Preservation News
Historic Preservation Program I Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, 2014-2015
Summer is here and we are now regrouping after a successful year, graduating twenty-five students into the professional world of historic preservation. Highlights of the past year were our celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Program in October, with the Fitch Colloquium, a festive party, and an exhibition on the history of the program curated by our Communications Coordinator, Charlotte Egerton. We instituted several new classes this year and our Studio II project looked at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, site of two world’s fairs. This was the first time we have focused on a historic landscape. The final report is available on the program website. This past year has been one of substantial evolution at both the HP Program and at the GSAPP. First, we welcomed Amale Andraos as our new dean and we look forward to working with her over the next years. We bid farewell to Trisha Logan, the Assistant Director of the program for the past two years, as she took a new job as a Preservation Planner in Miami. Filling her role is Inna Guzenfeld, a preservation and planning graduate from the Pratt Institute. We also welcomed Erica Avrami as an additional fulltime professor, specializing in planning and policy. Erica is a graduate of the HP Program (1988) with her PhD in planning from Rutgers; she joins us after years of working at the World Monuments Fund. One of Erica’s tasks is expanding the Preservation Program’s international presence. She assisted with an Urban Planning Program studio in Myanmar in the fall, which included three HP students. This coming fall, she and Will Raynolds (HP ‘09) will be leading a preservation studio to Haiti.
Note
2014 2015
Director’s
Speaking of international issues, one of the most interesting and gratifying developments in the program is the increase, over the past few years, in the number of international students. This past year we had students from eleven countries in North and South America, Asia, and Europe, and the incoming class will include several students from China, as well as students from Ethiopia, Indonesia, South Africa, Lebanon, and Bangladesh. As those of you who are recent graduates know, we are very focused on improving the ability of students to present in public, since it is so important for preservationists to be able to stand up and make their case before review bodies or to share their work with their peers. As part of this effort we have advocated that students and recent graduates submit their work to professional conferences. This past year our students and graduates presented multiple papers at the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works, Association for Preservation Technology, Association of North American Graduate Programs in the Conservation of Cultural Property, and the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Not only was the substance of these presentations at a very high level, but it was presented in a clear and elegant manner. Our Fitch Colloquium this coming year will be on October 17, so mark your calendars. We look forward to seeing you. Andrew S. Dolkart Director, Historic Preservation Program Columbia University GSAPP
Graduation
On Wednesday May 20, twenty-five talented individuals entered the Historic Preservation profession. The Class of 2015 included three dual Historic Preservation/Urban Planning graduates and one Architecture/Historic Preservation graduate. For their thesis work and travel proposals, the students listed below were awarded the following honors. Congratulations and best wishes on their future endeavors! Historic Preservation Awards for Outstanding Thesis History of Materials Elizabeth Fagan Building Wall of Light: A History of Glass Block and Its Influence on American Architecture in the 1930s Advisor, Francoise Bollack
Planning Alexander Corey Third Sector Acquisition of Surplus Federal Heritage Buildings in Canada: Challenges and Opportunities Advisor, Erica Avrami
Design Olimpia Lira Contemporary Reconstruction: The Celebration of Destruction Advisor, Theo Prudon
Conservation Corey Manchenton Pigment Identification of Early Commercial Architectural Paint from Trade Catalogues: 1870 to 1914 Advisor, Mary Jablonski
Peer to Peer Award This award is given in recognition of outstanding service to classmates, faculty, and school. Kat Gardner
A Landmark Occasion:
On Saturday October 18, alumni, faculty, students, and community members attended the day-long James Marston Fitch Colloquium, “The Urgency of Thought: Ideas to Reimagine Preservation.” Though an annual event, this year’s colloquium held greater significance as the school celebrated the fiftieth year of historic preservation education at Columbia University. In the fall of 1964, James Marston Fitch offered the first seminar on historic preservation which served as the foundation for the Master of Science degree that has since produced over 1,000 accomplished graduates. Throughout the last five decades, Columbia has been at the forefront in preservation education by establishing the curriculum standards, learning objectives, and professional qualifications for historic preservationists worldwide. This year’s colloquium was organized by Associate
