Greetings from the Historic Resources Committee.
We are looking forward to meeting with many of you at the AIA Conference on Architecture in New York City. The time around the AIA Conference is always a busy time of year for the HRC. This year’s conference is filled with educational sessions and workshops and numerous New York City tours. Also, please don’t miss out on our HRC Lunch on Thursday, June 21, with New York-based architectural historian, Francis Morrone.
Francis is an architectural historian and the author of eleven books. Collectively, his work represents the most comprehensive bodies of research on the built history of New York City. Morrone's essays on architecture have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, American Arts Quarterly, the New Criterion, Humanities, and the New York Times. He was a columnist for the New York Sun for six and a half years (2002-2008). In April 2011, he was named by Travel + Leisure magazine as one of the 13 best tour guides in the world. Francis was a 2012 recipient of the Arthur Ross Award of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, and a 2016 recipient of the Landmarks Lion Award of the Historic Districts Council.
The topic of Francis’s presentation will be “When Gentrification came to New York.” He will present the beginnings of gentrification and the row house renovation movement in the 1910s and 1920s, how it was all about altering the original appearance of old row houses, and the dilemmas this has posed for historic preservationists in recent times
The Lunch Venue will be the historic National Arts Club – a National Historic Landmark. The National Arts Club is housed in the historic Samuel Tilden Mansion. The Tilden Mansion occupies 14 and 15 Gramercy Park South; both houses were built in the 1840s; and the original flat-front, iron-grilled brownstones matched the style of the homes still maintained on the west side of Gramercy Park. Samuel Tilden hired Calvert Vaux, a famed architect and one of the designers of Central Park, to modernize the façade with sandstone, bay windows ornamentation in the Aesthetic Movement style. John LaFarge created stained glass panels for the interior of the mansion; and sculptors from the firm of Ellin and Kitson created elaborate fireplace surrounds, bookcases and doors. Glass master Donald MacDonald fashioned a unique stained glass dome for Tilden’s library that crowns the room where the bar is now located.
Tours of the private club will be available as part of the luncheon. The luncheon is booking fast.
We always have opportunities for you to become involved in the work of the HRC including competitions, volunteer activities, educational and training and sponsorship. Please reach out to myself or any HRC member if you have any questions, comments or would like to discuss how you can help the AIA promote the work of preservation architects and the preservation community in general.
Michael Bjornberg, FAIA | 2018 Chair, AIA Historic Resources Committee