[MassHistPres] Our Town Hall

[James Hadley]

First, and most important - Azek DOES require maintenance. The mfr will 
confirm this; the material must be painted just like wood, and paint lasts 
only so long no matter what it is on.  Moreover, any plastic product has 
substantial changes in dimension due to temperature changes. These changes 
vastly exceed those in wood over similar changes in temperature - the two 
materials aren't in sync, i.e. they move differently, although they are 
necessarily attached to one another. This causes problems with the paint 
bond, and can actually increase maintenance. So the advantage with Azek is 
that if you never maintain your building the Azek won't rot, only the wood 
will.

As to aluminum clad windows,  everyone will agree they look nothing like 
wood, no-one is fooled, and they degrade historic resources in general. 
There are a number of good window restoration people who are on this email 
list and will be reading your mail (and mine.) I hope they can be drawn into 
an effort to properly restore the Town Hall windows.

The rub here is that one of the keys to preservation of wood structures is 
the need to sustain the crafts that are required to keep these structures 
sound and watertight. This means we need knowledgeable woodworkers and 
painters  as part of the preservation strategy for wood buildings more than 
we need Azeks and aluminum cover-up products. I believe you should strongly 
resist the know-nothings who are behind the new effort to deface your 
structure.
Hard for all us mainlanders to believe that there isn't enough money on MV 
to properly fund the restoration of historic structures. Seems to me you 
need to embarass the affluent into coughing up.
Good luck, James W Hadley AIA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nancy Dole" <ndole at verizon.net>
To: "masshistoric mail list" <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 10:45 PM
Subject: [MassHistPres] Our Town Hall


> West Tisbury  is planning an addition to  the town hall built in the 
> 1800's, and restoration of the existing building, which is absolutely 
> gorgeous but has not been maintained.
>
> The town originally approved 3,500,000 for the project, as requested, but 
> the building committee underestimated, and came back to ask for an 
> additional 1,500,000 which the town rejected.
>
> That was a few years back, now a new committee has promised to deliver a 
> town hall for a figure somewhere in between, and they are cutting corners 
> left and right to make it happen.  It goes before the Town at the annual 
> meeting in April for approval.
>
> But first it comes to the HDC.
>
> The design of the addition is not bad. It fits. The original building 
> needs a basement. The plan is to lower the building, at least a foot, 
> removing the granite foundation which was brought to the Island as ballast 
> in ships, is original, and substantial in height. They plan to sell the 
> granite.
>
> They want to use AZEK for all new trim, or any trim that must be replaced, 
> because it doesn't require maintenance like wood does.The architect says 
> it can be molded to match the details of the original trim, and that from 
> 15 feet away you can't tell it isn't wood.
>
> They want to remove all the existing windows and replace them with 
> aluminum clad, they are looking at marvin, eagle or KML.  Not custom. Too 
> expensive. maximum 7/8" mullions.
>
> They want to put solar panels on the south roof. Flush, but they will be 
> visible, although the building is three stories high.
>
> The previous, rejected, addition and restoration was expensive but 
> excellent: wood trim, custom wood windows, retain the granite etc. The 
> committee says if we require these things the project cannot be delivered 
> at the price they promised the town. The building will have to be sold, 
> and the town will lose the most important building in the historic 
> district.
>
> Yes they have requested CPA funds, 100,000 a year for 5 years, but they 
> don't want to request more because the town wants to use the funds mostly 
> for affordable housing, which Martha's Vineyard has very little of.
>
> Does anyone know of a town hall, or a similarly important building,  that 
> has replaced wood with AZEK? Used aluminum clad windows to replace wood? 
> Removed the original foundation?
>
> We have not allowed any of those things to be done in any of the private 
> residences in the district. We have consistently required they retain the 
> granite foundation, no AZEK, and windows must be wood.
>
> We are seeking input from all of you who have been in this situation, or 
> have seen aluminum clad and AZEK used in an historic building.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nancy Dole
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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