[MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas station

[Marcia Starkey]

This is a valuable exchange. I expect that the distinction is most
challenging in an area with older chains have incorporated traditional
design elements in their buildings. 

 

Marcia Starkey 

 

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of james hadley
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 9:37 AM
To: John Worden; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas
station

 

Mr. Worden,
Thank you for your willingness to continue the discussion. You are quite
correct to use the word "context" here, and I am sure that most listserve
readers sympathize with your problem WRT the building in question. A
contextual addition to a downtown or a district is most certainly a goal of
Historical Commissions, Architectural Review Boards and Historic District
Commissions in exercising their oversight.  And it was clear from your post
that this was the central problem you faced.

What I object to, and I believe what others also see as a problem, is the
jump from "contextual" to "colonial-ish." They are not the same thing, I can
assure you as an architect who is deeply concerned about the issue you
raise. 

What I responded to in your original post was the notion that style - in
this case a pseudo-style - was fulfilling the role of contextual
architecture. This need not be the case. A sensitive design featuring
carefully chosen materials, proper scale, and sensitive siting and site
development will in fact provide a greater level of satisfaction than a
gabled and columned pastiche. This message must be understood most
importantly by the architectural community, where the tendency has become to
provide exactly the inadequate and incomplete stylistic memories associated
with "colonial" architecture. I call this style "turkeytecture" as it is
characterized by "gable-gable-gable." We have many, many practitioners of
this style here on the Cape, and suffer from the affects, as I have stated
previously.
Hope this helps.
    

  _____  

From: jworden at swwalaw.com
To: MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:10:16 -0400
Subject: [MassHistPres] RE historic looking convenience store/gas station

Apparently my suggestion of a reproduction 18th c. "skin" for a modern
building has caused some distress among our distinguished colleagues.  I
think the point here is that the context is everything.  In the particular
context to which I made reference, the site was immediately adjacent to an
early 19th c. church, considered by many to be the most architecturally
significant property in town, across the street from the town's most
significant historical site (preserved 18th c. house), and just down the
street from where the referenced old tavern had stood (coincidentally, there
has just been a story & picture of it in the local newspaper - it had been
torn down about 100 years before to expand a commercial building).

 

A brick/concrete box with a lot of glass (as proposed by Osco) would have
been particularly jarring.  What subsequently got built is not all that
great but does suit the street-scape better.  I don't know the context of
the area in the original question, but the issue, it seems to me is the same
- will the new structure be a cookie-cutter standard design or something in
scale, siting, and materials that looks not out-of-place in the location?

 

John Worden

Arlington HDC 

 


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