Professor Jorge Otero-Pailos, who also provided the introduction to the day. “This occasion is truly a celebration of our alumni, the people who have made the program what it is,” Otero-Pailos began. “As faculty we try to stay out of the way and let these great minds shape their futures; we are fortunate to be in this position.” The program featured speakers presenting particular ideas they believe will shape the next half century of preservation, from fundraising and flexibility to engineering and community work. Among the talented line-up were many non-traditional preservation professionals, including Ilaria Cavaggioni, Head Architect of Venice and Lagoon; Michèle Pierre Louis, former Prime Minister of Haiti and current Executive Director of the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation; Adam Lowe, Founder of Factum Arte; Tim McClimon, President of the American Express Foundation; Peter Mullan,
Columbia’s Historic Preservation Program Turns Fifty
Clockwise from top left: Kicking off the day, President of the American Express Foundation Tim McClimmon explains the four V’s of the Partners in Preservation program: Vote, Volunteer, Visit, and Voice. Former Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre Louis wrapped up the colloquium with a discussion on the challenges of preserving heritage amid economic and political predicaments in Haiti. Susan Chin imparts some entertaining wisdom on current preservation students. Associate Professor Jorge Otero-Pailos with Laoua Contari (MSHP ’92) and Jacqueline Salame (MSHP ’93).
Executive Vice-President of Friends of the Highline; and John Ochsendorf, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture at MIT. An exhibition titled HP at 50 was on display through January on the second floor of Avery Hall in connection with the event. Co-curated by Communications Coordinator Charlotte Egerton and Andre Stiles (MSHP ’15) the exhibit told the story of the program’s development and legacy through historic images, video interviews with alumni, and examples
of preservation projects completed by alumni and full-time faculty worldwide. Following the colloquium, alumni and students attended a reception at Casa Italiana to celebrate the occasion. “We’re fifty years old – we could be listed on the National Register!“ Program Director Andrew Dolkart remarked as attendees raised their glass to the program, James Marston Fitch, and his legacy. Photos courtesy of Hatnim Lee
Studio:
Flushing Meadows “Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is a complex landscape,” begins the first-year students’ report for Studio II this spring. After a semester researching and traveling to the almost 900-acre park in Queens, this is a seemingly simple but accurate evaluation of their study. The format for Studio II typically divides students into multiple projects with specific focuses – planning, design, history, and conservation. However this year, the faculty experimented with a new approach of using one site which necessitated study in each of these dimensions of historic preservation. The site had to be large and multifaceted enough for this to be a semester-long project for all fifteen students to jointly undertake. Enter Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Working with their client, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, the entire first-year class took on the task of developing a preservation management plan for the park. Developed under a plan by Robert Moses to host the 1939-1940 World’s Fair, the park was first envisioned as a tourist attraction. The park experienced a series of uses after, from the temporary United Nations Headquarters, to the site of the 1964-65 World’s Fair, to a multitude of unseen improvement plans and proposals. Though this layered past has left the area with a complicated
- Corona Park identity, the park has become an integral public space for the surrounding neighborhoods. To perform their assessment, students surveyed existing historic resources and their conditions as well as the current community context and stakeholder uses of the park. “Our analysis informs us that for preservation planning, design, and conservation proposals for the park to be effective, we cannot take a ‘blankslate’ approach, because we recognize that there are multiple layers of significance embedded in this landscape.” Therefore the group developed plans for existing resources - from World’s Fair remnants to other vestiges of the park’s vibrant history - to enhance the park’s usage for the surrounding community and visitors. Based on this examination and assessment, the students formulated a preservation plan featuring guidelines and zoning proposals that inform potential interventions in the park. The work was then
At left: Students traveled to Queens multiple times throughout the semester to visit the park, often in undesirable winter weather. They received a tour of Philip Johnson’s Tent of Tomorrow, part of the New York State Pavilion built for the 1964 fair. The structure has been in disrepair for decades, though the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation has announced plans to restore the pavilion’s pathways and event spaces. Top right: Students built a Geographic Information System (GIS) to document existing historic resources from the 1939 and 1964 fairs and their current conditions. The map divides resources into four typologies: structures, public art, active recreation, and passive open space. Bottom right: Maria de la Torre designed an intervention for the Passerelle, the main point of access to Flushing Meadows-Coronoa Park and a vestige of the 1964 World’s Fair. The new program reinstates the building’s historical importance as a transportation node and improves a visitor’s first impression of the park.
