Historic New England Summit 2023 | Day 2

On Thursday, November 2, and Friday, November 3, I attended Historic New England Summit 2023, a two-day event held at The VETS, or Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in Providence, Rhode Island that brought together members of Historic New England (HNE) and others interested in the history and preservation of the area. Yesterday, I posted a summary for Day 1. My summary for Day 2 is adapted from 10 pages of notes. If you would like to learn more about any of the sessions, please let me know, and I can post a more detailed write-up or share my notes.

Opening Keynote: Built for Zero: Ending Homelessness

After an introduction by Vin Cipolla, President & CEO of HNE, Rosanne Haggerty opened Day 2 of the Summit with a keynote describing solutions to the public housing crisis. Haggerty is President & CEO of Community Solutions, headquartered in New York City, which assists 107 communities in their initiative Build for Zero. Since 2015, the project has housed over 167,000 people. Haggerty explained methods for eliminating barriers for housing, including state-wide, comprehensive, pro-housing legislation; focus on historically disadvantaged, redlined communities; and transforming existing buildings into housing.

One successful renovation was Swift Factory, turning a former manufacturing facility into housing through collaboration with North Hartford Partnership. Projects in process include adding living spaces to Main Street in Concord, NH, along with planning next steps for nearby New Hampshire State Hospital, recently closed Juvenile Justice Center in Manchester, NH, and Glencliff Home in Glencliff, NH. Through Haggerty’s plan, allowing infill with a “jumble of housing types” on vast, state-owned properties would provide a quick and affordable solution to creating “pleasant and organic” neighborhoods matching the “character and charm” of other New Hampshire communities.

Panel: Inclusive Development and Housing Affordability

The second discussion of the morning focused on the connection between historic preservation and affordable housing projects. Angela D. Brooks, a fellow of the American Institute of Certificed Planners (FAICP) and president of the American Planning Association along with the director of Illinois Office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSP), moderated the session. Unrelated to the rest of the talk, Brooks wore a salmon pink corduroy suit, my favorite outfit of the day. She described the national housing crisis, with a purchasable housing shortage of 3.9 million homes and an affordable rental housing shortage of 7.3 million homes. This leads to 67% of low income households not being able to afford a home.

Carla Distefano, Executive Director of SWAP, Inc. (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property), described the work of her organization. From 1975 to 1993, SWAP was volunteer run and saved 1,300 homes in Providence during its years of economic struggle. From 1993 to the present, the organizations put $143 million to neighborhood revitalization, completely transforming the city. The goals of the organization include respecting traditional neighborhoods with current historic elements and culture, create a more diverse and inclusive city, and design walkable spaces close to schools and stores. Successful projects include mixed-use development space on Broad Street in Providence, and renovations of classic triple decker mill housing. Distefano noted that urban centers are running out of land, but controversial taller apartments may solve some housing shortages.

Sarah Marchant, chief of staff and vice president of Resident-Owned Communities New Hampshire (ROC-NH) at New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, gave advice on financing affordable housing reuse. A successful project included the transformation of Sacred Heart School in Nashua, NH into Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, a four story living space for low income and unhoused people. The project raised $9.5 million in donations and collaborated with the Diocese of Manchester, which leases the space at $1 for year for the next 100 years. Another successful housing projects was the renovation of an cotton storehouse originally built by Nashua Manufacturing Company into housing and office spaces. Goddard Block in Claremont, NH and Franklin Light & Power Mill in Franklin, NH have undergone similar renovations. Marchant emphasized that affordable housing often belongs to teachers and police officers, and more affordable housing rarely means more children in a school district.

Carrie Zaslow, executive director of the Providence Revolving Fund, described how the organization invests in low and moderate income communities, especially those that experienced redlining and historic racism. Funding comes in several types, such as home repair loans for homeowners with properties over years old and often on a fixed income, opportunity investment for large scale historic preservation, and micro-business loans for smaller, family-owned stores. Success stories include housing and yoga studios for people with intellectual disabilities inside a former mill on Pine Street in Pawtucket, Spanish-language theater Teatros ECAS in Providence, and The Bomes Theater on Broad Street in Providence.

