Volume LXX, Number 26
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Princeton’s Rejection Of Michael Graves’s Gift Is Kean University’s Gain
Ordinances Discussed at Signage Workshop . . . . 7 Town Launches Neighborhood Development Website . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Moby Tells His Story in Porcelain . . . . . . . . . 9 Listening to Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde 50 Years Later . . . . . . . . 12 Aizuri Quartet Performs in Summer Chamber Concert Series . . . . . . 16 Barowski Aiming for Memorable Effort at U .S . Trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 McQuade Leaving Special Legacy On and Off the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Elizabeth S . Ettinghausen, 97, Scholar of Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Dies . . . . . . . . . . 30 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 19 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Classified Ads . . . . . . . 32 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Music/Theater . . . . . . 17 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 30 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 4 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 33 Service Directory . . . . 34 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
In his will, architect Michael Graves left three of his Princeton properties, including his Patton Avenue residence and studio, to Princeton University. But the University, where Mr. Graves taught for 39 years and was the Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, has rejected the gift due to the expenses involved in its preservation and maintenance. Instead, Kean University in Union, which is home to the recently opened Michael Graves College for architecture and design, will purchase the downtown property for $20 and use it for educational purposes. “We were grateful to be able to consider the possibility of accepting Michael Graves’s properties, but concluded that we could not meet the terms and conditions associated with the gift,” reads a statement issued by Princeton University. According to a June 27 article in The New York Times, those conditions include preservation of Mr. Graves’s home and studio, in a 7,000-square-foot former warehouse located close to the Graves firm’s Nassau Street office. It was built nearly a century ago in a Tuscan vernacular style by Italian stonemasons who were helping to build the Princeton campus. Mr. Graves died at his home March 12, 2015 at the age of 80. His will stated that the properties could be offered to another nonprofit organization should Princeton University not accept the gift. Kean University, with whom the architect worked to establish the program in his name, was at the top of his list. The school’s President Dawood Farahi was quoted as saying the school would retrofit the buildings for about $300,000, and take on the annual $30,000-$40,000 maintenance costs. Kean’s board of trustees approved the $20 purchase of the buildings. The properties are valued at nearly $3.2 million. Mr. Graves was internationally known and regarded as an important representative of new urbanism. He ran Michael Graves and Associates from an office on Nassau Street. Locally, he designed the expansion of the Arts Council of Princeton building on Witherspoon Street as well as several private residences. Internationally, Mr. Graves’s firm designed buildings in Singapore, Japan, Continued on Page 7
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Court Will Not Halt Institute Construction
U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson has denied the Princeton Battlefield Society’s (PBS) motion for a preliminary injunction to halt faculty housing construction by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) on a seven-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Battlefield. In a decision issued following a hearing in District Court in Trenton last Wednesday, Judge Wolfson stated that the PBS had not established its case under the Clean Water Act. The Institute plans to continue with its building project, while the Battlefield Society, in alliance with the Save Princeton Coalition of conservation and historic preservation organizations, will continue its efforts to stop the IAS construction. “We are very pleased with Judge Wolfson’s decision to deny the request for a preliminary injunction filed by the Princeton Battlefield Society as part of their Clean Water Act suit,” the Institute announced in a statement to the press. “This ruling, like all the others that have preceded it in the New Jersey court system, confirms the fully compliant nature of the Institute’s application and allows the
project to proceed as planned.” PBS president Jerry Hurwitz affirmed the organization’s determination to pursue its case against the Institute project on both environmental and historical grounds. “This is only the opening skirmish in the war, only a temporary setback,” he said. “We have a lot more arrows in our quiver. The case is in its initial stages. We will be expanding on our claims against the Institute. There is more than one statute involved.” Noting that the Clean Water Act is a narrow statute, Mr. Hurwitz stated that
Last Thursday’s 4-4 Supreme Court ruling concerning President Obama’s executive actions on immigration has blocked the president’s programs from going into effect and disappointed hundreds of hopeful Princeton residents. “This is a disappointment for the immigrant community,” said Maria Juego, executive director of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund
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(LALDEF) in Trenton. “This would have opened a path to being able to regularize the status of many families who have been our neighbors — for decades in many cases — including parents and spouses of U.S. citizens.” The Court’s decision will affect more than four million undocumented immigrants nationwide, including an estimated Continued on Page 10
STARS AND FIREFLIES: Robert Frost says that though fireflies never equal stars in size, they achieve at times “a very star-like start .” These three star-like visitors to Sunday’s Firefly Festival at Terhune Orchards made their own wings . Some firefly fans discuss their plans for the Fourth of July in this week’s Town Talk . (Photo by Emily Reeves)
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the Battlefield Society would be providing additional information for the court and addressing the issue of wetlands in further detail. “We’re disappointed, but not completely surprised,” he said. “We are confident that we will succeed in the end.” The Institute for Advanced Study recently expanded its website in making its case as “a responsible member of the Princeton community” for continuing construction of its faculty housing project. Contending that the development plans are “aligned with the preservation goals
Supreme Court Ruling Quashes Hopes for Undocumented Immigrants
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