Present: Matthew Bronski, Jack Glassman, Sarah Gray, Patrick Gutherie, Jean Marie Hall, Marie Helms, Susan Hollister, Lisa Howe, David Kalman, Julie Klump, Doug Manley, Henry Moss, Ivan Myjer, Brian Roche, Deane Rykerson, Susan Schur, Jonathan Smith, Kim Sykes, Catherine Truman, Rita Walsh, Eric Ward, Sara Wermiel 1. MIT Bosworth Massachusetts Avenue Dome Restoration: Matthew Bronski & Eric Ward announced the tour of Einhorn Yaffee Prescott's recently completed restoration of the grand domed entrance hall at MIT to take place on the following afternoon with John Canning, Andrea Gilmore, and A. J. Martini's project manager on site to discuss their cleaning and repair of the interior stone, artificial stone, ceiling plaster, faux bronze aluminum railings and other challenging interior finishes, and skylight. 2. Restoration/Renovation Conference: Lisa Howe and Henry Moss asked that volunteers who could occupy the APT/Northeast (and DOCOMOMO/New England) booth contact Lisa at Goody Clancy. The conference is from March 21 to March 23 from 11:00 AM- 6:00 PM at the Hynes Convention Center. 3. Mostar, Bosnia: Catherine Truman presented an exceptionally moving and cogent description of this embattled city, its concentrated ethnic enclaves, topographic divisions, symbolic connectors (The Bridge), shell torn neighborhoods, houses open to the street or sky, grand churches in one slide, rubble in the next, ancient engineering masterpieces arching over rivers, soon to be tumbled blocks of stone amid new eddies and currents, taxi drivers and graffiti in a desolate no man's land lined with ruins left unreconstructed as an admonition to its attackers who see it from across the river, lovers at desperately cheerful street front cafes, proud survivors in their balconied homes, both wretched and intelligent efforts to house refugees and rebuild entire blocks of the old city. The immediacy and concreteness of Catherine's delivery made Mostar feel next door to us. Catherine has been in the region for two extended periods working and studying. Her primary interest in Mostar was to understand the urban and social context for the development of housing. She has taught studios based on the subject at the BAC and produced an exhibition of striking photographs for the BSA that is now on view. Catherine has a BBC-produced video about Mostar that was too long to integrate into her presentation to us, but that she owns and is willing to lend. 4. Save Fenway Park: The new owners of the Red Sox have hired Jean Marie Smith, who was involved with the planning and design of Camden Yards, to evaluate rehabilitation proposals for Fenway Park. Work by Zapata & Wood, Charles Hagenaugh and his students at Roger Williams will be part of the mix. Rehabilitation will certainly depend on a $100 Million investment in infrastructure improvements by the City and State. If there were no help forthcoming, then the Red Sox would almost certainly look at selling the site to finance a new stadium on a new site. Henry suggested that the Committee's Honors and Awards Committee (Eric Ward and Laurie Soave) consider "Save Fenway Park" as recipient of the 2002 BSA Preservation Award. 5. New England Conservation Forum: The committee applauded the previous month's presentations and technical arguments with regard to the introduction of new masonry repair products and the evolution of their formulations and applications through testing, field trials, and longitudinal studies which may be spotty and few. The arrival of HCT provokes a new phase of deeper consideration of how we select, specify, and monitor new products. Ivan Myjer's hopeful skepticism, Jean Marie Hall's appreciation of the convenience of burying grounds as long term test sites, and the vivid explication of masonry treatments by professionals and skunk works artisans since World War II were masterful. The committee asked that the New England Conservation Forum organize a future session (Fall 2002), perhaps on hydraulic limes in mortar, standard classifications and high calcium formulations, and related material. (Ivan thought Judy Selwyn and engineer John Wathne attended the recent conference on traditional lime mortars in Virginia, but no one at the meeting had gone.) 6. Spring Party for Erstwhile Historic Resources Committee Leaders: Sara Wermiel and Henry have begun to plan an evening get-together to honor former committee chairs Bob Neiley and David Hart sometime in the spring. We will discuss this at the next meeting. Future BSA Historic Resources Committee Meetings: The next meeting will feature Gary Hilderbrand talking about preservation issues and Modern landscape architecture. See Gary's beautiful, affordable book (Spacemaker Press, Landmarks 09) on Dan Kiley's 1950's masterpiece, the Irwin and Xenia Miller Garden in Columbus, Indiana. 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, March 14, 2002 Focus Topic: Gary Hilderbrand on preservation issues and Modern landscape architecture The Architects' Building, 52 Broad Street, Fifth Floor, Boston |