Tag Archives: Architecture

Roof Systems of Virginia Fixes Remembrance Structure

We’d like to thank Roof Systems of Virginia for fixing the Remembrance Structure for us!

The structure sustained damage from strong storms that swept through the Northern Neck in 2018. It is now wrapped in FarmTek PolyMax curtain, which is typically found in agricultural structures like barns. It’s durable and does not absorb moisture, making it the perfect option for the Remembrance Structure. Below are some before, during, and after pictures that illustrate the process, which included removing the damaged transparent Tyvek that was originally wrapped around the structure.

We encourage you to check out Roof Systems of Virginia’s website for your commercial and residential roofing needs.

Menokin’s recreated slave dwelling wins award for architectural excellence

  • This article is copied in full from the Free Lance-Star
  • The Remembrance Structure, an outdoor classroom on the grounds of the Menokin Foundation near Warsaw, has won an AIA Virginia 2018 Award for Excellence in Architecture.

    AIA Virginia is a member of the Society of the American Institute of Architects. Its Awards for Excellence in Architecture honor Virginia architects’ works that are no older than seven years, contribute to the built environment, and are clear examples of thoughtful, engaging design.

    Architect Reid Freeman based what was originally called the Ghost Structure on archaeology, 18th-century timber framing techniques, and examples of similar slave dwellings in the region that still survive. The framework is covered only by a transparent fabric that diffuses shade. At night, solar-powered lighting creates a paper lantern effect.

    A crew of professionals, students and volunteers built the simple structure during a five-day workshop last May. It sits directly over its footprint of the late 18th-century slave dwelling that it re-creates.

    Besides serving as a classroom, the Remembrance Structure is intended to be a memorial to the enslaved workers who worked on Menokin plantation for Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Menokin Foundation’s African American Advisory Work Group recently renamed the building the Remembrance Structure in honor of the enslaved people who built the original and lived there.

    This year’s Awards for Excellence in Architecture included two Honor Awards, 13 Merit Awards and one Honorable Mention. Award categories include Architecture, Contextual Design, Residential Design, Interior Design and Historic Preservation. Freeman’s design was one of two Contextual Merit Award recipients. The other was Stemann I Pease Architecture’s design for the Historic Farmstead at the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown.

    The awards for contextual design are chosen based on outstanding architecture that perceptibly reflects the history, culture, and physical environment of the place in which it stands and that, in turn, contributes to the function, beauty and meaning of its larger context.

    Get Floored By The Progress

    The Menokin Ghost Structure: Memoria and Kairos – Day Two

    Day One ended with peg manufacturing in full swing (need 80 total), the grade beams of the structure assembled and the chiseling of the mortise and tenon joints well underway.

    By lunchtime on Day Two, the floorboards were cut and laid. Preparations for the framing of the walls began in anticipation of the vertical beam raising to take place on Day Three. And let’s not forget the fashion show of the Fab Four students voguing their Menokin hats.

    Take a virtual stroll through the pictures and imagine the scent of fresh-cut pine perfuming the air; hear the scrape of draw blades shaping pegs; feel the delicious spring combination of warm sun and cool breeze on your skin and get floored by the progress being made on our newest interpretive tool at Menokin.

    The Menokin Ghost Structure: Memoria and Kairos

    MAKE SOMETHING WITH YOUR HANDS

    This structure will be 15ft x 25ft. The enclosed wall surfaces will be transparent and developed in the future for educational interpretation. Participants are spending the week learning wood working and joinery techniques that were used in the 18th century.

    Based on information derived from archaeological excavations, we will be recreating the framework of a dwelling that would have been lived in by Menokin’s field slaves.

    DAY ONE: The Work Begins

    MAKE SOMETHING WITH YOUR MIND

    THE MENOKIN GHOST STRUCTURE serves as a physical metaphor to foster discourse and assist people in forming and participating in conversations about slavery as it relates to the Menokin site, the history of America and current events.

    MEMORIA is a Latin term, and can be translated as “memory.” Memoria was the discipline of recalling the arguments of a discourse in classical rhetoric. Creating outline structures of the major arguments of a discourse would also aid memory.

