[MassHistPres] Bell Tower Telecommunications Antennae

[Tristram Metcalfe 3]

Answering David first,
> Rents for cell towers are pretty steep Is there any sort of  
> community benefit for these changes.   David Kelman

Yes absolutely there is  HUGE public benefit to cell towers in  
steeples or towers of historic buildings.
1. it gives very important financial help to churches typically  
sorely needing maintenance support and
2. it provides critically important human access to community with  
cell radio wave technology providing life safety, quality of life  
convenience in both business and family connections.

Here in Western Mass we experience some of the worst cell coverage in  
the developed world, as we watch the cell companies spending millions  
advertising with their bold faced lies about how great their coverage  
is while they have largely stopped building towers. Even some heavily  
populated areas have dead cell zones.

We are restoring a church into a performing arts center and it now  
has two cell companies inside its tower. It is a a very low cost  
platform for them. The funds it will produce will be critical in the  
pro-forma of sustainability to maintain the beautiful architecture on  
into the future benefiting the public many ways.


On the topic of materials, in now over 30 years of fighting to  
preserve historic buildings, I have to say; If you can't tell its not  
wood but is a much longer lasting material holding paint much longer  
it then will preserve the history longer and ultimately can be seen  
as a better job. On the other hand If it is readily apparent it is  
not wood when it was before restoration, we might all agree it should  
remain as wood.

The more critical issue is the authentic proportions of the trim as  
being far more important than the materials in a restoration.

I have seen a steeple restored that used authentic materials but lost  
the true proportions and slope of some small detail proportions in  
only one area, and it is very sad to see. I would agree with Jade  
totally if the fiberglass is not PERFECTLY copied from the original  
wood to the nearest 1/4".

Our commission recently approved a small cell antenna on the exterior  
of a stone steeple and it was ultimately a mistake even if not a real  
noticeable one. They faked the drawing dimensions twice, and then did  
a photo shop rendering that was obviously unrealistic and we at each  
stage corrected them but in the final build it still fell short of  
optimum. Cell antenna inside is far better but still watch out for  
the exterior details.

As materials get better in sustainability and performance while being  
virtually impossible to identify up close, it seems very unwise to  
continue a false perception about the importance of what kind of  
molecules are under the paint if it adds performance and greatly  
lowers the cost of preservation into the future.

If we ever [hopefully] arrive at a civilization that truly  
understands and values historic architecture and thus the financial  
support is no longer critical,, then the true low performance  
materials can always be returned, but staying true to the detail  
proportions is an under appreciated value.

Tris Metcalfe

>

On Nov 24, 2009, at 7:41 PM, jade wrote:

> how sad for the town of wenham and the bell tower of the  
> congregational church....as the saying goes, looks can be  
> deceiving......introducing the frankensteeple....
>
> i mean no disrespect to any individual but it is truly beyond me  
> how an historic commission can approve replacing architectural wood  
> components with fiberglass especially at the request of a cell  
> phone company for monetary gain....
>
> ....jade
> heartwood window restoration
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: james howard
> To: Robin Ragle-Davis ; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 6:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Bell Tower Telecommunications Antennae
>
> Robin,  Here in Wenham we have approved a cell antenna in the bell  
> tower of
> the Congregational Church in the center of the Wenham Historic  
> District.
> The main antenna is inside of the bell tower and cannot be seen  
> from the
> outside.   There were black wooden louvers on the outside walls of  
> the bell
> tower.  The cell company, T-Mobile requested that these black  
> louvers be
> replaced with fiber glass louvers.  We asked them to send us a  
> sample of the
> fiberglass louvers.  They did and the fiber glass louvers looked  
> exactly
> like wooden ones so we approved them.  They also asked to put a  
> short 15
> inch GPS antenna on the base of the bell tower.  We told them that  
> this
> short outside antenna had to be placed in the rear portion of the  
> bell tower
> so that it would not be visible from the street.  Unfortunately  
> they put in
> the front but of the bell tower but have agreed to move it to the  
> rear.
> There was one other outside component, and AC condenser which has been
> placed on a portion the foundation that is below grade and thus not  
> visible
> form the street.  We approved this also.  All of this has been  
> installed and
> should begin operating in a week or so.
>
> We also have an application for a second antenna to be placed in  
> the portion
> of the steeple that is above the bell tower.  Again the main  
> antenna will be
> inside the steeple.  However the cell company proposed to replace  
> this whole
> wooden section at the top of the steeple with a fiberglass  
> replica.  We have
> been looking at other churches with fiberglass steeples and it is  
> virtually
> impossible to tell the difference.  My guess is that we will  
> approve this
> antenna when we get the formal application.
>
> Jim Howard
> Chair
> Wenham Historic District Commission
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robin Ragle-Davis" <robin at rrinteractive.com>
> To: <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 3:37 PM
> Subject: [MassHistPres] Bell Tower Telecommunications Antennae
>
>
> > Has anyone reviewed a request for installation of antennae (75 ft  
> or  so)
> > within a church bell tower?
> >
> > If so does anyone have photos of what this might look like?
> >
> > Robin Ragle-Davis, Chair
> > Wareham Historical Commission
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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