 Hi, welcome to CCTV channel 17 live at 525 the preservation Burlington show Preservation Burlington is a non-profit 501 C3 organization Our mission is to preserve and protect the historic architecture and livability of Burlington through education and advocacy I'm gonna put advocacy there today I'd like to thank everybody again for tuning in and I'd like to welcome Lisa Reiman Reiman Reiman Reiman A friend of mine for years And he still can't get my name right And um and for thanks for coming on doing the show Of course, it's good to be back We've done the show a whole bunch of times. I know thanks for helping us out and getting back on the board You know the board is always desperate for your talents and your energy and your snark It's a home. Ah, okay. I was gonna say something nice, but I'm not going to now No, I'm really excited about stuff moving forward anyway on the board and yeah A lot going on. There's so much going on and yeah, I I leave for a little bit and crap falls apart Everything just goes crazy, you know Yeah, and I think earlier they posted what the talk was what we're gonna talk about mostly but We've got a couple of things to let people know about Yeah, yeah, yeah and and update people on things so So let's talk about the newsletter that's coming up Yes, so we've got our spring is here and our spring newsletter is here, which is great It's going out to folks in the mail shortly this week. It's going to be online very soon And it's got some good stuff in there. It's got an update on our position on trying to save the former cathedral We've got some new board members or one that's profiled in it, right? And the home store your new board member too, you know, no, I'm not So Yeah, no, we do we have a couple of new board members, which are great. Um, there's the website. We are going to be Updating the website and we love some help with that. So if anybody in the audience is really good at web Web design and web design and maintenance and really wants to help our organization out We can certainly kind of see there that it's just it gets a little flat sometimes You know and we try to keep things that you know People can click on and see archives of the newsletter, but it's Again, you know, I think recently because it's spring We get all excited and we plan all our walking tours and all of that stuff We try to lay that out and and hit as many done as we can That things are always changing and it's hard to keep up with the website, you know And we've also got like the facebook page, right? I'm getting never I can't keep up. It never ends It doesn't ever end But we've got some great talent, but yeah if anybody wants to help us out And join in that capacity not necessarily be a full-fledged board member and go all out and do a live advocacy We can use people's I think the past year and a half two years. We've gotten several people that have Joined up not as board members, but as committee members. So it's like board light You know you get to pick the committee that you get to do the fun stuff that you want Right without having to sit in on the regular board meetings, which I find really fun But you know you we do the heavy lifting and I'm getting used to Right and then of course, you know, like I said advocacy, you know We focus so much all the time on education and I think we do a pretty good job of it, you know And and and people love that and your annual meeting and things like that But advocacy is generally something that we're putting in the newsletter that we're watching paying attention to how things go it rarely Percolates to the as as high to the top as say the cathedral is now, you know But we've also got some fun stuff going on. We've got the home stories back, right? Is this the first one? Yeah, first one since covid so we missed three years in a row I'm really excited to miss it again because I always have a dragon boat race on that weekend So I'm gonna just have to get the replay if there was gonna be one But that's really exciting and we've got some new March has done some more house histories Beyond the green marker, right? There's a there's a history of a really cool old house. Yeah, she's she's a she's a history pit bull March, you know, and they you know that Those are the things that Even through through covid that keeps sustaining us, you know We people who want to know about their houses. They keep writing in the letters jack Religiously goes to pick up the mail Gets it to marge, you know, we do it old school It's really fun to learn what, you know, who used to live in your house and what went on there and how it changed And what the people's lives were like, especially, you know, we we've so disconnected with the history of Our people and who lived here and who built the city up and why Why buildings look the way that they do and you know the the formic cathedral is a case in point, right? It's like it was You know, everybody's like, oh, but it's ugly or oh, I don't like it or this that and the other and you Know we thought as a city not me. I don't think I was around then But you know, we thought urban renewal. Let's get rid of all the victorian stuff. Like it's ugly And now we're like kicking ourselves in the pants for those losses, right? So Yeah, I'm foreshadowing a little bit because either next month or probably May probably in may of the show is going to be we've teamed up with Champlain College. They got an neh grant um a humanities grant I believe I'm pretty sure I figure where the funding is coming from but one of their students is putting together an entire Program on urban renewal in Burlington The effects of it the decision-making process that went into it the effects of it the ongoing effects of it Which we're still seeing now as we redevelop city place and we