Present: Jack Alvarez, Bart Bauer, Matthew Bronski, Kimberly Konrad, Taya Dixon, Mel Fortson, Jack Glassman, Sarah Gray, Patrick Gutherie, Jean Marie Hall, David Hart, Marie Helms, Gary Hilderbrand, Julie Klump, David Kolman, Laura MacKowiack, Jacquelin McBride, Doug Manley, Colleen Meagher, Henry Moss, Brian Roche, Susan Schur, Deborah Slaunwhite, Malcolm Smiley, Rita Walsh, Eric Ward, Sara Wermiel 1. Save Fenway Park: a. Kimberly Konrad said that Janet Marie Smith, the architect and planner recently employed by the Red Sox to evaluate the feasibility of different renovation approaches, had approached Save Fenway Park! (SFP!) for material produced by their several studies. Ms. Smith worked for the Orioles on the development of planning and design strategies for Camden Yards in Baltimore in the early 1990's. Kim thinks that HOK left the field with the previous owners and that Wood & Zapata (who developed renovation plans as part of the SFP!-sponsored Fenway design charrette in Aug. 2000) may be the leaders of an A/E team to renovate Fenway Park. Kim reminded us that there may have been a major shift in the wind, but we are still a long way from a clear commitment to renovate Fenway Park. Safe Fenway Park! still needs your support. Log onto www.safefenwaypark.org to view the Wood-Zapata renovation plans, to make a donation, or to catch up with the latest news. b. The Committee asked Kim to discuss with her cohorts at Save Fenway Park! whether there may be an appropriate and useful occasion for presentation of the BSA Preservation Award to SFP!, and especially to think if some event involving both the new Red Sox ownership and the City might be possible. 2. The Irwin and Xenia Miller Garden: Gary Hilderbrand, Principal at Reed/Hilderbrand, Adjunct Associate Professor at Harvard Design School, and author/critic on central topics of XXth century landscape architecture, presented a telegraphic version of his wonderful illustrated, spoken essay on Dan Kiley's classic Modernist garden at the Miller's house in Columbus, Indiana. Gary began by showing pictures from the massive, Europhilic estate schemes by the firm of Innocenti and Webell. Construction photos from these Innocenti and Webell designs of the 30's showed installation of improbably colossal, fully-mature trees, with root balls that dwarfed both the men and equipment of the day. In the 1930's the low cost of depression-era labor, the residual wealth of early 20th century barons, and the abundance of natural resources all aligned to make possible the incredible scale of this work, unseen before or since. Shifting to the mid-twentieth century, Gary then explained how Saarinen's office (in the person of Kevin Roche) labored over the ponderous Miller House design for years, while Kiley shot in at the end and rapidly produced a brilliant new solution that rotated a Honey Locust allee to run parallel to the house, rather than perpendicular, creating views from the house, creating a high screen framing long low views of the dance of sunlight and dew on the grass, rather than the allee's providing an axial, one-point perspective view (as in Baroque Gardens). The plan created orchards with the tree grid hollowed out in the middle to articulate the ground plane with chiaroscuro (from the shadows of tree trunks and branches on the pale-colored ground plane) and offset staggered boxy volumes of Arborvitae hedge to create depth, shadow, light from unseen sources, enclosure, and privacy screening in a single move, without creating a continuous forboding wall at the street. The Miller garden is the tranquil, inventive, high-water mark in Post WWII Modernism in American gardens and it was spun out of a brilliant recombination of established landscape techniques. Gary showed a jolly recent photo of Dan Kiley (then 88), his wife, and their friend Jane Amadon drinking noontime martinis on a sun-kissed, wintry patio at his home in Vermont. His brilliant garden, which went unnoticed for decades because of the introverted stance of its owners and distractions by Kiley's contemporaneous and spectacular Air Garden at the Air Force Academy and the Jefferson Memorial Arch in St. Louis, is now being broadly recognized and fully appreciated as a twentieth century icon. Gary explained the alterations that had been necessary to maintain the garden's architectural character as trees aged and ailed, Locust canopy closed over ground level planting shutting down light levels, and as the house and garden are transformed from a family home into an icon and object of study. Despite minor necessary alterations, Gary described the garden as remarkably intact and impeccably maintained. It is possible to organize visits in advance through the Miller Family Foundation. 3. Restoration/Renovation Exhibition and Conference: Lisa Howe and David Fixler arranged for good coverage at the APT/Northeast (and DOCOMOMO/US-New England) booth by volunteers. The conference ran from March 21 to March 23 from 11:00 AM- 6:00 PM at the Hynes Convention Center. 4. Mostar, Bosnia: The committee discussed Catherine Truman's moving presentation about war damage and resurrection in Mostar. It was clear that people wanted to ask her back and learn more about what reconstruction strategies are underway in similar locations. Perhaps when Catherine completes her work at St. Paul's Henry Vaughn Chapel, she can come back to our regular meetings. 5. Spring Party for Erstwhile Historic Resources Committee Leaders: Sara Wermiel asked that people contact her with ideas about timing, venue, and "content" at an evening get-together to honor former committee chair, Bob Neiley. David Hart, fresh out of rumored semi-retirement, announced that he had never been chairman of the Historic Resources Committee, with body language implying that he would never chair any committee that would have him as their leader. After Bob Neiley, HRC chairmen were Angus Crowe and Bill Barlow. 6. Be Green (blue, amber, and red) - Recycle Ecclesiastical Stained Glass: Bart Bauer asked committee members to consider where large stained glass windows from First Baptist Church of Watertown might be relocated and reused, other than a McMansion or sports bar. The images are only mildly ecclesiastical in nature. The committee lamented the lack of a better, multi-denominational, on-line resource in the US where newly-constructed churches in boom areas could connect with redundant churches that are being converted to secular uses (e.g., housing) for altars, pews, rostrums, etc. April Meeting The next meeting will spotlight Erin Tobin on vernacular siding systems and Albert Rex on Boston's proposed Overlay Zoning regulations. 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, April 11, 2002 The Architects' Building, 52 Broad Street - Fifth Floor, Boston
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