Keynote: Landscapes as Cultural Anchors: Revealing and Reconnecting to Stories in the Land

After morning break, Carissa Demore, team leader for Preservation Services at HNE, introduced keynote speaker Thomas Woltz, describing him as a “rock star in landscape architecture”. Cipolla gave further introductions. As the principle and owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, Woltz spoke of his fifty-two member staff located in Charlottesville, VA, New York City, and Houston, TX. The firm focuses on creating public landscapes, working with education and cultural institutions, and conservation agriculture.

Current, ongoing projects include transforming a mental healthcare facility in Knoxville, TN into Lakeshore Park; creating 100-acre Land Bridge and Prairie at Memorial Park Conservancy in Houston, TX over a six-lane highway; redesigning the courtyard garden at Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA; transforming a former Ford Motor plant in Charlotte, NC originally built in 1924 into Camp North End, a multi-use community space; and working with the Asheville, NC community to change a so-called “Pit of Despair” into part of the Haywood-Page Project, an accessible urban public plaza amid other historic and cultural venues.

Woltz used gentle humor throughout the take to convey his philosophies of human nature and design. He reminded attendees that “People will fight for something they love, and they love things they know.” He also asked that urban planners “eliminate words like open space, empty space, vacant space… the land is full!”

The Haverhill Center: Planning a Cultural District in the Queen Slipper City

Nancy Lagassé, a HNE Trustee, reviewed the introduction of the Haverhill Center during HNE Summit 2022 before inviting the panelists to the stage: Vin Cipolla, Carissa Demore, Lisa Serafin, and Michelle Finamore. Cipolla acted as moderator and explained that the discussion format would function similarly to a small staff meeting. In the past year, HNE finalized the purchase of the Burgess Building across from their current property, the Lang Building and adjoining parking lot.

Lisa Serafin, president of Athena Real Estate Development, reviewed the Haverhill location and its history as a major shoe manufacturing city during the early 20^th century. The presence of international companies, the status of Washington Street Shoe District on the National Register of Historic Places, and newer developments on Merrimack Street provide the perfect setting for the upcoming center. Demore added the importance of motivating local stakeholders, from Haverhill residents to the media.

Michelle Finamore, fashion design curator with a doctorate in Decorative Arts, Design, and Material Culture from Bard College, compared the pending renovations in Haverhill to other projects around the world. Victoria & Albert Museum East in East London is slated to open in 2025 as an open study storage area including cultural spaces for the community, such as exhibits, study spaces, studies, a shop, and a café. Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo, NY opened earlier this year and includes a Common Sky visitors space that is free and open to the public. Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, NY took inspiration from Andy Warhol’s Factory to create space for printmaking, metalworking, woodworking, and other arts.

Coming soon to Haverhill will be a higher number of tours and events — maybe I will finally get the opportunity to visit! — competitions to secure design partners, and public art from local and regional artists.

Lightening Talks: Perspectives in Preservation

Sue Rogers, on the board of advisors at HNE, opened up the Summit after lunch by introducing the final topics of climate change, embodied carbon, insect management, and the value of public lands.

Dawn Carroll, a social entrepreneur and stone design consultant, currently leads the creative project “Songs for Mary” based on the life of opera singer and hotel owner Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson. Carroll founded Over My Shoulder Foundation with Grammy award winning singer Patti Austin to provide mentoring to young artists. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Carroll discovered the iconic Mystery Manor on 7101 Apple Street in Pittsburg, PA, where Madame Dawson hosted and protected Black cultural icons, including boxer Joe Louis. Carroll hopes the album and upcoming musical will raise awareness and funding to save the house.

