It was delivered to Menokin this morning by Alex Jacobson and Carmine D’Alessandro, the Harvard Graduate School of Design students, who constructed it under the supervision of Jorge Silvetti. They drove it down, under the cover of darkness, from Boston arriving late last night in Tappahannock.
Here is a sneak peak. But you’ll have to wait until next week to see the model. Why? Because I’m mean. And I want you to salivate!
Heading down the Menokin lane toward the Visitor’s Center.
Carmine peaks under the wrapping to make sure the model survived the trip unscathed.
All 200+ pounds of model are hefted into the visitor’s center.
The unveiling begins…..
Thanks again to Union First Market Bank for making all of this possible!
By Sarah Pope Executive Director, The Menokin Foundation
Away from the quiet fields of Menokin, I traveled to bustling Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 5 for a much anticipated day at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Twelve architecture graduate students in Professor Jorge Silvetti’s studio, “Ruins, Memory and the Imagination,” would be presenting their individual projects for a Conservation Research Laboratory; a Visitors Center; and Visitors Waterside Harbor at Menokin, as well as the design of all elements necessary to structure and present the Menokin site narratives to the visitor.
Students created a spectacular three-dimensional wooden model of the terrain of the Menokin site, along with the Menokin house site, that will be on display at our Visitors Center.
Reviewers on the studio panel were: Linda Pollack, AIA, ASLA Associate, Marpillero Pollack Architects, New York, NY; Reid Freeman, AIA, Principal at Architecture Operations DPC, New York, NY; Carlos Jimenez, Carlos Jimenez Studio, Houston, TX; Tim Love, AIA, Utile Inc. Architecture and Planning, Boston, MA; and Michael Hayes, Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard GSD.
The students had been working on their projects for several months, following a weekend-long site visit in February to Menokin and the Northern Neck. The Menokin Foundation provided the opportunity for these students to explore contemporary architectural design solutions to tell the story of our historic site.
We’re planning for a future curated exhibit and publication that presents the Harvard students’ innovative ideas to the public. More details will be forthcoming, but in the meantime, here are themes and associated designs that floated to the top for me as I watched the project presentations:
1) Designing for flexibility: one student designed very cool mobile archaeological stations or pods that can be moved around the site as we continue our investigations.
2) Finding inspiration in painting and fine arts: another student found inspiration from the lines he saw on the Menokin landscape, and his proposed Visitors Center evoked the work of artist Marco Migani.
3) The changing terrain of the site: plateau and ravine, water and woods, open and enclosed: I was particularly enamored by one student’s design of a bridge and attached Visitors Center that spans a ravine to the south of the Menokin house site.
4) Siting and perspective-relationship of new buildings toMenokin: Some students anchored their Visitors Center to the Menokin house—at certain corners of the house or on its central axis—that created a visible dialog between the historic and contemporary structures. Others tucked their new facilities away from the house site into the tree line of our expansive woods, reinforcing the flat, openness of the plateau surrounding the house site.
Above all, the interpersonal, human aspect of this studio—meeting the students, getting to know them and enjoying their unique perspectives on Menokin—was extremely fulfilling to me, as well as to our Trustees, staff, and friends who met the students in February.
The Menokin Foundation is pleased that its historic site is the focus of a Harvard Graduate School of Design studio course for this spring semester. The course ─ Ruins, Memory and the Imagination — is taught by Nelson Robinson, Jr. Professor of Architecture, Jorge Silvetti, who leads 12 graduate students through the complex design and interpretive issues surrounding the historic Menokin site.
The Menokin Foundation owns and operates a 500-acre site that was the plantation home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and is located in the heart of Virginia’s Northern Neck region. Foundation President W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr. commented on the studio, “I have always taken pride in the Foundation’s firm belief in incorporating education and learning as parts of its mission. We offer learning opportunities for everyone whether their interests lie in history, architecture, nature, art, or conservation. This current collaboration with Harvard takes the educational opportunities available at Menokin to a whole new level.”
Students explore basement of the Menokin ruin.
Over the course of the studio, which concludes in May, multiple historical layers will be sorted out and revealed by the graduate students enrolled in the studio as central themes of interpretation at Menokin: the existing architectural ruins of an eighteenth century structure and the stories they imply—dense chapters of American history in its revolutionary years, with its cultural manifestations inscribed in the institution of The Plantation and its architecture; the earlier layers of pre-colonial aboriginal occupation of the site by the Rappahannock Indian Tribe; and the current cultural significance of an imposing natural landscape rich in geological strata, flora and fauna.
Professor Silvetti commented on the timely opportunity that the Menokin partnership offers the Harvard Graduate School of Design and its students, “In no other time as in the present have we found Architecture in such perplexing contradictory relationship with History: on the one hand the practice of architecture is under intense social and political pressures to relate positively to ‘a history’, while on the other, the discipline of architecture has become utterly indifferent, even oblivious to history itself.”
The students, who hail from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ghana, China, Korea, and Russia, will each develop a design project to include: a Conservation Research Laboratory; a Visitors Center; Visitors Waterside Harbor; as well as the design of all elements necessary to structure and present the Menokin site narratives to the visitor. The students will present their projects to a juried panel in early May at Harvard.
Students enrolled in the studio are from around the world.
“This studio could be titled ‘The Architect as a Story Teller,’” smiles Professor Silvetti, “but that’s the instructor’s title and the students should find their own title for the narrative they would develop.”