    KAIROS dictates that what is said must be said at the right time. In addition to timeliness, kairos considers appropriateness. The term also implies being knowledgeable of and involved in the environment where the situation is taking place in order to benefit fully from seizing the opportune moment.

    The size of the building is known from the archaeological evidence. However, because there are no photographs of it, we are recreating only the timber framing of the structure, which will be clad in a transparent sheath. We are calling this building the Ghost Structure: Memoria and Kairos.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The design, drawings and renderings of
    the Ghost Structure were created by architect Reid Freeman, who also serves on the Menokin Board of Trustees.

     

     

     

    True to our unique vision, we are not creating a reproduction of a slave dwelling, but instead a constructed form that will generate dialog about our past, with the flexibility to garner new knowledge, awareness and understanding. Once completed, this structure will be used as an educational classroom, and will serve as the centerpiece in telling the African American story – both past and present – in Richmond County, Virginia and beyond.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    2018 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education goes to Jorge Silvetti

    COPIED IN FULL FROM THE  AIA.

    Search “Harvard Graduate School of Design” on Menokin’s blog for more posts about their collaboration with The Menokin Glass House project.

    2018 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education
    Jorge Silvetti, Int’l Assoc. AIA

    Jorge Silvetti-02
    2018 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education Recipient

    Born in Argentina, Jorge Silvetti has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1975, serving as a gifted professor and mentor, and with Rodolfo Machado has worked as a design leader in Boston since 1974. While his influence at GSD was most strongly felt from 1995–2002, when he served as chair of the architecture program, he has propagated a distinct school of thought among the design professionals who have graduated in the past 42 years.

    “This is not a stylization of architecture that is visually and immediately identifiable, but a way of thinking about history, precedent, and the contextual complexities of architectural production that has inspired generations of architects and educators such as myself,” wrote Christian Dagg, AIA, head of the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, in a letter nominating Silvetti for the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion.

    Currently the Nelson Robinson, Jr. Professor of Architecture at Harvard, Silvetti leads design studios and delivers regular lectures on history, contemporary theory, and criticism. His groundbreaking 1977 essay “The Beauty of Shadows” provided a compelling argument for how a profession caught between postmodernism and deconstruction should proceed. Later works co-authored with Machado that expanded upon his arguments have greatly influenced his students as well as other schools of design nationwide. The list of deans and department chairs who were former students, colleagues, or employees of Silvetti is long and impressive.

    “As chair of the architecture program at Harvard, his emphasis on design as a form of research, coupled with his expansion of the field of architecture to include other design practices, had a profound effect on the discipline at large—an influence that can still be felt today,” Mónica Ponce de León, dean and professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture, wrote in a letter supporting Silvetti’s nomination. “Through conferences, symposia, and exhibitions, Silvetti brought allied disciplines in conversation with architecture—long before interdisciplinary became a catchphrase in academia.”

    Since 1986 Silvetti has overseen a number of research programs, including an examination of Sicily’s urbanism and architecture that won a Progressive Architecture award. Other projects have explored the future of public space in the shifting metropolis of Buenos Aires and the future development of previously industrial Bilbao, Spain. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize, and since 1996 has served as a Pritzker Architecture Prize juror. In 2000, he was a juror for the former Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin American Architecture.

    Beyond academia, Silvetti’s work in association with Rodolfo Machado since 1974 and under different professional firms that they founded and led (presently MACHADO SILVETTI), has been widely celebrated. Run like a studio where all employees contribute ideas and everyone shares in the learning experience, the firm’s notable projects include work at many major Universities and Colleges in the U.S., (among them Dartmouth and Bowdoin Colleges, Princeton, Harvard, Rice, and Arizona State universities), abroad at the American University in Beirut and the Vietnamese and German University in Vietnam, as well as notable cultural and educational institutions such as the Getty Trust in the U.S. The firm received the First Award in Architecture from the American University of Arts and Letters in 1991 and numerous design awards and citations from AIA.

    “After teaching for many years and participating in many conversations, he stands among a select group of peers,” wrote Machado in a letter supporting his partner’s nomination. “In fact there are only a few still fully engaged in teaching, who have witnessed and indeed participated in the wild swings of academic pedagogy—from the post-modern to the parametric to the current heterotopic panorama. Throughout all of it, Jorge has been committed to teaching the core canons of architecture while simultaneously supporting those innovating people and emerging projects that benefit the core and expand the reach of architecture.”