Jim Honeywell, a trustee on the HNE Preservation Committee, introduced Trudy Coxe, CEO and executive director of Preservation Society of Newport County (Newport Mansions). Coxe began her presentation with three messages to explain the position of preservation societies:

1. “We’re in the rescue business.”
2. “This business is important for our economy… although many undervalue this.”
3. “Everything done in collaboration is done better.”

Coxe gave an overview of the history of Newport Mansions. Catherine Warren founded the organization in 1945 to save Hunter House, a 300-year-old Georgina Colonial that was scheduled to be disassembled and moved to the MET. Warren collaborated with Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Széchenyi, daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt who built The Breakers. The countess arranged for the first floor of her mansion to be opened and charged $1 admission, with all proceeds going to save Hunter House. Over seventy-eight years, Newport Mansions has accrued eleven historic properties and seen 45 million visitors, 24 million of which visit the Breakers. Other renovation projects included puzzling together a broken mural at Chateau Sur Mer, reinvigorating the gardens at The Elms, and extensive repairs to Rosecliff.

Keynote: Cultural Leadership in Climate Action

Miranda Massie gave the final keynote of the Summit, detailing the effects of climate change and her work creating The Climate Museum. She emphasized that past issues of inequality due to age, race, class, disability, and immigration cause climate issues today. A study from 2019 found that sidewalks in historically redlined communities experience hotter surface temperatures in summer than their gentrified counterparts due to a lack of tree canopy. The Climate Museum highlights these inequality but also points a finger at the real “bad guys”, leaders of the fossil fuel industry who withheld information or lied to the general public. Massie emphasized that a supermajority of people agree that climate change is a problem and must be resolved. The museum provides a space for people to openly share their ideas and commit themselves to resolving problems.

Panel: Embodied Carbon: The Sustainability Imperative of Preserving Places

Jacob Albert, a HNE Trustee, welcomed the final panel on the built environment. Philip Kennicott, Senior Art and Architecture Critic at The Washington Post, moderated the session and began the conversation by comparing the societal debt of carbon emissions to prolonged issues caused by slavery.

Dan Bergsagel, a sustainability lead at schlaich bergermann partners originally “from historic old England”, showed a pair of charts explaining the difference between “embodied carbon” and ”operational carbon“. When talking about carbon emissions and buildings, people have traditionally discussed operational carbon, which is emitted by daily use such as heating, cooling, and renovations. However, embodied carbon exists inside the construction materials and is released during their creation and destruction. Traditional construction follows a linear economy, where extracted natural materials create something new that will eventually fall into disrepair and become demolished. Bergsagel proposed looping this economy, whether by creating a large loop were materials are reused after building demolition, a circular economy where an entire space is reconditioned, or a maintenance economy where an existing building is continually fixed. Smaller loops create the least carbon emissions.

Rebecca Berry, principal, president, and director of sustainability at Finegold Alexander Architects, explained ways to reduce embodied carbon in a building project by selecting fewer materials with longer lifespans and made close by. She noted that turning former houses of worship into residences is not the cheapest solution, but it provides a unique experience for the homeowner. During the Q&A, Berry cited standards and ruling bodies like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), International Living Future Institute, and the Living Building Challenge as providing the beginning of criteria to regulate and reduce embodied carbon. Tools like One Click LCA help developers to assess the environmental impact of a building project.

Jonathan Rosenbloom, a professor of law at Albany Law School and executive director of Sustainable Development Code, talked about local level laws to limit the mission of greenhouse gases during building projects. While embodied carbon regulations are unlikely to pass at the federal level, King County near Seattle, WA and Multnomah County near Portland, OR have created successful amendments that require developers and land owners to reduce their carbon footprint. During the Q&A, Rosenbloom suggested turning to his own organization to learn Sustainable City Code or learning from Rocky Mountain Institute.

