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Present: Mark Almeda, Fred Atherton, Matthew Bronski, Chelsea Dekis, Taya Dixon, Marilyn Fenollosa, Robert Fulmer, Jack Glassman, Chris Hanlon, David M. Hart, Erin Hester, Wendall Kalsow, David Kelman, Jacquelin McBride, Doug Manley, Henry Moss, Ivan Myjer, Elizabeth Randall, Laurie Soave, Susan Schur, Jonathan Smith, Sara Wermiel, Tim Withers, and Gary Wolf 1. Boston City Hall, 133 Federal Street, and the BSA/DOCOMOMO_US/New England List of Significant Post-WWII Buildings in Boston: Boston City Hall A discussion about the Mayor's proposal to sell City Hall and move to a new building in South Boston quickly revealed the need for further exchange on this complicated, emotional topic. It was suggested to separate the issue of the building's preservation and continuation of local government in the present location. Erin Hester and Jackie McBride spoke about the difficulties of maintaining the building, the highly programmed use of City Hall Plaza, the frequent uses of meeting spaces by neighborhood groups, the difference between the darker public spaces on the lower floors of the building and the brighter offices above. Erin suggested that our committee ask Andy Hudak to speak to the long term maintenance problems posed by the building and City Hall Plaza. Jack Glassman, who worked in City Hall for six years, pointed out that the upper floors were designed as open plan offices. When these floors were reorganized to provide cellular offices around the perimeter, HVAC distribution and lighting were compromised. Gary Wolf said that "We don't have the civic life that the building is meant to inspire." Users must make their way past metal detectors and the main entrance is locked early. It is received wisdom that the building is too difficult to alter. Jack noted that the building might be preserved even while the surrounding plaza was altered, like the space around a medieval cathedral. Sara Wermiel suggested that ideas from the earlier committee dedicated to solving the various problems of City Hall Plaza and relocating the MBTA station be examined again to see if good ideas were abandoned prematurely. Henry wondered if the New Congress Street elevation could be opened to the sidewalk and activated by new uses. Kallman's rathskellar is an almost forgotten dream. Based on this discussion, the committee will write to the Boston Landmarks Commission affirming a strong interest in sensitive treatment of the building and the plaza and supporting alterations that may be profound in terms of the public's experience but that remain consistent with the most significant elements of the original design. The spatial problem of City Hall Plaza and users' hostility to the lower floors seem to be the most critical aspects of the discussion. List of Significant Post-WWII Buildings Henry told the committee that the BSA Board had written to the Mayor about their concern for important Post-WWII buildings and had attached a list that the BSA HRC and DOCMOMO_US/New England had compiled to help the BRA and BLC predict which sites, in our opinion, deserve special consideration. [Six weeks later, this letter and list were finally sent. The list is now being distributed directly to the Boston Preservation Alliance and to the staff of the BLC. Our committee will devote a meeting later in the spring to the subject of Government Center. The BLC has accepted a petition by the Christian Science Church to make the Christian Science Center a Boston Landmark. Consider the difference in public perception of this concrete precinct and of Government Center… ] 133 Federal Street, Blue Cross-Blue Shield Headquarters (1956) Jonathan Smith and Henry raised the subject of 133 Federal Street, the finely scaled Paul Rudolph headquarters building for Blue Cross-Blue Shield (1956-1960). The 13-story office building is to be removed for Steve Balkin's 1,000 foot tower. Henry suggested that committee members visit the site and prepare to defend it against pressure from the Mayor and some of the architectural community, who will be very excited to have another Renzo Piano Building Workshop design in Boston (The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Harvard University have RPBW plans at different stages of development.). [It is extremely important that the Rudolph building not be harmed in advance of some development initiative that may not come to pass… Look for an article on this building by Professor Timothy Rohan in the March 2007 edition of Society of Architectural Historians Journal.] 2. Sustainable Preservation-Masonry Insulation Case Study: Following up on a talk to the HRC by Sean O'Brian of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger about three years ago, Henry Moss and Laurie Soave presented Bruner/Cott's Blackstone Street project: an adaptive reuse of industrial warehouse buildings and their site for Harvard University Operational Services. The project has applied for LEED Platinum certification, but it is especially interesting for the client's insistence that no point should be "chased or bought." The presentation focused on the controversial insulation of mass brickwork from the interior using low density polyurethane foam. The illustrations showed Icynene application, after paint was removed from the interior surface of brickwork and the exterior had been repaired, repointed and caulked. The design team's intent was to create a dependably continuous air barrier, a minimum wall R-rating of 12, a minimum of cold bridging with interior finishes, and moisture management at window openings. Consigli Construction Company installed a design that set steel studs 1" away from the inner face of the brick wall, then applied just under 3" thickness of