 Welcome. It's my pleasure to welcome you to Greater Portland Landmarks 54th annual meeting and 2018 presentation of our preservation awards Tonight we're in this beautiful building known as the mother house. This was built in and you probably have heard this already before now But built in 1909 and it was called the St. Joseph's convent back then. It's a very significant architectural landmark and during center designed by the Boston architectural firm known as chickering and O'Connell They were one of the New England's Pre-Amen design firms for religious buildings for almost a hundred years This building was home to the Sisters of Mercy until it closed in 2005 You'll hear more about the adaptive reuse project in just a few minutes We have some special people to recognize before we hold a very brief annual meeting tonight After that we'll present our awards followed by a reception in the side chapel right over here And then you'll have a chance to meet and congratulate the award winners tonight And I'd like to invite Hilary Bassett the executive director of Greater Portland Landmarks to recognize a few of those special people and share some highlights with you Hilary, great. This is so exciting. We have new technology at Landmarks So I'm so thrilled. Can you hear me? Great. All right First of all, I'd like to welcome all of you on behalf of Landmarks and to thank John Wassilaske Matt Tier and the team at Seacoast Management as well as Kevin Bunker for allowing us to be in the building today I know it was kind of wild and crazy to have one more thing as you're finishing up the project So we very much Appreciate the access to this beautiful space. This is the last opportunity to see the building prior to its occupancy So I'm so glad so many people are here to be able to do that I also want to thank Ed Gardner from and his Sponsorship through Oceangate Realty for sponsoring our gathering tonight and the Portland Media Center Which is CTN Channel 5 you may remember Which is filming the awards. It'll be shown on public access TV Now Landmarks has just finished an amazing and exciting year We have successfully advocated for a new city council approved conservation overlay zone and Demolition delay to protect the historic buildings on Montjoy Hill. This was a very Intense project. We work closely with the city the Montjoy Hill neighborhood association the grassroots Montjoy Hill conservation collaborative neighbors and friends to get this passed And we're following up right now with a more detailed survey of the area so the city can pursue a potential historic district We hosted four graduate student interns and they surveyed nearly a thousand buildings in the Deering area of Portland and Peaks Island and the their findings are going to be on Delivered and three neighborhood talks coming up in October given by our wonderful Julie Larry Who is our director of advocacy? We've also experienced a record breaking season at the observatory Over 16,000 visitors and we actually are broke last year's record just last week So we'll see how we turn out the end of the season We have been doing a lot with the observatory We commissioned a study of the views from the observatory to see how the zoning affects those What can be built and how those views will be affected and it's a digital model So we've given the copy to the city so they can analyze future city planning efforts using that tool And then we've also received a major grant from the National Park Service to update the exhibits in the Portland Observatory That is a very exciting project. We're just in the beginning stages of so now I'm going to turn it back to Ed Thank you Another exciting project we've done for this year is what we call a strategic research initiative This is to help us to be most effective as possible in the community So far to date we've had five focus groups within Greater Portland And we're reaching out to a broad base of constituents for their feedback as well But I'd invite you to go to Portland landmarks org to take the survey if you can because we really need your help on this one And finally with Hillary's retirement in June of 2019 We've established a transition committee and this will be searching for a new executive director We'll use the information we get from the research project to hear about our thinking About this particular role and the position announcement will be posted this coming January So there's a lot going on here at greater Portland landmarks So with that I'd like to start the annual meeting We just have three quick business items to attend to tonight. So if you can we'll start the meeting now First in your handout you have the minutes from our last annual meeting which can be found in your program If you can look at them, maybe you already have I need a motion to approve the minutes From anyone. All right. I got one second All right any discussion all in favor And the opposed All right motion carries. Thank you. Next. I'd like to turn it over to Bruce Roulard. He's the landmarks treasurer for this year For just a brief financial report Thank you Ed if you have your annual report if you turn to page 6 that'll have the financial performance for this past fiscal year I Am reporting on the fiscal year beginning June July 1 17 ending June 30th of 2018 Greater Portland landmarks has had another productive year with a number of successes We ended our fiscal