Present: Bill Barry, Neal Boornaisian, Chris Bosler, Matthew Bronski, Christina Contis, David Fixler, Jack Glassman, Sara Gray, Chris Hanlon, Wendall Kalsow, Kim Konrad, Ellen Lipsey, Doug Manley, Arthur MacLeod, Henry Moss, Ivan Myjer, Deborah Robinson, Deane Rykerson, Susan Schur, Jonathan Smith, Laure Soave, Eric Tobin, Eric Ward, Sara Wermiel, T. Luke Young 1. Committee Members' Current Work and Preservation Interests: Not daunted by the twenty-six faces in the room, we launched our semi-annual survey of people's current projects and preoccupations. The responses gave evidence of a much broader range of involvement in building and planning than we have encountered in similar snapshots during the past decade or so (and ten or twelve busy committee members were missing). The first interesting theme is the non-corporate, international commitments of our resident preservation, post-seismologists: Ivan Myjer, whose reaction to a recent visit to Lima, Peru where unreinforced, single wythe masonry is still rising on the stratified gravesite of 30,000 souls who died in the 1974 earthquake- where for the cost of a single downtown office tower, a less threatening future could be raised; Susan Schur's Technology & Conservation upcoming issue with articles on the Turkish earthquake and reconstruction of Hebron; Laure Soave, who has been involved in the reconstruction/restoration of the Basilica in Assisi; and our indomitable, travel-crazed friend, T. Luke Young who has set up an on-line web portal for professionals and academics interested in preservation and environmental change in developing countries. Luke's current projects center on guidelines for modernization and cultural conservation in Bhutan, now allowing a limited peek inside to tourists. [In December, we will hear from David Fixler about Brasilia, and we might well ask for a double header with Luke and Edouard Sekler looking at their studies of Bhutan and Nepal.] Katherine Tate has turned her attention from rebuilding Mostar in Bosnia (where attacks to the built environment originate above the earth's crust) to the Morse-Libby Mansion and the Brooks School where the cut of her flak jacket can only matter less. Other members are involved in fortifications, fantastic or outmoded: Arthur MacLeod is restoring a Scituate Copper King's timber rendition of a 15th Century Teutonic fortification tower complete with cathodic protection and cut nails. (What does this thing look like?) Doug Manley's Fort Trumbell State Park in New London comprises a decommissioned Naval Base and Pre-Civil War masonry. Neal Boornasian's firm is tackling biological growth removal from the Breakers in Newport, another kind of fortification. Bill Barry is doing a new addition for the collection of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester (12,000 sf of high end climate control). Sara Gray is exploring the effect of masonry consolidants on structural steel and laser cleaning of metals while working on the exterior envelope of the Suffolk County Courthouse. Kim Konrad is studying ways to control condensation on a large Lafarge wall painting at Trinity Church (wireless data retrieval from sensors in 30 locations). She donates the rest of her life to Save Fenway Park and may yet prevail on both fronts. Eric Ward's Widener Library project at Harvard is another complex behemoth of humidity control and unobtrusive fire suppression, not to mention creation of a multi-story, new interior volume for this building which looks huge and is twice as big as it appears. David Fixler is hauling Harrison and Abramovitz's Hilles Library "at Radcliffe" into this millennium without suspended ceilings to fall back upon; not content with a single precast tee structure, he is at work on the reinforced concrete TAC Heller Graduate School at Brandeis. Henry Moss is part of a team now halfway through construction at Charles Bulfinch's 1813 University Hall at Harvard, with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' star project manager Elizabeth Randall (who has also just completed reconstruction of Memorial Hall's burned tower. Jack Glassman is working on an important Shingle Style house, mills in Amesbury AND twenty National Park Service projects. Deane Rykerson keeps his green interests alive by acting as co-chair of the BSA Committee on the environment. Wendall Kalsow is responsible for restoration and rehabilitation of the MBTA entrance structures at Boylston Street and Park Street. Chris Hanlon and Doug Manley are both working on public school renovations, Chris in Sherbourne on a 1960's high school; Doug for a 1920's school that will become town offices in Chatham. Christina Contis is studying a 1964 curtain wall system as part of her Bowdoin College library renovation. Matthew Bronski has a window replacement project in Providence with 1914 windows and a Charleston, South Carolina floor system project at Old City Jail. Jonathan Smith is working on Queen Anne dormitories at the eponymous Smith College. Deborah Robinson, doyenne of Princeton dorms is equally conversant with Collegiate Gothic and construction spanning from the 1870's to the 1970's. Sara Wermiel completed her industrial sites survey of Everett and Chelsea and notes, "It matters what is on the inside." The persistence of wood construction deep into the 20th century, the small number of fireproof structures, and an interesting cadre of technologically oriented architects from eighty to a hundred years ago attracted her attention. Ellen Lipsey has launched study reports on the McKim Building and the Johnson Wing of the Boston Public Library along with an analysis and evaluation of over 500 buildings in the Aberdeen area, a Romantic suburb in Chestnut Hill. She and her colleagues are also working on preservation guidelines for non-brick townhouses in Beacon Hill. 2. Save Fenway Park Charrette: Save Fenway Park and the Boston Preservation Alliance created and managed a ten day long charrette with ball park design experts to an interesting rehabilitation conclusion. This good work was buried in a media blizzard about City and State funding ploys to remove Fenway Park at your expense. Kim's organization is now working to remove legislators' language that makes infrastructure improvements in the Fenway area contingent on a new ballpark. Save Fenway Park needs financial support. 3. Community Preservation Act: Thanks to Marcia Molay, Bob Durand, Historic Massachusetts, and an extensive list of walk-on extras, this legislation is now in place. It will take some time for individual communities to decide how they want to respond to their new power to raise local funding for conservation, affordable housing, and historic preservation. In ideal projects, they will engage all three. (Why not? Deane Rykerson does.) 4. Awards Subcommittee: Eric Ward and Laure Soave agreed to ponder the ethics and methods of our committee's opportunities for involvement in endorsements, nominations, and bestowal of various preservation awards that we initiate or that come to us as recommendations or requests. They will come back to the committee with their thoughts sometime in November or December. 5. Tours: Coming Soon- MASS MoCA, in North Adams on Sunday, October 29. Contact Matthew Bronski or Henry Moss for more detailed information. We plan to drive out with at least some cars starting from Harvard Square at 11:00 AM. Spouses and interested friends are welcome. The trip out and back will take all day. [You Missed- University Hall, Harvard. Bruner/Cott Project Manager, Hannah Marzynski led a small but attentive group through this beautiful building at a point when both exposed construction and new exterior and interior finishes are visible. Postponed and to be Rescheduled- Widener Library, Harvard. Einhorn Yaffee Prescott's Project Architect, Eric Ward will show us the sprinkled stacks, the 2" diameter ducts into glazed book cases, the newly enclosed inner court, and Phase II preservation work (with Building Conservation Associates' Andrea Gilmore).] 6. Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund: Eric Tobin of Massachusetts Historical Commission announced that another round of MPPF Grants is underway with an additional $5 million available. He also reminded us to attend the MHC statewide preservation conference, organized by committee stalwart, Bill Steelman in Lowell. [The workshops at this conference proved to be outstanding in range, focus, and quality of content.] At the conference, Secretary of State, William Galvin announced that Judy McDonough, Director of the Massachusetts Historical Commission recently gave her notice of resignation so she can move on to other things. Yet another reminder that historic preservation is all about change. 8: 00 AM, Thursday, October 12, 2000 The Architects' Building, Fifth Floor 52 Broad Street, Boston Matthew Bronski and Sara Wermiel, HRC Co-Chairs |