Present: Bill Barry, Matthew Bronski, Michael DeLacey, Marilyn Fenellosa, Jack Glassman, Patrick Guthrie, Donna Harris, Tarica Harris, Randi Holland, Lisa Howe, Amy Cole-Ives, Richard Jarvis, Wendall Kalsow, David Kelman, Julie Klump, Laura Mackowiak, Doug Manley, Henry Moss, Brian Roche, Susan Schur, Malcolm Smiley, Jonathan Smith, Malcolm Smiley, Jonathan Smith, Eric Ward, Sara Wermiel 1. Reconciling Historic Structures and Green Adaptations: Goody, Clancy & Associates' rehabilitation of the McCormack Building on Post Office Square, for the General Services Administration, includes new office space for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the project could become an important site for testing solutions that mediate between sustainability and thoughtful preservation of historic interiors. Sara Wermiel launched a discussion of buildings both green and historic. The United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED rating system may inadvertently encourage demolition tendencies (sending historic windows, siding, and wall finishes to the landfills). LEED rating points gained for reuse of existing components (e.g., windows, roofing) don't necessarily equal the points to be gained from replacing them with more energy efficient modern components. Jonathan Smith noted that his firm has experienced LEED's new construction bias and has found it in the reports and feasibility studies produced by other firms for a green rehabilitation of an 1880's university building. On this building, the LEED point system didn't adequately credit the life cycle value of a new, historically appropriate Vermont slate roof (with a 100 year life expectancy) compared with a new "green" roof (with a 20 year life expectancy). A recent evaluation of the LEED Life Cycle Assessment Methods conducted by the U. Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems and funded by NIST confirmed Jonathan's observations of the lack of rational basis for some of the life cycle methods and points of LEED: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/gcrs/02836.pdf Randi Holland noted that there are Federal mandates for improving the "sustainability" of existing (often historic) buildings that encourage insulating external walls even though this could cause decay in situations where dew points are shifted into the thickness of a masonry wall. Even some of the staunchest advocates of green building concerns admit that the LEED rating system isn't perfect, but believe it's a start and will evolve into something better with continued revision. In the meantime, environmentally-concerned institutional clients look to the LEED system for existing buildings as a way "to be green," while equally environmentally-concerned designers working on rehabilitation projects, who see the specific shortcomings of the rating system and the unfortunate decisions it can inadvertently promote, find it a source of great frustration. A working draft of the LEED-EB, rating for existing buildings, can be found at: http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/existing/leed_existing.asp Henry Moss suggested that the HRC pursue this discussion in greater detail during the coming months. [It was apparent that a number of practitioners who are not focused on sustainability are unfamiliar with the LEED rating system and its increasing use by institutional building owners.] 2. Reconciling Historic Structures and Affordable Housing (MGL Chapters 40C & 40B): Marilyn Fenellosa of the National Trust for Historic Preservation/Northeast Office presented an outline of the confusing (and often vicious) conflict between municipalities and developers who seek to override local development control, including historic commission review, by including affordable housing in their proposals. Chapter 40B is the Mass. law that allows local Zoning Boards of Appeals (ZBA) to approve housing developments under flexible rules if at least 25% of the units have affordability restrictions. "Affordable" is defined as being affordable to households with incomes of no more than 80% of the median income of a particular area. Chapter 40C allows cities and towns to establish historic districts and historic district commissions. Chapter 40A is the state zoning law. Local zoning and historic commissions can control and review such matters as density, massing and height limits, and materials, colors, unsympathetic additions, etc. - controls that a 40B project could seek to have set aside. Marilyn frequently fields questions from local historic districts commissions asking whether 40B "trumps" 40C. Both these laws have legitimate, noble purposes for the public good. Marilyn implored us to work with affordable housing advocates and not against them. Both morally and strategically, this is a battle the preservation community probably cannot win and should not fight. In the interest of facilitating the permitting and approval process, 40B allows the developer "one-stop shopping" at the ZBA, rather than having to go before several individual town bodies (e.g., Historic District Commission, Conservation Comm., etc.). The