threatened of the fifteen churches in the Providence area. The other is the Cathedral. Historic religious properties are under increasing pressure today, in spite of growing sensitivity to their problems by state grant program officers. Carol observed that when condition assessments show the cost of necessary maintenance and repair projects to be high, this adds to the denominations' determination to take them out of circulation, then demolish them. Housing redevelopment proposals make it more difficult to assemble political support for the retention of the religious buildings. 6. Brownstone Conference: Many architects and engineers have been humbled by their encounters with Triassic Sandstone's entropic alacrity and the mysterious mechanisms it employs to blow itself apart. A half dozen enthusiastic participants of the conference organized by Susan (Technology and Conservation) Schur, and Ivan Myjer voiced their approval of the mix of attendees, the involvement of quarriers and masons and the esoteric exchanges among experts, with Norman Weiss' lifting his usual cocktail of provocation, contradictory experimental examples, and stand-up comedy to a transcendent level. Moisture seems to wreck many examples of this stone even in locations where freeze-thaw cycles are unknown. Stone performance seems to depend on geomorphology, quarrying techniques, curing, cutting and bedding planes, architectural details, mortar, a number of exposure variables, and maintenance. For those who cannot get enough of the intellectual stimulation and practical punishment afforded by this stone, wait for John Wiley's coming reprint of George P. Merrill's 110 year old articles from Stone and a new edition of the long out-of-print The Building Stones of America for another hit. [Should we arrange an Historic Resources Committee visit to Mike Meehan's Portland quarry in Chester, Connecticut?] 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, May 10, 2001 The Architects' Building, Fifth Floor 52 Broad Street, Boston Henry Moss, Matthew Bronski, and Sara Wermiel, Co-Chairs |