Menokin Foundation Executive Director, Sarah Dillard Pope, commented, “It’s been a pleasure working with Jorge Silvetti and this young, talented, international group of designers. This academic exercise offers the Menokin Foundation an opportunity to showcase their talents. The studio also draws attention to our professional team’s efforts to devise innovative preservation and interpretive solutions for the Menokin site.”
When the core of your mission is education and you are presented with
the opportunity to host a group of graduate students from the Harvard
Graduate School of Design you vote “Aye!” right?
Of course, right. Jorge Silvetti, lead architect on the Menokin Project, is
also a Nelson Robinson Jr. Professor of Architecture at Harvard. He approached
Menokin Executive Director, Sarah Pope last fall about offering The Menokin Project
as the subject of his studio course for the 2013
spring semester.
Ten students will participate in the studio, and will travel to the site this weekend for an introduction to Menokin and the history of the Northern Neck.
Their initiation will begin on Friday evening with a dinner hosted by Menokin Trustees and staff. Honorary Menokin Trustee Calder Loth will present an indepth look at the current conservation practices at nearby historic sites.
They plan to spend a large part of their time here exploring the Menokin site and facilities. They will also pay visits to other historic landmarks in the area including George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument, Stratford Hall (c. 1735 and boyhood home of Francis Lightfoot Lee), Grove Mount (c. 1780 home built for Judith Carter) and Mount Airy (c. 1752 and home of John Tayloe II, father of Rebecca Tayloe Lee).
The students will focus on all aspects of The Menokin Project, including the cultural landscape and master site plans, and design solutions for the house.
The course will conclude in the spring when students present their projects before a juried panel. We look forward to sharing these with you as they evolve.
Well, they were, anyway. In June of this year, members of The Menokin Project design team traveled to the Northern Neck for a planning meeting.
In attendance were the architects from Machado and Silvetti, the cultural landscape historians from Reed Hilderbrand, and members of the Menokin staff and board of trustees.
We were treated to a wonderful dinner at King Copsico Farm, the home of Helen and Tayloe Murphy, which is situated on a gorgeous bluff overlooking the Potomac River.
Left to Right: Jose Ribera – Project Manager/Machado & Silvetti Rodolpho Machado – Principal/Machado & Silvetti Jorge Silvetti – Principal/Machado & Silvetti Leslie Rennolds – Assistant Director/Menokin Foundation Tayloe Murphy – Board President/Menokin Foundation Alan Brown – Consultant for Reed Hilderbrand Michael Yusem – Senior Associate/Machado & Silvetti Sarah Pope – Executive Director/Menokin Foundation Ryan Ives – Reed Hilderbrand Penelope Saffer – Trustee/Menokin Foundation John Grove – Reed Hilderbrand Helen Murphy – Trustee/Menokin FoundationA view of the Potomac River from King Copsico Farm.
Commentator Thea Marshall recently learned about a famous architect who’ll be putting back together again a famous pile of rubble.
Of course, the famous architect is Jorge Silvetti – of Machado and Silvetti Associates – and the famous pile of rubble is Menokin, a National Historic Landmark and the Commonwealth’s largest and most historic jigsaw puzzle.
This essay, as comfortable to listen to as a favorite tune, is chock full of information about Menokin – the place, the people who lived here, and what the future holds for this historic treasure.
Thea Marshall is the author of “Neck Tales: Stories from Virginia’s Northern Neck,” published in June, 2009. Along with her professional writing assignments, she is a broadcaster, actor, and producer, with life long experience in all forms of communication – from print to theater to radio and television. She writes and broadcasts original commentaries on and about the people, places, history, culture and current issues relating to the Northern Neck for WCVE Public Radio (heard on both WCVE in Richmond and WCNV for the Northern Neck).
We have chosen the architecture firm of Machado and Silvetti Associates, LLC to lead an interdisciplinary team in the planning and design of the Menokin Project. We are certain that Machado and Silvetti will implement our vision to present Menokin through its many parts and pieces rather than through a traditional reconstruction. Further, this renowned firm will help our Foundation realize its goal to become an internationally recognized learning center for heritage and natural resource conservation through innovative practices and technology.
Our glass house project is an innovative and groundbreaking approach to historical preservation. We will not restore the house to how it looked in the late 1700s, but instead recreate the missing parts of the house by using glass.
After the loose pieces of the house were removed and categorized, we were faced with the challenge of stabilizing and preserving the house, while at the same time furthering the public’s understanding of how the house was built and the historic make-up of the house. We wanted the ruins to be a safe place where people could learn and discover. The glass concept allows visitors to see the inner workings of the architectural structure of the house, while also allowing visitors to envision what the house looked like at its prime. Menokin, through this project, fulfills its aim to interpret Francis Lightfoot Lee’s life as well as further current knowledge of architecture, archaeology, and preservation.
Machado and Silvetti, headquartered in Boston, is best known for its contemporary designs that are attached to historic settings. The firm is one of the few practices in the United States that specializes in merging innovative and contemporary agendas with historic structures and contexts. A recent project includes designing a research and exhibition center within a historic landmark fort in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
We are confident Machado and Silvetti will further our aims to be an innovative and internationally renowned education center. Construction on the glass house is projected to begin in 2015. We will continue to post updates on the glass house project at Menokin. We welcome any comments or questions!