divided into a series of in-depth feasibility studies for improvement based on each student’s expertise. These individual projects are: Enhancing the Beaux-Arts plan; NYC Landmark/National Register Listing; International Sculpture Competition; Public Art Entrances; Way finding Guidelines; and a World’s Fair Heritage Trail. Students with an architecture background developed design interventions to adapt and enhance existing historic structures, including the Passerelle, overpass & underpass, the fountains, and the Terrace on the Park. “In contrast to former top-down master plan approaches, our studio has determined through an in-depth analysis of the park’s history, current use, and context, that the competing narratives of the park call for more surgical, directed interventions, tailored to address specific issues in the park,” the students conclude. The full report is available online: http://www.arch.columbia.edu/programs/ historic-preservation/student-work
Faculty News
Historic Districts Council Executive Director Simeon Bankoff joins HDC board members Leo Blackman, Kent Barwick, Francoise Bollack, and Tony Wood to present Andrew Dolkart with the 2014 Landmark Lion Award at the India House in lower Manhattan.
Associate Professor Jorge Otero-Pailos’s work on experimental preservation and the aesthetics of decay were featured this past year in several outlets, including a profile in the Architect’s Newspaper and New York Natives. Otero-Pailos exhibited a sample of his work this spring at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the show “All of This Belongs to You” which celebrated the V&A’s permanent collection, Otero-Pailos used conservation latex to clean the inside of the Trajan’s Column artifact. The resulting “cast of a cast” showed the dust and dirt that accumulated over decades inside the piece. This giant cast was then exhibited alongside the original, allowing visitors to experience the process of caring for a museum’s collection.
Program Director Andrew Dolkart was recognized by the Historic Districts Council in November with their prestigious Landmarks Lion Award. The award honors individuals with exceptional contributions to the preservation world. Since its inception in 1990, the HDC has honored other influential names with Columbia ties such as James Marston Fitch, Tony Wood, and Dorothy Miner. Dolkart also spent the year curating Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks at the Museum of the City of New York with Donald Albrecht, the museum’s curator of architecture and design. The well-received exhibition traces and celebrates the impact of the city’s pioneering Landmarks Law since its 1965 enactment. Alongside the exhibit, a series of public programs were hosted at MCNY this summer and a book, Saving Place was published by The Monacelli Press, both featuring Columbia alumni contributions. Assistant Professor Erica Avrami edited “Harboring Tourism: Cruise Ships in Historic Port Communities” which was published in late 2014. She also coordinated the conference, “Building the Future: The Role of Heritage in the Sustainable Development of Yangon” for WMF, hosted in January 2015. The proceedings will be published later this year.
Jorge Otero-Pailos stands alongside his cast of the Trajan’s Column in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Cast Court exhibition.
