A Shaggy Dog Story: The Roland Batten Memorial Lecture 2012

Once again TruexCullins is pleased to be supporting the annual Roland Batten Memorial Lecture on Architecture and Design. This year's event will be held this Wednesday, October 17 at 6:00 pm at 301 Williams Hall on the University of Vermont Campus.  All are welcome to attend.

The guest speaker this year is Architect Louis Mannie Lionni, who will be giving a lecture on the story of our hometown of Burlington, Vermont.  "Heresies: Cultural Criticism in the Context of the Commercialization, Privatization and Militarization of a Small New England City.  A Shaggy Dog Story."

Louis Mannie Lionni is the Editor and Publisher of 05401, a small town magazine that is "committed to promoting an integrative, multidisciplinary dialogue in the public realm."

In Lionni's Own Words:

Architecture can be thought of as a sub-set of the great synthesizing categories: art, science, politics, sociology, philosophy. But architecture, in its built form, ultimately gives material being to all of these, and preserves and expresses their conflicts and contradictions over time.

Architectural criticism attempts to describe the relationship of the built environment to the existential environment. In formal terms ; in functional terms.

The subject of architectural criticism can range from the structure of poetry to the poetry of structure, from graphic design to urban and regional planning.

05401 ostensibly deals with architecture, planning, food and romance in Burlington, Vermont, on the east coast of Lake Champlain. The thing about it is that I often meet friends who tell me how much they enjoyed (liked) the most recent issue and then ask me without a trace of sarcasm what it’s about. I find that puzzling.

In any case, it would be irresponsible to overlook – in this context – the militarization of our environment, its privatization and commercialization, the F35 controversy and PlanBTV.

The lecture and reception are sponsored by the Roland Batten Memorial Fund, TruexCullins Architecture & Interior Design, and The University of Vermont’s Visiting Artists, Art Critics and Art Historian’s Lecture Series. The events are free and open to the public.

For more information call the UVM Art Department, 802-656-2014.

Church Street Storytellers

Those of us who live and work in the Burlington area may take for granted the lively commercial and cultural activity of the downtown Church Street Marketplace, the artistic and economic heart of the city. But have you ever wondered just how this pedestrian–only area of 4 city blocks came to be?

The Marketplace officially opened in 1981. In conjunction with its 30 year anniversary, the Church Street Marketplace Association recently released a series of 4 documentary videos with interviews of the key people who worked to turn this crazy idea into a reality.

At the center of this group of individuals was Bill Truex, Principal Emeritus of TruexCullins and the architect of the initial marketplace design.

Part 1 takes a look at what initially inspired the founders of the Church Street Marketplace. Bill Truex is joined by Pat Robins, the chair of the Church Street Marketplace Commission, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, former Burlington mayor Peter Clavelle, Ernie Pomerleau of Pomerleau Real Estate, and many others who were instrumental in developing the initial concepts.

Part 2 describes how the idea for closing the street evolved and the early tests that made it happen. The video features Bill Truex and Pat Robins, the chair of the Church Street Marketplace Commission, who talk about the early experiments with closing the street in the 1970s. Some of the first special events that experimented with closing the street to automobiles included arts and crafts festivals. These events were a big success and were instrumental in paving the way for permanently closing the street a few years later.

Part 3 tells the story of the investment and construction. The construction of the pedestrian marketplace was a major disruption to the downtown businesses at the time, but with perseverance and creative thinking, the merchants and customers made the best of a difficult situation. This is the story of a successfully managed project in the middle of perhaps the busiest commercial block in the state!

And the 4th and final video talks about the role of the Church Street marketplace today. 30 years after its initial construction, this is an area that has become an arts and cultural destination, an economic engine for the city (and the state), and an award-winning example of great urban design, one of the 10 Great Public Spaces in America according to the American Planning Association.

 

You can see more photos of the drawings, models and demonstration projects from the 1970s in this blog post we published last year.

AIA Leadership and Legislative Conference Report

posted by Diantha S. Korzun, AIA Vermont President

Diantha recently returned from the American Institute of Architects' 2012 Leadership and Legislative Conference, held March 7-10, 2012 at the Grant Hyatt in Washington, DC.

For three days in Washington DC, the AIA executive components convene in the nation’s capital.  The goal is to express a collective voice to members of Congress about the importance architectural design has on our communities.  

Through design, architects can enhance the quality of life for the public.  There is also a responsibility to enforce the health, safety, and welfare of our communities.  The theme of the conference this year was Leadership, Advocacy, and Communication.  All are qualities an architect should possess in order to promote public awareness of the importance of architecture.  This year that is what our contingent from AIA VT set out to do. Carol Miklos (Executive Director), Thomas Bachman (President Elect), Michael Hoffman (AIA NE Secretary/Treasurer) and I went to Washington DC this spring to not only promote the profession to the Congressmen, but also improve our own skills in effectively advocating the profession in our region.

In Washington, the four bills that we found applicable to Vermont architectural firms and therefore discussed with our Congressmen included:

• Remove Barriers to the Private Sector Lending. (HR 1356) The AIA supports legislation that will continue to improve the commercial lending market and allow worthwhile projects to have access to capital.
• Save Energy, Create Jobs.  (1798 Deduction)  AIA encourages the support of a bipartisan effort to expand the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction.  This should incentivize energy efficient new construction projects through increasing the tax deduction for Green Buildings.
• Help Small Business Thrive. (HR 3987)  Since 95% of AIA member firms are under 50 employees, AIA wants to ensure these firms are protected under the Small Business Protection Act so that they still have funding under the SBA program.
• Pass a Transportation Bill to Get our Communities Moving Again.  The Senate has created a bill to support a variety of transportation spending.  AIA encourages Congressman to pass a bill to authorize and reform federal transportation programs to maintain current funding, support all modes of transportation, and recognize many long term benefits of well-designed and well planned projects.

We are fortunate our current Congressmen support these issues and therefore do not need to be persuaded to back them.  However, it was productive to discuss local examples of projects and firms that are directly impacted by these bills so they have a better understanding of their constituents.

At a local level, this year, AIA Vermont will advocate architectural design through programs that address the theme for the year, Design of Place.  Programs include the AIA New England Conference hosted in Burlington this fall and the AIA VT/NH Annual Meeting/Tours at Bennington College this spring.  (See relevant articles about both events in the current issue of AIA VT.) 

In addition, the AIA Vermont Public Policy Subcommittee is already enthusiastically discussing ways to advocate the profession to our Vermont legislature.  They have held several meetings, including a gathering of interested members earlier this month to survey the membership about current issues.  

Through Advocacy, Leadership and Communication AIA VT will promote architectural design and issues at a national level as well as a local level this year.  If you are interested in joining the effort, please contact Carol Miklos, AIA VT Executive Director.