Lightning Talk: Keeping the Bugs at Bay

After the final break from the day, Demore returned to introduce Adam Osgood, collections technician at HNE. Osgood sadly announced that the number of pests is on the rise due to global warming. He described the difficulty of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the strategies he uses to reduce or eliminate the number of insects who find their way into collections. His go-to resource is MuseumPests.net, an international website maintained by entomologists and museum professionals that provides articles in English and Spanish.

Osgood listed common pests, including the webbing clothes moth, furniture beetle, varied carpet beetle. All of these pests could be eliminated through putting infested material into The Bubble, a controlled atmosphere treatment chamber. The system uses nitrogen to remove oxygen from the atmosphere and suffocate the bugs. As the only past mitigation tool of its kind in the world, The Bubble uses less energy and is safer than its CO2 consuming counterparts.

Additionally, Osgood covers vulnerable furniture and shelving with Long Lasting Insecticide Netting (LLIN) sold by Disease Control Technologies. These nets are safe for humans and regulated by WHO. Through testing in collaboration with the the Preventative Care Assistant Program and led by a pair of experts — Patrick Kelley of Insects Limited and Eric Breitung of the MET — the exterminators discovered that the netting is even more effective than expected. They published a paper on the subject in 2019. Osgood ended on an optimistic note, that they bugs greatly contribute to pollination. As long as they stay out of the archives, they have a positive impact on the environment.

Closing Conversation: Climate, Cultural Resources, and Public Lands

George Fisk on the HNE Board of Trustees introduced the final session. Maria Burkes, former ranger in the National Park Service and a consultant for parks and public lands, moderated the session. She began by listing a wide range of parks and noted that a single demographic previously made most of the decisions on what spaces should receive a park designation and how the space should be used. The public has many questions about parks, including how they are created, who manages them, how do they change, and how can new areas become parks.

Louis C. Fusco, principal at Louis Fusco Landscape Architects, described a pair of parks project. Library in the Park in Scarsdale, NY will accompany a newly renovated “loud library”. The new sidewalks, trails, and proximity to other community spaces allowed the library to become a cultural hub. Fusco and his team collaborated with library staff, town board, friends groups, and non-typical residents to lay out a schematic plan and receive buy-in from all stakeholders. Pound Ridge Green was created on a plot of land formerly occupied by a semi-abandoned auto shop and gas station that had contaminated the soil and drinking water. A community member bought the property and turned it into a space honoring his deceased wife. Fusco used granite from a Maine quarry and native plants to create a natural space. While the park has been open for only six months, it is already a venue for music events and other community gatherings.

Doug Pizzi, executive director of Mass Parks for All, launched the organization on May 11, 2023 after a park summit in the fall of 2022. With his background in journalism and politics, Pizzi described the importance of contacting public officials like state legislature and governors, along with getting media coverage for events. He emphasized that the budget for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) is greatly increasing, from $50 million in 2022 to $105 in 2024. Pizzi hopes Mass Parks for All will reunite siloed friends groups, from the wealthy Emerald Necklace Conservancy to the Callahan Dog Owners Group at Callahan State Park.

Closing Performance: Marlboro Music

Just like last year’s final presentation, a string quartet from Marlboro Music, a seven-week chamber music festival in Marlboro, VT, played an upbeat classical piece. Before they began, Lydia Kimbell, chair of the board of advisors and on the board of trustees at HNE, reminded attendees that the Summit will return in 2024, while fellow trustee Azi Djazani introduced the four young performers: Claire Bourg on first violin, Stephanie Zyzak on second violin, Zhanbo Zheng on viola, and Zachary Mowitz on cello. The quartet played the four movement Kaiserquartett by Franz Joseph Hayden. The song is famous for its second movement, now the tune of the German national anthem “Deutschlandleid”. The skilled musical performance was accompanied by excellent camerawork from the film crew. Sitting by the open caption and video feed screen, I could watch closeup footage of the musician’s expression, fingering, and sheet music.