Icynene, with thinner coatings at timber beams where they enter the wall. Icynene adhered to the bricks and overlapped a couple of inches of each steel stud, avoiding a thermal bridge, providing continuity for the air air barrier and keeping the wall cavity on the warm side of the assembly. The wall cavity was unvented, but the overall wall section is intended to provide an opportunity for drying in both directions. Bruner/Cott worked with Professor John Straube of Waterloo University and with Thompson & Lichtner on different aspects of the design. Straube's laboratory did dry cup permeance tests on 2.5" thick Icynene samples and found results of 21-23 perms. Henry and Laurie compared this result to 2.5-6 perms for primed and painted GWB and 4" thickness of old brick at 2-10 perms. Tyvek is about 57 perms. Bob Heywood of Thompson & Lichtner assisted Bruner/Cott with flashing solutions at window openings. Thompson & Lichtner also ran a WUFI analysis that showed that the existing painted brick surface acts as a vapor barrier. Bruner/Cott did not want water vapor to be blocked in either direction. The insulated walls are expected to stay wetter for longer periods, but not to absorb more water. There is no evidence that the number of freeze thaw cycles that the insulated walls will experience should increase significantly. Part of Bruner/Cott's concern was that direct sun might drive moisture to the inside of the buildings when they were being air conditioned, and therefore drying to the interior must not be stopped. Bruner/Cott submitted a temperature, humidity, and moisture monitoring proposal to Harvard, but it has not been funded. The architects plan to pursue grant assistance for monitoring projects, because of their realization that a reliable quantitative basis for decisions about moisture management in insulated masonry in cold climates is very difficult to find. The Canadian Home Mortgage Corporation has published a number of research probes into less promising techniques for wall insulation, which are encouraging but largely anecdotal. John Straube has about 10,000 monitoring devices out in the world now and we should all follow his Waterloo University Building Physics Department's research activities. His commercial partner in Building Science Consulting, Joe Lstiburek is local to us in Westford, MA (978) 589-5100. Marc Rosenbaum of Energysmith was Bruner/Cott's team member who led the overall approach to sustainable design for the project. The design includes a complex stormwater management solution based on separation at the point of capture and phytoremediation of hydrocarbon-affected runoff; geothermal wells for heat rejection; operable windows with valance unites for heating and cooling; and other strategies for energy management and enhancement of environmental quality. [Laurie will deliver another version of this case study at NESEA on March 15 in concert with architect Steve Rooney, who will speak about his firm's work at University of Vermont with an historic timber frame structure, Debvoise Hall.] The committee's questions included whether the insulated wall would need more provision for expansion and contraction than it had historically. 3. Pinebank and Franklin Park Colonnade: Ivan Myjer brought the committee back to a material plane by passing around a cream-colored terra cotta brick with an ornamental relief from Pinebank. This led to a question about the date when terra cotta was installed as part of the column capitals at Kings Chapel. Margaret Henderson Floyd had surmised that these might be the earliest known use of terra cotta in New England, but some of our committee thought they could be a later insertion of substitute material. Ivan also urged people to go see the beautifully carved capitals of the dismantled colonnade in Franklin Park, now that they are on the ground. As each of these weighs about 4 ½ tons, they are unlikely to be stolen-unlike 20 granite stones recently taken from the (re)construction yard at Lee's Bridge in Lincoln. Ivan says he has seen no better carving in the United States.
4. Tours: David Hart and Matthew Bronski are developing an exciting tour and mini-symposium at Strawberry Banke with Kimberley Alexander for a Saturday in mid-June, with presentations about the construction and design of buildings from their collection. Matthew is hoping to persuade Jim Garvin to take part in the day's events in some way, as in 1963 he was instrumental in transforming Strawberry Banke from a paper corporation to a 25-building physical reality, as well as running a one-man salvage operation each morning during the dawn hours in advance of a phalanx of efficient wrecking machines. [See A Building History of Northern New England, James L. Garvin, University Press of New England, 2001.] Henry, Gary Wolf, Jon Smith (and others from DOCOMOMO_US/New England) have begun to talk to Sarah Kelly at the Boston Preservation Alliance about leading information-laden tours of Post-WWII Architecture in Boston. [Meanwhile, can anyone suggest good books or articles that will help people not trained as architects or architectural historians think about the buildings of this period? This ain't the International Style and the design intent of architects such as Paul Rudolph, Pietro Belluschi, and Kallman McKinnell is unintelligible to many people, especially the Brutalist buildings. An interesting outcome of this lack of initiation is that peoples' emotional responses are pretty direct.]
8: 00 a.m., Thursday, March 8, 2007 Featuring Wright-Locke-Hamilton Farm, Winchester including a brief tie-in with a CPA/Schools debate Susan Keats and Matthew Bronski
Henry Moss, Matthew Bronski, and Sara Wermiel co-leaders and scribes
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