Building Conservation Program Spring Weekend #2

With the weather rather bitterly cold and intermittent wind and blowing snow Building Conservation students spent most of their Saturday studio time working in class. A lot was accomplished. We were able to review many historic photographs and maps showing the Congress Street corridor, discuss potential project boundaries and existing conditions, and review the findings from the numerous studies and reports that have been collected and digested in the last two weeks.

During the next two weeks, the students will begin preparing overlay maps in AutoCAD, developing a series of potential project boundaries with a rationale for each, refining the project scope, preparing a draft history of the Congress Street corridor, analyzing demographic information, attending a public hearing regarding concept plans for the Lower Congress Street project, meeting with neighborhood representatives, gathering and analyzing additional zoning and land use data, preparing an inventory of existing businesses, and continuing a wide range of other research.

When we meet next, over the weekend of February 9th and 10th, Preservation Design Studio will be complemented by the Professional Practice class, which is taught by Ruth Pierpont of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation's Field Services Bureau.