Present: Jack Alvarez, Olga Bachilova, Bill Barry, Bart Bauer, Chelsea Blanchard, Matthew Bronski, David Coe, Christina Contis, Leigh Cypher, Jack Glassman, Kim Konrad, Ellen Lipsey, Henry Moss, Ivan Myjer, Albert Rex, Lance Robson, Brian Roche, Susan Schur, Malcolm Smiley, Jonathan Smith 1. BSA Preservation Award: Henry reported that the BSA 2001 Preservation Award had been presented to the Chairman of the Board and the Vice President of Finance and Administration of Emerson College at their Commencement ceremony in the Wang Center. We will ask Bob Neiley to direct us towards the calligraphy master and master format with the Faneiul Hall Grasshopper so we can continue the fine graphic tradition he developed at the BSA. Emerson College was so excited by the award that their President insisted that it be presented immediately. 2. National Trust for Historic Preservation Roundtable: No one present at the meeting had attended the Trust Roundtable, an event designed to expose new priorities in preservation on the previous day. Instead, Ellen Lipsey and Albert Rex spoke about a new challenge to preservation of historic religious properties in the proposed Religious Institutions Freedom Act. Owners seeking relief from preservation restrictions must prove that there is a substantial burden imposed by land use or zoning constraints. Government agencies must show that their impediments to alteration or demolition represent the least restrictive constraints that are practicable. About twenty cases are pending. Buildings devoted to "associated activities" may also be exempt from preservation regulations unless they are income-producing. The implications of this for our area and for specific denominations are not yet clear. 3. Metals in Architecture Conference: The indomitable Susan Schur and long-time AIA National Historic Resources Committee member, Bill Barlow created the idea of our hosting the national committee in Boston in connection with a conference on metals conservation. Mark your 2003 calendars! First week in April. Co-Sponsors will be, Technology and Conservation magazine (Susan's medium for world domination), the BSA, the National Park Service, and MIT. [Henry and Susan wrote to the AIA to formally invite them to have that season's meeting in Boston. Normally, 50-100 members come to their meetings and events.] 4. Tours and Site Visits: Eric Ward arranged a tour of Einhorn Yaffee Prescott's vast stack infrastructure improvements, dramatic new reading rooms, and restoration sites within Harvard's Widener Library for May 18. Skating behind that tour's coat tails was a quick visit to the completed University Hall to discuss exterior masonry, miraculous granite stairs, and Bulfinch era paint colors. The latter visit provoked an interesting discussion about mineral oxidation rates that allow stone to recover from chemical cleaners. Henry, Kent Diebolt, and Lisa Howe are working on arrangements for a tour of Mike Meehan's Portland Brownstone Quarry in Chester, Connecticut. Kent and Lisa are interested in coordinating the quarry visit with the APT Chapter that covers New York and New England. Ivan Myjer suggested that we find additional places to visit in order to make the most of the two hour drive. Albert Rex announced an open house at the Chestnut Hill Waterworks on May 19. Both the High Service and Low Service buildings were open to visitors. 5. Massachusetts Preservation Project Fund (MPPF) Grants: Erin Tobin encouraged committee members to contact their State Representatives and Senators to urge their support for authorization of further funding. Bill 1536 House of Representatives. Bill 3426 Senate. The current round of MPPF grant applications will be due June 8. 6. Committee Members' Current Projects: Matthew Bronski of Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger led off in a series of descriptions of peoples' current projects. Matthew spoke about the Old City Jail in Charleston, South Carolina, an early 19th century cruciform jail by Robert Mills (compare to Bryant's Cambridge Poor House) that is being stabilized and portions repaired under the Save America's Treasures program. Matthew's friend, John Paul Hugdie (phonetic spelling) is developing a school of traditional crafts there. The curriculum is built around masonry, carpentry, and ironwork. The jail may be the beneficiary of students' projects. Brian Roche of Lyn Hovey Studio described their work at the Ayer Mansion in Back Bay, where a 20' x 24' Tiffany laylight has been restored. This provoked a discussion amongst Herald readers of the Lafarge window stolen from Richardson's Quincy library and returned by the thieves. Malcolm Smiley described his dogged attempt to retrace Sherman's March to the Sea through featureless sites and the indefinite memories of the New South. [Malcolm will give an illustrated talk to the committee, possibly at the June meeting.] Jack Glassman of Bargman Hendrie + Archetype told of their work at Minuteman Park in Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington including some early Carol Johnson landscapes. Jack also is involved in rehabilitation of the main arsenal building at the Springfield Armory campus. His team is putting a Collection Conservator's lab into the 1830's building. Its structural system includes cruciform cast iron columns. Olga Bachilova of Gary Woolf Architects is at work on an eight-acre Chestnut Hill estate designed by Peabody & Stearns and bought by Mary Baker Eddy in 1907. Olga's beautiful rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of the Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church (1870) in Jamaica Plain won a Boston Preservation Alliance Preservation Award this year. This wonderful Roxbury Puddingstone building has a steep polychrome roof that now sports six reconstructed dormer windows. Less than ten years ago, trees were rooted at high levels in its masonry walls. She did the project when she was at McGinley Hart & Associates. Bill Barry of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbot is building a collections addition to the American Antiquarian Society building. Bill is thinking his way through "latent integral features" or changes made in 1900, the 1920's, the 1950's, and the 1970's. Bill is also helping Wheelock College with their move to the former Brookline home of Hebrew College. His Boston Public Library team is currently tackling the Sargent Gallery, where a special independent art contract (from the dado up) may help with the vagaries of pre-qualification in municipal contracting. At 9:00, the bell rang and everyone bolted to their offices. 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, June 14, 2001 The Architects' Building, Fifth Floor 52 Broad Street, Boston Henry MacLean will present a design proposal for alterations to Boston City Hall. Malcolm Smiley may address the obstacle course posed today to those who would follow the line of Sherman's March across Georgia and South Carolina. |