Adjunct Associate Professor Francoise Bol lack published an article entitled “Defining Appropriateness” in the book Saving Place published by The Monacelli Press and The Museum of the City of New York on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Landmarks Law. In February she traveled to Louisiana to lecture on the subject of Old Buildings – New Forms at Louisiana State University and Tulane University. Adjunct Associate Professor Pamela Jerome, AIA, FAPT, LEED AP was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) at the annual symposium in Quebec in October 2014. In addition, she was elected to the international Executive Committee of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) at the General Assembly in Florence in November 2014. Jerome has served as the US/ICOMOS liaison to the APT board since 2004, and has been one of three elected Scientific Council Officers for ICOMOS since 2006. In December 2014, Adjunct Associate Professor Belmont Freeman published a major essay in Places, titled “History of the Present: Havana”; part of a series produced by the online journal which looks at cities on the cusp of transition in the 21st century. For the February issue of Architectural Record he wrote a lead story on the recent diplomatic and economic rapport between the United States and Cuba, and what it may mean for the architecture and preservation community. Freeman’s firm, Belmont Freeman Architects, spent the year working on a variety of residential, commercial and institutional projects, including the renovations to Engine Company 23, a Landmarked Beaux-Arts fire house on West 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan, and the midcentury modern Grand Concourse Branch of the New York Public Library, in the Bronx. The restoration of Grace Church Brooklyn Heights won both a Lucy Moses Award from the Landmarks Conservancy and Preservation Award from The Victorian Society Metropolitan New York Chapter. The project was worked on my many GSAPP alumni through management by Leo Blackman Architects and conservation work done by Evergreene Architectural Arts. Adjunct Assistant Professor Daniel Allen contributed the new insulated batten seam copper roof and restored the masonry on the gable ends of the structure. Allen also was recently named the President of NYC’s Historic Districts Council’s Board.
Columbia faculty George Wheeler and Norman Weiss meet up with Jeanne Marie Teutonico (MS HP ’93) at ANAGPIC this spring.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Liz McEnaney is currently the Executive Director of the SS Columbia Project, caretaker of America’s oldest remaining excursion steamboat. For nearly a century and a half, lakes, rivers, bays and sounds all across the United States had a much-loved tradition of excursion steamboats. The SS Columbia Project is reviving that tradition on the Hudson River by introducing the last survivor of these splendid vessels into revived passenger service. This summer, SS Columbia (pictured below) left the shipyard in Toledo, Ohio, where expert ironworkers have repaired her hull, and landed in New York State after traveling 235 miles across Lake Erie to Buffalo.
Conferences & Events
Gro Bonesmo in discussion with Associate Professor Jorge Otero-Pailos and Dean Amale Andraos
Gro Bonesmo (MS AAD ‘90) of the Oslo-based firm, Space Group, delivered the annual Paul S. Byard Lecture this spring. The lecture invites an architect working on adaptive reuse or historic additions projects that exemplify Byard’s preservation ideology. Bonesmo presented her work in Oslo, specifically Verkstedhallene, the adaptive reuse of a late 19th century industrial building on the Norwegian capital’s harbor. This project was an integral part of the firm’s master plan for the commercial redevelopment of Aker Brygge, the city’s western waterfront Central Business District. Byard served as the Director of the Historic Preservation program from 1998-2008. After passing away in 2008, the lecture was funded by generous supporters of Byard’s work and continues his legacy.
Since its inception, the Association of North American Graduate Programs in the Conservation of Cultural Property (ANAGPIC) has held annual conferences to provide students from member programs the opportunity to present current research to their peers. The original member programs included Buffalo State College (formerly in Cooperstown, NY), Harvard University, New York University IFA, the University of Delaware/Winterthur and Queens University. More recently the University of California, Los Angeles/Getty, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University were added as members. The 2015 conference was held at the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania in April. Faculty members in attendance included adjuncts Norman Weiss, Richard Pieper and Mary Jablonski and Director of Conservation George Wheeler. Columbia was also represented by Kat Gardner (MSHP ’15) with her presentation, “The Use of Astringent Persimmon Juice as an Alternative Wood Preservation Treatment,” based on her thesis. Kat presented this work in May as well at the Annual Meeting for the American Institute for Conservation in Miami.