year June 30 in a good financial position We completed several grant funded projects Including our new walking tour guide and annual contributions and revenue from programs Including the observatory the observatory was strong Preliminary numbers in the current fiscal year continue to show the observatory generating attendance and revenues at or above budget as We do every year. We went through a formal audit this year Which was very clean and is a distinct vote of confidence in our procedures and record keeping Thank you Bruce At this time I'd like to recognize our past officers and one of our retiring trustees Bruce Moyer our former treasurer. You can just stand up be recognized. Thank you Bruce for your service Jane Betzel. Where are you? Jane Betzel come on up here. So Jane has worked tirelessly as our President of Greater Portland landmarks for the past two years he's attended hours and hours and countless committee meetings and all kinds of things helping the board and the staff to Do what we do even better and she's been a huge inspiration to me Thank you very much for your service for for us for all of us here And we'd like to give you just a little something I don't know is Tom Dowd here I didn't see Tom What? All right, so Tom is one of our most dedicated trustees being with on the board of trustees for the past nine years He's finishing up his third term on the board. He's currently leading the exercise For the exciting strategic research initiative for us Tom in recognition of your service wherever you are tonight We'd like to present you with the certificate of our appreciation and we'll do that when we see him back at landmarks But let's give him a round of applause. He's worked really hard as we do with every annual meeting I'd like to open it up for any new business if there's any Buddy that needs to say anything or would like to share their thoughts with us All right looking around I see none. We'll close the new business portion I'd like to invite Carol DeTine who has served as chair of the governance committee for the fiscal year 2017 and 18 to present the Proposed changes to the bylaws and the slate of nominees to the board for fiscal year 2018 2019 Carol Yes, the board approved is that right the board approved two changes to the bylaws one is a clarification to our conflict of interest policy and the other is a change in the structure to our executive committee and Those changes were available in the materials. They were also they've been online for anyone who loves to read Distinct detail And so we would like our membership to ratify that for us. In fact, we need you to I'd entertain a motion to approve the bylaws changes Thank you a second. All right Mac any Discussion hey all in favor. Thank you any opposed abstain Okay, the motion passes and then we have as Ed said our nominees To the board of trustees we have two nominees for the first three-year term on the board They are Jay Norris and Rachel Ambrose and if you would please stand for us People can say hello. All right Very nice. Hi there. Welcome and Returning for a second three-year term and please everyone stand as I say your name Jane Briggs Patty Butler Jane Hurd and George Reiki All right and returning for a third three-year term Carol DeTine Candice Thornton Lee Pat Moran and Nate Stevens Candice is there. I'm Carol may I have a motion to approve the slate? Thank you and a second All right, very good We're getting into a roll now, right? Okay. Is there any discussion? All in favor Any opposed? Abstentions seeing none the motion passes. Thank you very much Oops. Oh, I've got one more Yeah, thank you. Yes, I would also entertain a motion to approve the slate of advisory trustees And that is in the handout also that you have so I won't read those names, but may I have a motion? Thank you and a second Okay, any discussion Right all in favor Any opposed? Be quick abstentions Thank you very much the motion passes and now I'm done Thank you Carol Let's call for another motion to adjourn the annual meeting Can I get one? Yeah second Thank you Thank you again for all of your involvement and support for a greater Portland landmarks We always appreciate it, but I'd also like to Recognize the staff and if they could stand up as well because they work much harder than What everybody thinks they do but Julie Larry? She's our director of advocacy You can find her at City Hall several times a night and doing neighborhood talks all over greater Portland Alessa Wiley director of education Alessa with her Staff of docents run the observatory like no other she's fabulous for us to the melon in the back there development assistant and Last but not least the glue that holds landmarks together is Chloe Martin director of communication Back to you Hillary So thank you everybody for your involvement and all your hard work and your passion and your support for Preservation that means a great deal to us We are now going to go on to our awards portion of the meeting and we're going to start with Mary Ann Chapman Who I know is here So hopefully she can come up Mary Ann is the kind of person who steps in when she sees a need and she doesn't let it go The Grand Trunk Cemetery in Portland's East Steering neighborhood goes back to the 1730s and 40s and made it into the 1930s with 1997 grave markers surviving but through weather vandalism and neglect it was down to only eight markers by the year 2010 Enter Mary Ann who has a Girl Scout troop leader Marshaled the community to be to begin the recognition and rehabilitation that the historic cemetery deserved She started a friends group organized cleanups enlisted support from the Veterans Administration Administration and raised funds and awareness of the cemetery Through her work with the Friends of Grand Trunk Cemetery Mary Ann's vigilance passion and leadership are protecting and enhancing the historic cemetery and Inspiring future generations to appreciate its fascinating story So we'd like to give you a plaque She's one of our rock stars. Thank you Mary Ann next Troy Bennett Troy is here if you can come up as well if the picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes What is a video worth from February to December? 