Celebrating National Historic Preservation Month
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May is National Historic Preservation Month.
To celebrate, the Preservation Alliance asked 31 historic preservation leaders in Philadelphia to name a building that has inspired them and why. We invite you to watch this space daily and hear from leaders in the local preservation movement as they reveal the historic buildings that have inspired them.
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Carl M. Dress, AIA
East Park Canoe House
2400 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia
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The East Park Canoe House was built in 1914, designed by architect Walter T. Smedley, is the last in line of the boat houses built along the Schuylkill River. Plaisted Hall (now demolished and replaced with Lloyd Hall), No. 1 Boathouse Row, also was built by the City of Philadelphia and they formed a unique pair. Our entry into the facility in 2011, almost 100 years after its opening, marked a long-awaited turnaround – from the proverbial wrecking ball to a grand opening of the century old building.
The Canoe House began its life as a boat rental facility, renting canoes to the public for travel on the lower portion of the Schuylkill River. At a point in its history the Canoe House was adapted to the long boats known as sculls that began to race on the river. At the same time the end bays were made appropriate for the skulls by creating three openings on either end of the long bays.
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Over the last thirty years the Canoe House slowly began to lose its finish qualities. The roofs began to cave-in, the stucco walls started to peel and fray and the interior finishes of the first floor had started to loosen and give way. In general, the building had become a ‘wreck’.
The solution to the problems at the East Park Canoe House were enormous. The building had been close to demolition in 2008, Department of Licenses & Inspections closed the building, citing code violations and structural concerns. The building was largely re-built, the walls rebuilt, the stucco on the exterior re-applied and the Ludowici tile and the flat roofs renewed. It was a project that spanned from 2012 to 2017. The completion of the East Park Canoe House was an astounding adventure, one that I happily endured with many of the folks who would become friends as well as colleagues.
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Carl M. Dress, AIA
Senior Associate, Klein & Hoffman, Inc. and Co-Chair, AIA Philadelphia Historic Preservation Committee
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NEW VIRTUAL LECTURES
Watch from the safety and
comfort of your own home!
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Tuesday, May 19, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Art Deco in Philadelphia
Presented by Dr. David Brownlee
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Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th Century European Art,
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia contributed an exhilarating chapter to the history of "Art Deco," the colorful, invented modern style that offered an exciting alternative to the austere functionalism in the 1920s and 30s. The quintessential style of the Jazz Age, Art Deco brought brilliant color to the decoration of the Art Museum, introduced exotic motifs (including Mayan and Spanish Colonial) to the city's new skyscrapers, and contributed zig-zagging ornament to our radio stations and "automat" restaurants. It was also one of the components of the brilliant stylistic synthesis created by George Howe and William Lescaze in the era's greatest landmark, the PSFS Building.
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Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Penn Square, City Hall, and the Emergence of Modern Philadelphia
Presented by Paul Steinke
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Executive Director,
Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
The building of Philadelphia City Hall at Center Square in the late 19th century was not only a monumental feat of art, architecture and engineering. It was also a powerful catalyst for city building, and for the forging of a civic identity. Preservation Alliance executive director Paul Steinke discusses the forces that led our municipal headquarters to be located where it is, as well as the forces it unleashed to transform the surrounding neighborhood.
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Boathouse Row Walking Tour
Coming tomorrow! Watch This Space!
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