    Jury

    Chere R. LeClair, AIA, Chair, LeClair Architects, Bozeman, Montana

    Don Keshika De Saram, Assoc. AIA, AIAS President, Washington DC

    Donna Kacmar, FAIA, University of Houston, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, Houston

    Toshiko Mori, FAIA, Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC, New York City

    Nader Tehrani, Dean, The Cooper Union, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, New York City

    Image credits

    Jorge Silvetti-02
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    Muwaiji_CornerRev_web
    NYU_2012AG23_web
    PAAM_02_web

     

    The best 2.5 minutes you will ever spend watching a video.

    Have you watched this video? It doesn’t take long. Saving Menokin is important. This video tells you why. (Here’s a hint: there’s something in it for all of us.)

    Smashing Glass Tour!

    BY: ALICE FRENCH

    On June 13th, Mrs. Smith’s 11th Grade Advanced Placement History  class from Richmond County High School visited Menokin as guinea pigs to test out a new tour style being developed here: a Smashing Glass Tour!

    The students participated in a dynamic tour which integrated the use of smart phone technology, social media, and physical activity.  They learned about Francis Lightfoot Lee and the history of Menokin, architecture and building trades.

    For an activity, we practiced some of the things we discussed about architecture by first working in teams to build structures with blocks.  And then…oh yes, body building- making architectural forms out of humans.

    Of course, after all the fun, we still had time to take a selfie with Frank.

    17_selfie with Lee


    The Menokin Visitor’s Center has new Hours of Operation, which now include scheduled times for guided tours.

    VISITOR’S CENTER

    OPEN 
    Wed | Thurs | Fri:  10 am – 4 pm
    Sat: May – September: 12 pm – 4 pm

    CLOSED
    Sun | Mon | Tues

    PAID TOUR HOURS
    Wed: 11 am and 2 pm
    Thurs: 2 pm and 6 pm
    Fri: 11 am and 2 pm

    (Paid tours available by appointment; some restrictions apply.)

     

    Email Alice to schedule a special Smashing Glass Tour.

    Menokin Offers Education Building Blocks (Literally!)

    BY:  ALICE FRENCH

    Earlier in June, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders from Aylett Country

    ACDS students hiked to Cat Point Creek on their recent visit to Menokin
    ACDS students hiked to Cat Point Creek on their recent visit to Menokin.

    Day School came to Menokin with their teachers, Mrs. Katona and Ms. Brooks.  While here they hiked down to Cat Point Creek and learned about the wildlife which lives in the Rappahannock River Valley Watershed.

    After the trail hike we went and visited the house and talked about how buildings are made and what Menokin looked like before it fell down.

    Then we ran across the fields back to the Visitor Center, (because, well, that’s how these kids travel) and took a lunch break.

    After lunch, the group went into the barn to learn a little about how buildings get made.  We talked about the different professions involved in building and what architects do.  Building with blocks is a great way for students of all ages to use critical thinking skills, cooperatively make design choices, learn to take turns,  and build a structure through teamwork.

    Great day of learning with a great group of kids!

    Mock-up: Before and After

    We have talked and talked about the amazing stabilization and preconstruction work that has been taking place at Menokin.

    But as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  The photography of the completed Northwest Corner reconstruction took my breath away. This before and after photo from 2015 shows the remarkable accomplishments of our preservation effort.

    Mock-Up---Before-and-After
    (click on image to see enlargment)

    I hope you also feel the excitement and pride that I feel when I see this sneak preview of Menokin in her glory days.

    If you’d like to help with our efforts, please consider making a donation.

     

    ACDS Visits Menokin for Fun and Fibonacci

    Today Ms. Dillard’s 8th grade class from Aylett County Day School visited Menokin.
       The group learned about the relationship of the Fibonacci Sequence and the golden ratio as it related to the enlightened thinkers of 18th century Architecture and Design.
       
       
    Afterwards they toured the Menokin Visitor Center and House, and hiked down to Cat Point Creek to get a view of the new kayak landing.  
    This bright group of students was able to see how conservation at our site teaches about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through architecture, history and science.
    It was a great day! Enjoy your holiday break!  

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