2017 Bangor Daily News photographer Troy Bennett published a weekly series of videos and blog spots called this week in Portland history Troy illuminated stories as varied as the time that Portland swallowed a neighboring city to steal its votes Yep About annexing of Deering actually how a Portland drugist built an empire on hand cream About a landmark manufacturing building on Forest Avenue and the lighthouse shaped building that is definitely not a lighthouse About the observatory Although he ended each episode with a disclaimer that is not a historian Troy's natural gift for storytelling and his multimedia Journalism captivated audiences with the stories of people and places that make greater Portland unique Spoken like a true preservationist Troy Bennett So the the next one is the Conant-Pason block at 30 exchange Street in Portland Built immediately following the great fire of 1866 in the Italian 8th style by Alva Conant a merchant and Henry M. Payson a broker the Conant-Pason built block had suffered from 150 years of exposure to Maine's harsh climate in 2016 the building's owners agreed that they wanted to restore the building's facade to its original glory They hired expert contractors to repoint and clean the masonry Restore the ornate cast iron capitals Replicate the distinctive windows and paint the trim details Fortunately the owners had saved the original parts and materials That made it possible to repair and recast the cast iron Details and replicate the windows to bring the building back to its original appearance through careful restoration techniques and the passion of the building's owners and the amazing contractors including the cast iron Experts who are here the project bolsters the strong architectural character of exchange Street one of the old port's most distinctive streetscapes and I invite the representatives of the Conant-Pason block especially David and Randy Harrigan Sylvie Montello and Tim Green Could you step forward so I can and Gretchen come on up so we can recognize you All right, Mike. All right, I think you all know the state theater building at 609 Congress Street in Portland But the state theater built in 1929 is Portland's only surviving movie palace from the earlier 20th century and his design is a designated landmark It played some of the first silent films and talkies in the city and operated as a first-run movie house until the late 1960s the theaters three-story entrance on Congress Street has always featured a large marquee But the original was removed decades ago Using photographs from the 1930s the marquee has been faithfully reconstructed It is illuminated like the original its lettering and scroll work have been replicated and the original supporting chains have been reused Funding for the city facade improvement grant and Executed in the close collaboration with the city's historic preservation program The project is a great example of public-private partnership to enhance the theater and rejuvenate Congress Street Historic district and the arts district corridor. We thank Scott Simons Scott Simons architect and Justin Dexter trader For this work and if you can come on up. Thank you If you haven't been down Congress Street to see it it's like a landing strip now on Congress Street. It's pretty cool So our next award goes to the Grand Trunk office building at one India Street in Portland The office at the corner of Indian Commercial Street is all that survives from the extensive Grand Trunk Railroad complex in Portland Built in 1903 it served as offices for the railroad and for the transatlantic steamship operators that use their wharves and sheds In 2012 it was vacant and deteriorating and landmarks named at a place in peril Gorham Savings Bank decided to restore the building and take advantage of historic tax credits on the exterior Masonry walls were rebuilt and repointed the massive copper cornice was restored and replaced and A new roof was installed Inside elements of the original architecture were revealed including 14-foot ceilings original hardwood floors and structural timbers The whole process was filmed in a documentary video Today the beautifully restored building celebrates the gateway to the India Street neighborhood and do we have a representative from Gorham Savings? Sorry And I'd like to invite I think Kevin Bunker as well And is Kevin here? Yes Yes, let's bring our team up from uh for the one India Street So Kevin Bunker and David Lloyd You're gonna see Kevin up here a couple more times tonight. He's a busy guy brick south Thompson's Point Portland When it was built in 1904 