Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance member organization updates, September 2011

The follow compilation of member group updates, submitted prior to the meeting, was made available at the Sept. 25, 2011 annual fall gathering:

GroupUpdatesSept2011

PAPA Annual Fall Meeting 2011

Montalto (left) and Monticello (right) viewed from Shadwell. Photo by author.

This year’s annual gathering of the preservation community took place on September, 25, 2011 at the Robert H. Smith Center, Montalto.  The event, co-sponsored by member organizations Monticello/Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Preservation Piedmont, allowed an up-close look at the restored Repose House atop Montalto as well as discussion about greater land conservation in Southern Albemarle.

Repose House, Montalto, 2011. Photo: Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

It was noted that the first PAPA annual meeting took place in 2005, down the hill from Repose House at Kenwood, the home of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies and the Jefferson Library. 

Leslie Greene Bowman, President, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, speaks about the purchase of Montalto by the Foundation in 2004 from the conservatory of Repose House, opened in 2011.

Preservation Week 2011

Preservation Week this year covers a full ten days, with events scheduled from March 30-April 9.  Organized by Preservation Piedmont as part of the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance, this year’s calendar and the most recent updates and announcements can be found at www.preservationpiedmont.org.

See the published schedule here:  Preservation Week 2011 Schedule

The Alliance in the Community (an update)

Over the course of the past year, the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance emerged publicly in a series of media events with the aim of increasing community awareness and dialogue surrounding the issues of preservation of place and sustainable growth and development.  Outreach programs like Preservation Week 2009, executed by Preservation Piedmont, realized the overarching goals of many of the Alliance’s individual member organizations.  Several highlights of the past year follow, including press coverage and images from Alliance-related events.              

PAPA is officially announced to the public at Preservation Piedmont’s Annual Meeting, 12/08, held at Monticello’s Jefferson Library:  Daily Progress, 12/8/08

City of Charlottesville’s Resolution proclaiming Preservation Week 2009:

 

Preservation Week guest speakers included Roger Kennedy (center, bow tie), photographed at the Charlottesville Community Design Center on opening night for the ‘Preserving Place=Sustaining Community’ exhibition (center image) and Richard Moe at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia (bottom):

For additional wrap-up photographs of the week’s events, visit the devoted Preservation Week website at:  www.preservationweek.com

Preservation Piedmont’s Fall Tour Weekend: October 17-18, 2009

This year, on Saturday the 17th, we feature both historic and contemporary homes in the Woolen Mills neighborhood to show how new architecture can complement and enrich historic areas. Modern, sustainable architecture expresses our approach to design and living today, and adds a “21st century layer” to the history of our neighborhoods. This tour includes a variety of housing and building types to reveal the rich history of the Woolen Mills neighborhood, and to demonstrate how different buildings can change over time to accommodate new residents, while retaining their historic value. Enjoy the 170 years of history that unfold as you walk the streets of Woolen Mills – a truly historic and modern neighborhood.

On Sunday, October 18, Preservation Piedmont will be hosting a lecture and walking tour of the work of renowned local architect, Stanislaw Makielski. Makielski, an architecture professor at the University of Virginia for over 40 years, designed numerous buildings in Charlottesville and worked on hundreds of others. The Sunday walking tour, led by UVa architectural history professor Richard Guy Wilson, will look at Makielski’s buildings in the UVa and Rugby Road area, and will include the Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity houses, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, and Preston Court Apartments. The tour will conclude with a reception to be held at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church on Rugby Road.

Tickets for each day are $20 and can be purchased beginning September 24th at Beer Run, Greenberry’s (Barracks Road), The New Dominion Bookshop on the Downtown Mall, or on the day of the event (the Woolen Mills Chapel on Saturday and the Architecture School on Sunday). A $5 discount is available with mailed postcard to students, residents in the Woolen Mills neighborhood, and members of Preservation Piedmont.  Parking for the Open House Tour on Saturday is available at Riverview Park and the Woolen Mills Chapel. Stop in the chapel for tickets and more information on the neighborhood and the individual houses, and for a detailed map. Parking for the Walking Tour on Saturday is available at the Architecture School’s parking garage.

Historic Charlottesville House Needs Good Home

A historic Charlottesville resource is in danger of being demolished. It’s a house. The owner of the house is making a good-faith effort to sell it rather than demolishing it. The property is adjacent to and faces the former Under the Roof building.

110 10 ½ Street NW is a contributing building in the West Main Street Architectural Design Control District (ADCD). Historically known as the Moon-Henderson House the property was constructed circa 1883-1893; a 2-story, 3-bay simple vernacular Virginia I-house. The house is currently vacant.

