Present: Bill Barlow, Bill Barry, Eric Breitkreutz, Matthew Bronski, Rachel Consolloy, Michael DeLacey, Jack Glassman, John Gondling, David M. Hart, John Hecker, Wendall Kalsow, David Kelman, Michael Lynch, Doug Manley, Henry Moss, Ivan Myjer, Stephanie Reiner, Susan Schur, Malcolm Smiley, Jonathan Smith, Katherine Steinhardt, Jean Van Orman, and Sara Wermiel 1. APT Conference, Galveston, Texas: Michael Lynch, Bill Barry, Ivan Myjer, David Hart, and Susan Schur survived the APT '04 Conference and came back with tales of a 1900 catastrophic pre-seawall flood surge that drowned 6,000 people and leveled the town, creating a datum for the subsequent city; good technical sessions; some mediocre tours; and a convivial bar scene anchored by Ivan himself. Out of more than 350 attendees, there were 10-15 visitors from the Boston area, including Jean Carroon, who contributed to the internationally endorsed concentration on integrating sustainable design with building conservation materials and practices. APT International will feature a new technical committee on Sustainability. Among their interests is sustaining the craft tradition in building. The next conference will be in Halifax and will focus on issues of sustainability. Sara Wermiel received an award for her article in the APT Bulletin (vol. 35, no. 1, 2004) on heavy timber construction. 2. International Preservation Groups: Sara Wermiel said that she had spoken to Philip Marshall of Roger Williams College about visiting our committee to bring us up to date about US ICOMOS. Philip is on the organization's training committee. 3. Building Additions -- The Sequel: Jack Glassman showed a number of examples of interesting additions. The first was from the Boston Navy Yard, a 1980's adaptation of Building 34 on Second Avenue, designed by Alexander Parris. The master plan for the yard called for Building 34 to be a courtyard building, but only one wing was originally built. For an addition, a design review panel guided The Architectural Team to an austere solution of new wings in precast ashlar (not granite) with window spacing to match the 19th century primary building. The fourth wall was not built and the ends of the wings were finished in brick, which signaled the building was "unfinished," but Sara Wermiel noted that quoins make the end walls of brick look finished. Michael Delacey noted that the Navy Yard provides a complete area of continuous context, an "Historic Monument Area," and that the building additions work well at different levels of observation. Matthew Bronski compared this to the 6"/6' rule for painting. Next, Jack showed 176 Federal Street, a late August Associates renovation and rooftop addition that broke the original cornice line but maintained a similar vocabulary. Sara Wermiel pointed out that in the 1890's there were often attics that rose several stories as part of a vertical, tripartite composition. Michael Delacey compared the cornice treatment (new is continuous while old is broken) to the recent conversion of the police station near the Hancock towers. Michael also pointed out that the Tower Records Building had to be taken out of the Back Bay Architectural Commission's jurisdiction, because their design guidelines were not sufficiently flexible. The next buildings were at Park Square, where a mixture of vertical and horizontal additions without too much concern about continuity of alignments and window proportions seem to work as urban design, but could not withstand critical analysis as a self-contained architectural composition. Michael Delacey thought the three-story addition was necessary to add scale sufficient to coexist with larger neighbors and questioned at what point the public interest demands self-conscious design. Michael Lynch said that the collection of building phases create a visual impact that is partly a result of its distracting urban setting. David Hart (quoting Morgan Phillips) said "This looks like a bunch of building parts that got delivered to the wrong address." Ivan found the "jumble in a sea of distraction" thesis unsatisfactory, saying it meant "It's okay because we don't really take it in." Sara Wermiel said that it is hard to create a pleasant "hodgepodge" intentionally. Stephanie Reinhardt said that the average person accepts the organic city of street facades assembled over time as different from monumental interventions. Michael Lynch again noted that streets are usually a mixture of design and random juxtapositions. At the corner of the Common and the Public Garden the assemblage works. A design review would reject each of the three buildings on their own, but the 40% increase in height for the ensemble works well as a piece of city. Michael Delacey said that other countries have townscape concepts that help them deal with these issues more effectively. Jean Van Orman said that it is clear that the conceptual basis for contextual design is still not adequately developed. Next, we looked at James Hadley's new home on a residential street in Wellfleet, where any new construction in this uniform grouping of clapboard houses is an "addition." The new house combined familiar building elements (clapboard, wood windows) in striking unfamiliar arrangements. Bill Barry suggested that instead of a "Design Review" some projects should receive an Appropriateness Review as some internally well resolved designs may not help maintain desirable continuity within old streetscapes. Doug Manley presented a major building addition at Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut. McGinley Hart stripped away recent trees and concrete block buildings form the fort's inner courtyard and built an addition onto an 1850 stone officers' quarters to serve as a visitors' center. Wooden kitchen ells were demolished. The addition drew its inspiration from these ells and their shed form. Large dormers from the 1950's remained unaltered. The new shed is a substantial building in its own right. Its steel frame is independent of the stone Officers Quarters and it is further set apart by a band of skylights at the connection along the stone wall. Large windows create a continuous glazed wall for the shed elevation, and the roof is lead coated copper with standing seams. Other presentations included Bruner/Cott's loading dock and trash enclosure at the University of Chicago's Bartlett Gymnasium, now a vast dining hall. The limestone building, in a Collegiate Gothic style derived from the 1901 Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge gymnasium, is on a prominent corner and is derivative in order to minimize the disruption that both the addition and the inelegant new use might cause. Henry Moss contrasted this approach with an elevator/fire stair addition at Williams College where a change in material and massing joined an 1850's chapel and 1890's gymnasium. Sara Wermiel asked if the vertical orientation of the massing needed to be reinforced by so many vertical elements within the building's composition and detailing. 4. Urban Sprawl Within Cities - The committee heard an announcement for a conference on this topic in Peabody that was to take place on November 19.
Vapor Drive in Building Envelopes, a Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger Primer by Sean O'Brien 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, December 9, 2004 The Architects’ Building, 52 Broad Street, Boston – Fifth Floor
Henry Moss, Matthew Bronski, and Sara Wermiel co-leaders and scribes
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