brick south at Thompson's Point was part of a state of the art facility for the Portland terminal companies locomotive repair shops It served the trains traveled through a union station and boasted mains first electric crane As rail shipping declined it had other industrial uses A steel storage site for construction of Liberty ships during world war two And later as a factory that made cardboard boxes Finally the 25 000 square foot building became vacant and extensively damaged by water infiltration Fortunately forefront partners who began redeveloping Thompson's Point in 2009 Had a new vision for brick south today It is a 2,500 person event center with a new roof New utilities a new kitchen and restrooms and with award-winning lead design Sustainable features Sustainability features It recalls its industrial past and a use that creatively serves today's needs So i'd like to invite for that project chris thompson Jeb Trobe Landry french construction Machias savings bank And david loyd Yeah, and david loyd you got to come back up too Thank you very much back to you We're now recognizing plumber senior living in foulmouth The colonial revival samson d plumber school was built in 1931 To a design by the portland architect john p. Thomas It served as foulmouth's first high school And then it was a junior high school and then finally ended up as an elementary school With an addition in 1936 the building represents the change in main's education curriculum away from classical studies To manual and practical studies The developers rigorously followed preservation standards to qualify for historic tax credits They restored original windows plaster hardwood floors Slate roof and the iconic clock tower They added storm windows for energy efficiency and creatively repurposed the former gym as a shared common area for all the residents This project successfully converted the school to moderate income senior apartments while preserving one of the town's most beloved landmarks And I'd like to invite representatives from sea coast management john wassyleski and kevin bunker david loyd as well to come and join us to collect a certificate Scott hanson, why don't you join us up here as well? Last award. I think it yeah, I think it is our last award tonight Is just where we are right now at the motherhouse at backs to woods at 605 stevens have And kevin, I don't know if you want to come up here with me as I talk about this spectacular place The st. Joseph's convent known as the motherhouse was designed by the boston architectural firm checkering an old O'Connell one of new england's ecclesiastical design firms It was the principal residents for the sisters of mercy until it closed in 2005 While the sisters had maintained the 116,000 square foot building and it is big The project to repurpose its 88 units of senior housing was an architectural and financial puzzle Modern apartments were created by combining rooms and reorganizing spaces Financing was secured from historic tax credits and other sources Utilities and wiring were updated While preserving architectural details Grand staircases stained glass windows and the three-story chapel that we're in right now And its organ were brought back to their former glory The development team successfully preserved an iconic local landmark while creating much needed affordable senior housing for the city And with that we'd like to congratulate john foslowski from sea coast management Matt tear if you want to come up and join along with kevin bunker from developers collaborative I'd like to especially thank John matt and kevin for making it possible to be here this evening. Thank you So a few years ago when kevin started this project There was a few tours that he graciously gave greater Portland landmarks people And we came through and toured it and it was an amazing place then Um the history of it, but I think maybe kevin you have some more stories you might want to chat about Okay, well that could go in a number of directions for anyone who's followed the news read the papers read the read the court results or any of that but um As far as as far as this project, obviously it's a huge one for us very complex Um David Lloyd is in the audience here and he asked me to correct that he did was not actually the architect of the plumber school So I know we all kind of just decide it's david that did it these days Whether it's new construction or historic, but it wasn't david But he did do the mother house and it was very complex. There was a lot to it And one of the many challenges of the mother house was getting the unit count as high as possible So the project would work financially and david is I gave two tours the other day And I kept pointing out the the genius that david has at doing that and there are some really interesting units I hope some of you got to go on the tour and see some of the the ways that Spaces that are not residential are now residential. Um, it's very very interesting. So kudos to david for that um, certainly my partner john and my partner my Former partner john and my current partner matt to put this whole deal together It was extraordinarily complex took a lot of work took a lot of money And it took a lot of help and in terms of war stories How many minutes Three minutes, okay So, uh, john and matt have been working on this for a very very long time The sisters in rfp many many years ago They