Inquiry:HP wrapped up another fantastic year of events, filled with preservation academics and professionals worldwide. Inquiry:HP is a student-led lecture series which hosts ten events per year. This year’s program planned by students Alex Corey (MSHP ’15), Nick Kazmierski (MSHP ’15), and Sloane Taliaferro (MSHP ’15) included lectures from Caroline Rob Zaleski (MSHP ‘00) on Long Island Modernism, Bartosz Dajnowski on conservation of Cleopatra’s Needle, and Emilie Evans (MSHP/UP ‘11) on rightsizing in Detroit. Pictured at right, Inquiry speaker Brinda Somaya (second from left), attracted attendees Tod Williams, Billie Tsien, and former GSAPP Dean James Polshek. Members of the Joint Preservation/Architecture Studio Andre Stiles (MSHP ’15), Kate Reggev (M.Arch/MSHP ’15), Michael Middleton (MSHP ’15), and Pari Agarwal (M.Arch ’15) traveled to Oslo, Norway in the fall for a study trip. Led by instructors Jorge Otero-Pailos and Craig Konyk, the students developed adaptive reuse proposals for the Regjeringskvartalet or Government Quarter buildings which were damaged by a car bomb in 2011. Stiles, Middleton, and Agarwal continued work on the project in the spring semester as part of an independent study. Joining with students and faculty from the Oslo School of Architecture, they formed Team AHO, one of seven teams chosen to submit proposals for the new government headquarters in downtown Oslo. The plans which emphasized preserving the historic Government Quarter buildings and creating an open master plan were exhibited in Avery Hall in April and the Oslo Public Library this summer. In November, thirteen second-year students traveled south to Savannah, GA for the annual National Trust Conference: Past Forward 2014. The trip began with a curator-led tour of the Owens-Thomas house, pictured at right, designed by William Jay in 1816. The conference kicked off the first night with low country tunes and shrimp and grits on the Savannah riverfront. One of the most valuable conference proceedings was a new component, Trust Live, with sessions on the junction of preservation and timely topics - climate change, real estate, and mapping technology. GSAPP Alumni also welcomed over 30 alumni for a reception at The Marshall House, a landmarked – and often considered haunted - hotel dating to 1851. In addition to the conference activities, students had the opportunity to explore Savannah’s one-square mile historic district, one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States.
Summer Internships As the summer of 2015 winds down, first-year students complete their rewarding summer internships. The Historic Preservation program maintains a blog for students to share these summer experiences – please visit gsapphp. wordpress.com to read more. Raudhah Borhanuddin & Sarah Yoon interned at the Royal Historic Palaces in London. Raudhah and Sarah assisted the RHP on conservation work on the Banqueting House Whitehall, the last surviving structure of the Palace of Whitehall designed by Inigo Jones in the 17th century. Alexander Ford split his summer in Greece and Phoenix, Arizona. After spending two summers as an architectural intern for the excavation at Mt. Lykaion, Alex returned as the architecture team’s leader, working with two architecture students from the University of Arizona on documentation and drawings. Upon returning from Greece, he worked for Blank Studio Architects in Phoenix, assisting with a competition entry for a new development in the historic Warehouse District. Back in New York, Maria de la Torre spent the summer at Scott Henson Architect, a small firm specializing in preservation. Maria worked on a stabilization strategy for the Renwick Ruin on Roosevelt Island and executed the RFP process for the firm. She also was tasked with documenting the current conditions of past firm projects, which required getting out in the sunshine and exploring Manhattan neighborhoods. From top: Raudhah Borhanuddin learning the craft of stone carving on the Banqueting House’s façade. Alexander Ford completing a rendering for the compatible new construction proposal. The building at 45 Greene Street, a project documented by Maria de la Torre.
Save the Date: 2015 Fitch Colloquium
Beyond the Five Boroughs: International Preservation Insights Ken Bernstein - Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources Doug Black - Conservation & Urban Design, London Borough of Lambeth Will Cook - National Trust for Historic Preservation Washington Fajardo Institute Rio Heritage
Saturday October 17 10am - 5pm Wood Auditorium events.gsapp.org
Erik Fenstad Langdalen Oslo School of Architecture and Design Abha Narain Lambah - Abha Narain Lambah Associates Nadya Nenadic - Historic Preservation Program, Pratt Institute