try to reconnect roads that were Disconnected for whatever reason, you know, and they're looking into the progress the name of progress And the socioeconomic impacts of that, you know forcing entire neighborhoods out Like like that was made that decision and who told all those people sorry you got to go Yeah, people that did not live there. So these are all really interesting topic conversations that are they never go away Yeah, you know like advocacy, you know, it's sisyphus or something you never are done pushing that stone up the hill It's like having an old house. There's always something more to do right or even a new house Maybe the new house is worse than the old houses. I haven't quite decided. I don't know. Yeah There's a rate of failure that new stuff isn't the old stuff fails, but it takes 100 years the new stuff is 20 to 40 Right, right the life expectancy of new construction is Mind-blowing. Okay. Well, yeah next month. We'll sit down. We'll talk about planned obsolescence, right? So advocacy, what are we going to advocate for today? Well, so the newsletter is going to be largely updating folks about the um The cathedral and what's going on there and um, it'll there'll be links to uh, there's a website set up Specifically for here it is. Uh, save 20 pine street divine 20 pine divine 20 pine. Yeah, and we didn't personally set that up That's a group that Where we're teaming up with but they set that up to give people the history of that Piece of property that piece of urban renewal And it's it's got some really great information on there You know the history of the the property, but also What I found really heartwarming is all the letters of support from Folks near and far I mean from the national trust for historic preservation Even you know our regional chapter of docomo like big names heavy hitters all saying why this is an important building And why it should be So why is it an important building? It's well, it's important to burlington history, right because of the associations with the two people that Um envisioned it and created it. So the architect edward larry b Barnes and landscape architect dan keiley So, you know for those two reasons alone, um, there's there's way more Then we can probably go through in just one one little show But it's a perfect marriage of modern architecture Which like you mentioned earlier not everybody loves but it's a really Perfect example of it. It's successful in what it does right and it marries itself to a landscape architect of vermontter Who's internationally renowned? I was visiting. I was at the traditional building trade show in west palm beach And dan keiley designed their city center their city center park right water It was just interesting because I had mentioned Burlington what was going on and immediately people from florida knew Who designed that property and and that he designed the property in the in the city we were in it's just It's kind of cool. And you know, I think these are some of the things that We forget when we're we're It's true and and we don't even know what we don't know too It's like, you know, when you when you learn about a specific like model of car, right? You've never seen it before and suddenly you see it everywhere and it's like this landscape that keiley created Um, you know, you look at it and you're like, oh, it's just a bunch of trees But when you learn about how it was designed and why and why the trees are set up in The form that they are and the alleyway is in the spacing you look at and you're like, oh my god It makes so much sense. Yeah, and the church itself too. Um You know it really uh It showcases an evolution in catholic church design from like the you know the formal You know priests in the pulpit at the front to leave this new fanned out design so everybody could participate more it was all based on canonic law and evolution and changes in the church and how parishioners and their priests integrated and interacted and it's just fascinating it tells a story It's part of our history and it's like, um, I sort of liken it to Revisionist history if you wipe away the stuff that you think you don't like Well, who's telling the story, right? Yeah, so it leaves a big chunk missing back to that urban renewal story What we're going to learn from that, you know, and yeah, it's it's true and I know that there's Again case in point I've seen you've seen the pictures from the the aerial view, you know, it's this beautiful green space in the center Of this concrete and glass around dramatic picture. It's a very dramatic picture and And there's four community groups, you know, it's not just the people that put this website up and it's not just preservation Burlington, there's the the farmers market is very interested in the space and the property There's a group of three entrepreneurs that are very interested in it. The one of the founders of the jazz fest Says we need, you know acoustics are perfect in these buildings It's a beautiful landscape. It's a perfect building for acoustics and we need a mid-sized venue that'll support 600 seats 500 600 seats and and it's sitting right there, you know, so I guess that's the thing is trying to um Again trying to realize what we have you learn about the history of what we have But when you see these gems that are in the city and not rush to demolish and put up another and where's it all Going to go. What's the environmental? um cost of this too and I know I I toured The the Williston landfill a couple of years ago and just the story that we were getting from staff there is like that It's a capacity like we don't know as a state Or even a city or a county where we're going to put our trash Where does all this go and and why just like the environmental impact is huge It is huge. It could be reused. Um, there are so many great adaptive reuses to point to right remember that old timey poster that The national trust put up. I think it was like Early 80s maybe late 70s even and it was a brick building, but it was really shaped like a gas can And I remember that one it was and then it was a magazine cover at the time and they made it into a poster And it said, you know the the cheapest building is the one that's already there And it was all about the the cost Of knocking that down carting it away all all before you even start to build something You know so in any way you can reuse what's sitting there. You're saving carbon carbon footprint, right? I read something similar But on the flip side recently where it's not just the cost of demolition But it's the cost of construction too making all the new stuff mining all the raw materials Making the things shipping them out here never mind the off-gassing in the fumes and the You know safety provisions for the workers and all that stuff. It's just it's enormous So and as we're gearing up for earth day next month, right? I think this is like really appropriate You know that it is appropriate and that's the thing that um, I don't know we Preservations try to make that connection sometimes, but I think we forget you know that earth day is part of You know our should be earth day every day stewards. Yeah, and and we're what we have existing and if it's all Works towards that same goal, you know to use what we have I forget I used a quote one time and something I wrote for somebody But it was I took it from maybe the paul broon or the preservation trust, you know that a vermonte once said, you know Using what you have You know that's the vermont way to use what you have to its fullest extent repair before you replace, you know That kind of that practical mentality. Yeah, which I think is is getting a resurgence Among our young people too. I think a lot of folks look back at previous generations and like, why were you thinking, you know Like you didn't consider us So we've seen that with you know climate activists who are you were saying like you have screwed this up and now it's our problem um, and you know, I wonder what Generations down the road are going to say like you knocked all this stuff down Why you robbed us of this rich heritage of this chance to appreciate our history to to touch and feel and Live that history. Yeah, I have um, I'm going to try to This is difficult for me. I'm going to try to turn it around. Okay positive No, because we're talking about these things and you know and getting away from the church in wanouski or the our own one That we're struggling to save, you know the marble church. That's an easier save, you know, you think subjectivity but Outbuildings, you know a personal favorite of mine, you know, and now the state is giving grants 50 000 dollars for the development of Outbuildings into my not minor PDU's accessory dwelling units ad use To help people say, okay, you've got this little footprint, you know people are building tiny houses all over the country It's all the rage and we have granny pods We have hundreds of them in the backyards, you know and 50 000 dollars could get you halfway there, you know, I had a A neighbor of mine on a few About a year ago and he saved his little tiny garage, you know, and it cost him 50 000 dollars, you know So as preservation burlington are we doing a program around this or you know, how are we letting people know that this is out there Or is it the state that's running it? You mean, how are you letting people know? Oh Now that I'm back I got a job. I got a new job again. That's right. Yeah, where's your piece of paper? I gotta write that down. It would be a great workshop to do for folks because there are so many Beautiful little outbuildings in Burlington that are tucked away and we don't see them when we're driving around right? But if you walk and you look through the little nooks and crannies your park somewhere and you glance between two buildings You see these beautiful buildings that are just sitting there and they it's either demolition by neglect people don't know You know or yeah, they just don't they and they don't know the resources are out there That newly the resources are out there. I mean, you know, we did ours 12 years ago and you know, we didn't have $50,000 start up money I think that's the thing is like for so long. There's been really no resources for residential property owners It's all been, you know commercial and Income producing properties like the tax credits So folks are used to saying or to hearing you've got to do x-y-n-z But there's no funding for no resources But so it's great to hear that there is a little movement in that direction Right. Yeah, and it you know Coincides with our pressure on housing you're creating housing, you know, it's it's sort of a Little trifecta of perfect solutions, you know, and sure these ADUs will be income producing is the hope I imagine There's a home store topic for a couple of years down the road Well, we did carriage houses once but once that we converted. Yeah new tiny ones that are yeah, yeah Yep, that would be that'd be pretty fun. All right. So there we got one thing to work on now So if you have a little outbuilding in your backyard, you want to convert it and put it on the home store close up Email us. Let us know and then we'll we'll hound you to be on the home store. So yeah Um, so what else? What are other good? adaptive reuse ideas thoughts we hit Housing in general. Oh, yeah in general for a former church or in a building in general Which be specific Well memorial auditorium for the old ymca for the I mean ultimately, you know from a preservation is the true preservationist point of view um It is to try and Do an adaptive reuse that honors the building's original use and doesn't alter it too too much, right? Um, especially if you're you're trying to go for a federal tax credit Or some other kind of support But ultimately, I mean because there there is such a thing as facadism, right? Where you just like keep the shell on the inside is something completely different. I think the Packard lofts are a good example of that In our own Burlington here. I mean, there's a lot. I mean Montreal has a lot of that too Um, you know, it's not a unique problem by any means, but um, at least it sort of preserves the look of Yeah, you know what it used to be But I think memorial auditorium could be it could be housing, you know the ymca building could be housing Um, you'd have to you know, you would you would lose the interior and what it was designed to do, but Um, I think that is a it's an important build both of them are important buildings to Burlington's history and the landscape And I think one thing that we tend to forget is one thing that makes Burlington so attractive To tourists is it's built landscape. It's historic buildings And if we lose that and we keep replacing them with you know, no offense to to Current well But like, you know, what's going up now? Looks the same. I mean, you know 100 years ago. I'll look the same as well too, right? But you know, if we just replace everything with cookie cutter stuff, okay, okay? Wait, let me interject corrugated tin If I see one more house with corrugated tin on it because we think it's cool I I just I'm not I didn't bring my soapbox other I get on there and I would say how we're appropriating third world country tin shacks and calling it cool and it's like Yeah, all look the same and it does it does but you know, everything has a trend and a place and a time and you know They there's fashion. Oh those boring queen and victorians that they put another Scales and diamonds and Yeah, I mean, you know, but you know, that's what happens. You go through an era and there's something is in fashion And then we move on to something else um But if we take it all away what what's going to make us different from You know everywhere else everywhere else USA. Um, you you can travel now and there's a target in a starbucks It's like you haven't really left home. So Let's not be that. Yeah, right exactly. It's but and you're right. I mean part of what makes burlington and I you know from personal experience I came up here when I was a kid You know just backpacking and traveling through and I was always taken aback by how much Housing, you know, I wasn't a preservation carpenter at the time But it was a bunch of old helms that seemed intact and had a beautiful downtown green city hall park I was just like wow, this is a really cool town and then I Throughout the years come back and pass through and visit, you know There's a new up here It took 20 years for me to just look at all the vinyl siding or see the replacement windows or you know before I started noticing it Exactly because you had to start knowing what you were looking for Right. Um, and I think that's that's part of it. People don't necessarily see the difference But you know, I have done so many tours with folks who haven't even know what they were looking at And when they start recognizing it and being able to like name, you know, the type of column or or a type of roof shape or A house style and then they're like, you know, they're texting me. I found you know a victorian I found a prairie house that and people just get really excited about it So it's terrible because you can't stop once you start. Oh I mean look at you know, um karen's instagram account of you know, what style is that How many thousands of people are on there? Yeah, really interested in architecture and and the features, you know, you know What makes this? uh a queen and style what makes this Not, you know things like that more work for karen. We have to do another scavenger hunt. That was fun That was a lot of fun architectural elements things and that's gotta been like 10 years now that we've done that No, we haven't been at this that long. Oh, yes. Probably two years ago or something No, two years ago. We were stuck home Not seeing anybody. That's right. Yeah having zoom meetings and that would be fun So if anybody's watching if you want to have another scavenger hunt, um, maybe we don't have an ipad as a prize Yeah, maybe we do. There's a story there. We won't go into that one right now But yeah, let us know what you'd like to see for programs. I think a scavenger hunt would be awesome. Um And before we update the website people go on there They can back it up and they could look at some of those really older The pdfs of our newsletters, you know to see the this different stuff we did the coloring book I know we're doing another coloring book This is like a new edition. Tell me about this coloring book because I don't know Is a new student the historic preservation program student came and she sat in with us a bunch and I think she was second year So she's probably gone now, but we have all the uh, so she was creating another So it's new building reinventing. Yeah reinvented the coloring book that was done Previously, you know, I don't think she did that on purpose, but she came to us. We showed her what we had done She was like, oh, wow, and then she went around and got all illustrations of historic buildings. I love coloring I know I know new york times got articles about the best colored pencils and stuff. I'm like really Are we you know what? I love we're all regressing at the same rate. I as a writer, you know I love pens and I can't pens and books. I'm a I will admit I hoard them both And colored pencils now lately has been like an explosion of passion. So yeah, great. Thanks So when is that coming out with that stuff? What's that the coloring book? Oh, it'll be on our website or our facebook page I don't know. We just two meetings ago is when we we gathered all the the stuff together I know we got a yeah, so we've got a quote from the printer So we'll find out what that is and you know, that's what we that's what we raise money for You know when folks go to the website and Tune in and see or click on our the go fund me page on our website is specifically for the cathedral Stuff the advocacy But regular just sending in a letter Every time we send out the newsletter, you know, it's got those little envelopes and people always flood us with donations of all kinds It's fun. Yeah, and then that goes that's gonna love our community. I really do They're so good and so interested in keeping Burlington's history alive from the the tours and I think the the thing just popped up on the screen But we're celebrating 25 years of preservation Burlington this year. Oh, yeah, yep. So happy birthday preservation So maybe it was 10 years ago that we did the uh Yeah, it's been a while time flies. We're historic Literally we actually yes, I'm not gonna tell my age Right, I'm over 50. So We qualify I'm qualified. That's right I'm not associated with a famous person though that I know Oh, after you die, you'll be famous. That's right. Yes, right All my all my hundreds and hundreds a little notebooks and stuff like that's a want to make a restoration. Look what he was thinking. What the heck Trying to figure it out. Yeah So, yeah, so I think we've got a couple more minutes We touched on the things we wanted to adaptive use is a big thing. I think that lends itself to like you said Climate change earth day and preservation. These things are all linked, you know I'd like everybody that's watching to just pay more attention to what's going on around town and Email us or contact us through facebook or the website Just to keep us abreast and like you said, you know, tell us what you like what we've done in the past what you want to see more of and and notice too like and send in suggestions or Not just suggestions for adaptive reuse of buildings or these buildings that we've talked about today But maybe some of your favorite examples of adaptive reuse And I think what you know in burlington, we've got old firehouses that have been converted to different use I I'm a firehouse. Yeah, I know you are you wrote the book on fire houses one of them Literally, yes, so, you know, I think there are some great examples and when people Send in their examples or you know, we find new gems As well, so yeah, if you have some favorite buildings that have been reused and repurposed We'd love to hear about what they are. Yeah, maybe we'll feature them. Yeah, we could Upcoming newsletter I could see us getting enough, you know, or if you have one in your backyard Or you've converted one like, you know, I'm getting all excited again. I know they are fun, you know I know You know my partner Amy wants a shed and I always say no no sheds no sheds And then you know how the world is there's literally a magazine out called sheds and I'm like, I thought it was funny So I bought it just a teaser And flip through it and I'm like now I have a million ideas for really cool sheds, you know I want I want to take over my neighbor's backyard because it's forested And I've got a bunch of different sheds ideas to put in there. Yeah, that'd be fun. Shed building is no joke though We put one up last year Oh, that's a story for another day. Okay, okay Right an article it'll be historic and you can turn it into an a a du for $50,000. It's big enough I mean, I could Airbnb out here. You know, it's it's super cute, but yeah, it's not gonna happen Thanks for coming back on the board Thanks for asking me I can't wait till we're doing the show more regular again And remember we used to sandwich our guests right in the middle and then we hit them from both sides with questions That's fun. I'm looking forward to some of that. Are we gonna do that too next time? I don't know who should we get we'll put a list together And you know and and viewers too if there's somebody that you'd like to see come on this show Um, sometimes when we ask them they're like, yeah, no, but if we say people want to see you They might be more willing to exactly. Yep. Yep. I think you know, we've got a couple of people coming up I know either Tom Visser or Bob McCullough is going to come on because they want to update everybody once they know What's going on with the program? I've been kind of behind the scenes hounding them and they've got they've got a format together That they think is gonna work. So we're talking about the UVM historic preservation program. The historic preservation program. Sorry about that. Yeah Yeah, yeah, so they're they're coming up soon. I mentioned the Champlain College project. We're doing together So Erica Donnis the librarian there and he'll be coming on to talk about with the staff that's helping right The students will be gone by April But then we'll have them on again when they're ready to present right before their program that we're gonna put together So awesome good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and we'll just keep hounding people and anybody that writes a book about anything We'll get them on here about anything. We're like historic related. Well, we'll make it historic related All right, sounds good. All right. Thanks again. You're welcome. Oh, and thanks everybody for tuning in to cctv live at 525 Preservation Burlington for more information on Burlington history our tours and events or to get a marker for your historic house Go to preservation burlington.org and we'll see you next month