were selected but the project went in fits and starts for many years until they they unveiled a a development plan right around the time of the recession so That that wasn't able to go anywhere But the what we did learn through that time and I started to consult a bit with them on it Was that the mother house was the key to the whole project at the time? The the the sisters were sort of deciding they were getting out of the real estate business And the mokali school at the time was still going strong But the the site at from that point started to the history of it started the future started to be up in the air And the mother house was always the linchpin because it's the biggest most iconic piece of this whole site For the same time it's the most difficult It's uh, it's a beautiful building. It has to be saved. But how do you save it? How do you make it work financially? And the answer is in a seven layer cake of financing that we're able to put together Involving housing tax credits state historic federal historic city home fed home funds Tiff funds developer fee we had to put back in and Actual must pay debt and oh and some subsidies. I think that's seven layers. But each one of those funding requirements has different Different things attached to it different things you can and cannot do and the challenges to get them to all Play nice with each other and that's uh, that's a complicated thing physically. It's a complicated thing financially It's a complicated thing legally And then let's throw on top of that A uh a neighborhood that was Kind of whipped into a bit of a frenzy over some stuff that Probably could have gone a different way if it was handled a different way. But anyway, it got it got into a big neighborhood process that Ended the way it had to end. It was unfortunate, but we ended up Being able to close in the mother house once that sorted itself out And we're looking forward to the future now obviously in the last few weeks the The girl school closed suddenly on us, which we were hoping would never happen, but It has so now we're Just beginning to grapple with what that means and what that building will be We don't know but the the future of the campus is bright because there's a lot of Exciting things to to do there But this this piece is always going to continue to be the lynchpin And so it's kind of interesting when we're all we're all here we're all interested in historic buildings and and what they mean and We talk about how they're important pieces of congress street or important pieces of exchange street. Well This this building is a whole thing that makes this this whole thing possible So without being able to figure out this building and those historic tax credits that made it happen this whole thing might sit here for a long long time and maybe that Maybe that would be great for some people and and you know if the athletic fields state athletic fields forever that wouldn't Probably have been the worst outcome in the world but what would have been a really bad outcome is if this building was unable to get any investment and That's what we're able to do so Whenever we do these historic buildings and we make the little speech we often hear or say I'm a steward of become a steward of this building and it's a great responsibility that's been entrusted to me And I take it very seriously and I'm glad to have been able to do something And that's it's always true But it's palpable here The sense of responsibility when you walk around this building of treating it well and doing it right is It's a big deal. I'm glad to have been able to do my part and continue to do my part We've got some some new stuff coming online kind of looking forward to getting the certificate of occupancy getting people moved in activating this building and then Figuring out what the next pieces are figuring out what the next phase of new construction is We've got some some condos on the boards that are just about to go and we're we're looking forward to Telling the community about that soon and This is going to be this is a vibrant neighborhood now without us and we're hoping to make it a more vibrant neighborhood with us so I appreciate you all coming here tonight and Thanks for your support and thank you ed and hillary Talk about having the right people at the right table at the right time. Thank you kevin for finding this property and saving it and revitalizing the neighborhood I think we're going to see quite a Steven square campus here evolve here in the next few years So yeah, I'd like to also underline that these projects take a lot of courage and creativity and It's really terrific to be in a room full of preservationists who appreciate that and people who take on projects that are They're not easy, but there's they're so important So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in this room And all the award winners all their teams All the people who are members and supporters of landmarks all the people who care about how The city of portland and greater portland area evolves going forward using our Incredible legacy of historic buildings, but looking to the future as well So thank you everyone for that support And I'd like to also invite you to let's talk some more about it We've got some nice refreshments up front Please please join us and let's let's have some more conversation about What a beautiful place this is. Thanks again