ZBA is charged with hearing testimony and recommending stipulations from each of these town bodies, then incorporating the suggested stipulations and restrictions, as appropriate, in the final permit. Marilyn believes this process can work well for all interests. Preservation and environmental advocates need to translate their concerns into thoughtful and effective permit stipulations, present these convincingly to their local ZBA, and then see that these are incorporated into the final permit. Convinced that this permit approval process is reasonable and legally sufficient, the National Trust and other preservation agencies have recently decided to leave the legislation unchallenged while educating and urging preservation and environmental advocates to hold their local ZBA's feet to the fire. There is no reason why conditions that improve site plans, building sizes and shapes, and materials cannot be attached to permits. While some developers will argue that any condition compromises the economic feasibility of their proposals, standards of reasonableness should apply. However, there are notable instances where developers are using provisions within regulations created by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development that go beyond the 1969 40B statute in their attempt to break through "snob zoning" in towns where less than 10% of the housing units are deemed affordable. In these cases, zoning boards are pressed by developers' threats of costly appeals and lawsuits to bypass all other local boards' commentaries and suggested conditions. Stay tuned; there are over 200 amendments to 40B on the table today! 3. Mortar Mixes and Masons "What Happens in the Field?": The third session, which explored historic masonry from the points-of-view of four exemplary masonry contractors, was held on January 28. While there was still too little collective experience with lime-based mortars to bring them into the discussion, there was a valuable exchange about the ways that architect's specifications are interpreted and the workability of different mixes. (See mortar notes, attached.) 4. Committee Members' Current Projects: Jack Glassman of Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype reported that their work on houses and sites along Battle Road (Route 2A) in Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, for the National Park Service, is now very advanced. The interpretive approach to the entire length of the park is posited upon April 19, 1775, when the battles and British retreat took place. One of the park's main landscape challenges is creating a balanced visual relationship between the parcels of current woodland that were agricultural land in 1775. Eric Ward of Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott mentioned a variety of projects, including Revolutionary War sites in Morristown, New Jersey that are owned and managed by the National Park Service. Following the massive alterations to Harvard's Widener Library, EYP is now involved with a library at Monmouth University. 5. APT Northeast at Yale: Lisa Howe reminded the group about APT Northeast's restoration symposium and tours on February 1 at Yale. Lectures will cover recent rehab. work to 20th c. historic buildings, from modern icons by Louis Kahn, Eliel Saarinen, and SOM, to the many depression-era neo-Gothic buildings by James Gamble Rogers. Leland Torrance and John Canning will lead campus tours. Lisa said the symposium had about 100 advance registrations. 6. APT International Conference, Workshops: Amy Cole-Ives is planning a 2 day APTI masonry workshop (Sept. 21-22) following the general APTI conference in Portland Maine this coming fall (Sept. 17-20). There will be a formal classroom component focusing on mortar materials and their chemistries, and a hands-on session where participants can "get messy with mortar". B.Y.O Trowel. Julie Klump is organizing a second, concurrent (Sept. 21-22) APT workshop on timber framing, from boatbuilding to covered bridges. B.Y.O. Chisel. Registration materials will be available soon - watch: www.apti.org 7. 20th Century Architectural Metals Conference: Susan Schur, Technology & Conservation's renowned conference organizer, announced that plans are firm with new presenters, now including Ove Arup's London office and a presentation on Australia's first curtain wall at the Metropolitan Life building. The reduced rate registration deadline is Feb. 15. 8. March HRC meeting: for those who want to read the book in advance, the March meeting will feature a talk by Robert Fogelson about his book, Downtown: its rise and fall, 1880 - 1950. Bob's research re-contextualizes the discussion about decline and revitalization of our downtowns, by introducing a longer historical perspective and a less polemical framework for identifying trends and their probable causes.
Coastal Defense Structures of New England with Norm Scarpulla 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, February 13, 2002 The Architects' Building, 52 Broad Street, 5th floor, Boston
Henry Moss, Matthew Bronski, and Sara Wermiel co-leaders and scribes |