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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Nan Gutterman
Ellis Island
New York Harbor
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My name is Nan R. Gutterman and I have been working as an architect specializing in preservation and museum design since graduating with a MArch degree with a concentration in historic preservation. While most people associate me with my work on monumental buildings in Philadelphia such as Philadelphia City Hall, the Reading Terminal Trainshed/Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Academy of Music, the Historic Lazaretto and now the Main Building at Drexel University, to name just a few, the building that started and most influenced my career was the restoration/renovation of the Main Building at Ellis Island.
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Prior to moving to Philadelphia, I spent five years living and working in New York City on Ellis Island. The project was a joint venture between two architecture firms; Beyer Blinder Belle and Notter, Finegold+ Alexander. As one of the few individuals on the Design Team with formal training in historic preservation, I was given an amazing opportunity to work on the restoration of the Registry Room, and the masonry cleaning and restoration of the exterior envelope. The project allowed me the opportunity to work with leaders in the preservation community such as James Marston Fitch, fellow architects John Belle, FAIA, James Alexander, FAIA, James Rhodes, FAIA, leaders in the National Park Service; Michael Adlerstein, FAIA and Diana Pardue. It is also when I met Frank Matero, the project’s conservator and a teacher at Columbia University and a group of talented colleagues, too numerous to name. Together, we produced construction documents and then oversaw the restoration and renovation of the Main Building originally designed by Boring & Tilton to welcome immigrants who travelled by steerage to the United States into the Museum of Immigration. The experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity and as the project neared completion, I moved to Philadelphia to start the next phase of my career at VITETTA.
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Nan Gutterman
Project Manager, VITETTA
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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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