The Realtor^© is Brian Roy at:

Chapman-Roy Investment Company; 308 E Main Street, Charlottesville, VA, 22902; Phone: (434) 295-4477

Email: Brian@chapmanroy.com

The listing is on Loopnet with postal code of 22903. The asking price is $162,600.

Richard Moe, Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, confirmed as Preservation Week’s keynote speaker

Courtesy of Preservation Piedmont’s Preservation Week Committee:

 

Preservation Week 2009 will commence with a lecture, an exhibition, and an opening reception at the Charlottesville Community Design Center on Friday, April 3, 2009. Following the opening reception, historic house tours, a bus tour of work by Milton Grigg, and neighborhood walking tours will be offered over the weekend. The keynote speaker, Richard Moe, Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will speak on Monday, April 6th about the convergence of historic preservation and sustainability.  The remainder of the week will be dedicated to educational sessions including: how to make your historic house more energy efficient, how to research your historic house, and how to preserve your house using tax credits.

Preservation Week is an opportunity for local and regional organizations and citizens interested in historic preservation, history, sustainable community development, and green design to come together to encourage public dialogue about local preservation and to promote our region’s historic resources as defining elements integral to our community’s current well-being and future development.

The University of Virgina Hosts PAPA Fall Meeting

On September 18th, Architect of the University David Neuman, FAIA, hosted the annual Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance Fall Meeting. This year’s meeting sets the stage for the first PAPA Preservation Week, scheduled to begin on April 3rd, 2009. Each participant organization previewed its contribution to the April celebration, which will be coordinated by Preservation Piedmont. Eryn Brennan, president of Preservation Piedmont, gave an overview of event planning. Among those elected officials attending were David Norris of the City of Charlottesville and Sally Thomas of the County of Albemarle.

23rd Annual APVA Preservation Virginia Conference

The 23rd Annual APVA Preservation Virginia Historic Preservation Conference will be held October 5th through the 7th.  The conference, held in Richmond this year, is the commonwealth’s largest gathering of preservationists. The event is designed to school members of local boards of architectural review, preservation planners, and general historic preservationists in preservation opportunities, pitfalls, and techniques.  Preservation Piedmont Board Members Alec Cargile (Lithic Construction) and Brian Broadus (Train & Partners Architects) will conduct a conference session on “Greening an Historic Structure.” The session will both justify and question sustainable building according to an historic preservation ethic, describe how older buildings are already fitted to the immediate surroundings, and describe how new “green” technologies and techniques can properly be used in today’s historic renovations. Alec will draw examples from his successful renovation of Charlottesville’s Nimmo House, last year’s APVA winner for best residential restoration, and Brian will illustrate his portion of the session with his work on the University of Virginia’s Varsity Hall and on the Lexington Presbyterian Church. Brian is also coordinating the “Sustainability/Green Design” conference track, along with Bryan Green of Richmond’s Commonwealth Architects.

Request for ‘Preservation Week’ sessions

This September the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance will hold a press conference to announce the date for its first annual ‘Preservation Week.’  The goal for Preservation Week is to more-effectively publicize, celebrate, and educate about our collective preservation and conservation missions and accomplishments while also examining our missed opportunities.  In a region internationally-recognized for its blend of history, natural landscape, and architecture- from United Nations World Heritage Sites to threatened urban and rural structures- we have a duty to study, protect, and disseminate information about the wide range of cultural assets located right here in our own backyard. 

 

Preservation Piedmont, a PAPA member, has formed a special Preservation Week Committee (PWC) that has agreed to serve as the organizing body for the week’s series of events.  Working in concert with the Board of Preservation Piedmont and the PAPA Steering Committee, the PWC will:

 

• Develop the overall schedule and framework for Preservation Week (see the tentative schedule included below)
• Create an exhibition with the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC) exploring the intersection of preservation with green building/sustainability by highlighting local preservation successes and failures
• Solicit and refine session proposals from other organizations for additional Preservation Week events
• Facilitate coordination of site logistics for house and walking tours, speakers, and workshops submitted by participating organizations

 

For Preservation Week, we invite organizations or individuals to contribute a program, a tour, a lecture, or other preservation-related event to be held between Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 11, 2009. Each organization will be responsible for planning and implementing its own event with logistical help from the PWC.  We encourage you to organize events that are specific to the goals and mission statements of your particular group.  Feel free to post or discuss session ideas here or contact the PWC with questions.

 

Session proposals are due to the PWC by August 29; groups will then be asked to give a brief presentation (3-5 minutes) about their projects at the PAPA fall event on September 18.  We look forward to your participation in what we envision as an educational, eye-opening, and dynamic preservation tradition in Central Virginia.

 

-The Preservation Week Committee (On behalf of Preservation Piedmont and the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance)