The 2011 meeting and conference of the Marion Dean Ross Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians was held October 7-9 in Boise, Idaho’s capitol city. A group of around thirty participants gathered in what only can be described as the last hurrah of a lovely Pacific Northwest autumn to hear papers and enjoy tours organized around the theme, “Taming the West: Changing Landscapes and Resource Extraction.” The conference was organized by chapter President, Phillip Mead (University of Idaho, Moscow) along with Tricia Canaday (SHPO, Boise), Dan Everhart (Preservation Idaho, Boise) and Don Watts (SHPO, Boise).
Opening Reception
The conference began with a reception at the EmpireBuilding (1911), a six-story structure that was designed by architects Benjamin Morgan Nisbet and Frank H. Paradice Jr. The building was rehabilitated between 1999 and 2001. The evening’s featured speaker Arthur Hart, Director Emeritus of the Idaho State Historical Society, wrote a summary of the Empire Building’s history for the Idaho Statesman shortly after our gathering (available online here). Sadly, due to a miscalculation of travel time combined with an ignorance of time zones (Boise is in the Mountain Time Zone, i.e. an hour later than I thought), I only caught the final fifteen minutes of Mr. Hart’s slide presentation which covered the architectural highlights both extant and demolished of Boise.
A word on the conference hotel ̶ many of the attendees stayed at the Modern Hotel, a former Travelodge that has been transformed into a hipster hangout in Boise’s Linen District. The former check-in area and manager’s residence have been converted into a très chic and popular bar, fronted by a courtyard with a fire pit. The guest rooms are furnished in a Design Within Reach modern aesthetic that stands in contrast to the establishment’s classic Travelodge form.
Scholarly Papers
The presenters, in varying degrees of blurriness. Left to right: Richa Wilson, Donna Hartmans, Bryan Orthel, Marian J. Posey, Sarah Steen, Henry Matthews, and Tyler Sprague. The morning's first presenter, Elizabeth Engle is missing. I'm not at my sharpest at 8:30am.
The morning of Saturday, October 8 was crammed chockablock with a total of eight presentations. Three of the first set of presenters dealt with government agency projects while the fourth had a decidedly fraternal bent. In Colter Bay: Park Planning and Public Partnership, Elizabeth Engle discussed the mid-century (1954-72) forms of recreational structures in Colter Bay Village, Grand Teton National Park. In contrast to the grand lodges of earlier eras, these structures were designed to minimize their impact on the landscape, were decidedly auto-centric, and geared toward middle- rather than upper-class visitors. Facilities included amenities such as tent cabins, a Laundromat, and one of the earliest RV parks in a National Park. Richa Wilson’s Within a Days Ride: Administrative Architecture of the US Forest Service traced the development of Ranger housing from tents, to ranger-built cabins, to nationally standardized plans and eventually to plans that originated with the federal agency, but reflected regional identities. Donna Hartmans presentation addressed a project of massive scale, the Grand Coulee Dam Historic District and the Columbia Basin Project (CBP). The CBP encompasses over a million acres of land, making it the largest water reclamation project in the United States. The area includes a vast range of architectural and cultural resources including the dam itself (1933-42), hydroelectric structures, an array of canals, pipes and tunnels for the irrigation systems, and an entire town, Mason City. Bryan Orthel’s presentation, Shoes in Trees, Historical consciousness in the cultural landscape questioned the definition of what constitutes a historically significant monument. In the early 1980s members of thePullman, WA Branch of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity began lobbing shoes into the tree in front of their building. The tradition continued for some years until the surrounding community began to consider the tree and its décor a public nuisance or outright junk, which appears to have put the kibosh on the addition of new footwear and resulted in the creation of a “Save the shoe tree” Facebook page. The ensuing lively discussion about the criteria for a plaque-worthy landmark generated some mild mannered merriment and rather curtailed the amount of time allotted for a refueling break prior to the next set of four presentations, which ran the geographic gamut.
Marian Posey stayed the closest to our conference’s base, discussing The Use of Basalt as a Building Material. Because of the limited availability of wood for construction in the Magic Valley (South Central Idaho), early settlers (late 1800s) used basaltic rock that was primarily gathered as part of the land clearing process rather than quarried. Designs remained highly vernacular into the 20th century; however by the 1920s the availability of skilled labor combined with access to plan books resulted in more standardized and conventional applications. Sarah Steen’s work in progress, A Perfect Web of Nets, casts a wide net indeed, looking at the industrial history of the Lower Columbia (from Bonneville to the Pacific) with a view toward at least recording but possibly also landmarking remaining industrial structures or even an entire heritage area. Henry Matthews wandered furthest afield with his Graeco-Roman Cities of Aegean Turkey, a future book in progress. This year’s Wendell Lovett Award winner Tyler Sprague presented a paper on Hyperbolic Paraboloids in the Pacific Northwest. Hyperbolic Paraboloids are characterized by a warped rectilinear roof plane (think of Pringles potato chips). Architect and educator Matthew Nowicki (1910-1950) criticized the “false functionalism” of some practitioners of the international style and instead encouraged new experiments in structure in collaboration with structural engineers. His Dorton Arena (1950-52) inRaleigh,North Carolina is an example of this aesthetic, as is much of the work of Felix Candela inMexico. Mr. Sprague also noted some examples in the Pacific Northwest, which I failed to note. However, Pier 99 (also known as the Totem Pole Marina) near the I-5 Bridge across the Columbia River by architects John Storrs and Si Stanich with structural engineer James G. Pierson is a noteworthy (and endangered) example with which I am familiar.
Lunch and Annual General Meeting
The paper presentations were followed by lunch at the Idaho Capital Building Cafeteria combined with a very speedy Annual General Meeting. The two essential items of business concerned the location of our 2012 meeting and the election of board officers. The current board is exploring holding the 2012 Annual Meeting of the MDR SAH in Spokane,WA in synergy with the National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference. The assembled were questioned as to their interest in attending the NTHP Conference along with the MDR SAH meeting. As the response was generally favorable, the board will continue to pursue Spokaneas our 2012 venue.
The board elections proceeded smoothly, with the full slate of proposed officers and members elected. These were (and will be for 2011-2013):
President: Edward H. Teague (University of Oregon, Eugene, OR)
Vice President: Diana Painter (Painter Preservation and Planning, Spokane, WA)
Treasurer: Mimi Sheridan (Sheridan Consulting Group, Seattle, WA)
Secretary: Bernadette Niederer (Historic Preservation Northwest, Albany, OR)
Regional Delegate, B.C.: Harold Kalman (Vancouver)
Regional Delegate, WA: J. Philip Gruen (Pullman)
Regional Delegate, WA: Caroline Swope (Tacoma)
Regional Delegate, ID: Phillip Mead (Moscow, immediate past-President)
Regional Delegate, OR: Edward H. Teague (Eugene)
Membership Coordinator: David Pinyerd (Albany, OR)
Website Manager: Edward H. Teague (Eugene, OR)
Archivist: Elisabeth Walton Potter (Salem, OR)
There is only one surprise in the slate: After nine years (2002-2011) as our stalwart Treasurer, Shirley Courtois has handed over the reins (and the chapter’s checkbook) to Mimi Sheridan. Thanks to Shirley’s management, our chapter’s finances have been steady, consistently in the black, and have allowed the chapter to support worthy projects and scholars. While Mimi is sure to be a worthy successor, Shirley will be missed.
Afternoon Tours of Idaho City and the Lucky Peak Dam
After lunch the gang piled into a bus and headed out for some touring. The first brief stop was at the Boise River Diversion Dam (1908) and Powerplant (1912) which was rehabilitated in 2002-04. We breezed past the Lucky Peak Dam, built 1949-55 for flood control and irrigation, with hydroelectric generation not added until 1988. Next stop, Idaho City, founded as a gold rush town in 1862. We stopped in at the Pon Yam House/Store (established circa 1874), the sole remnant of a once thriving China Town, at the oldest I.O.O.F. Building (1875) in continuous use and at the Idaho City Catholic Church, originally rebuilt in 1867 (an 1863 version burned) and recently renovated on the interior. After that our bus breezed through the Idaho City Ranger Station Complex ̶ particularly interesting in light of Richa Wilson’s morning presentation ̶and the 1930s Boise Basin Experimental Station.
The eventful day concluded with drinks and the Basque Heritage Center and a dinner of Paella prepared outside, in front of the Heritage Center’s banquet room. Afterwards the gang was able to sneak into the nearby Fronton Building (a Basque handball court, built 1912), where outgoing President Phillip Mead showed off his Pala skills.
- Phillip Mead in action, Shirley Courtois in the foreground.
Sunday Tour
Assay Office
On Sunday morning a small group met at the old Assay Office. Currently in use as the Idaho State Historic Preservation office, the structure was designed by Alfred B. Mullett, an architect for the U.S. Treasury Department and was completed in 1871. The building was also mentioned during Richa Wilson’s presentation, as it was in use by the U.S. Forest Service from 1933-1972, at which time plans were made (but never executed) to restyle the building in accordance with the trend to have Forest Service buildings reflect a regional identity. From there Ken Swanson, director of the Idaho Military History Museum led us on a tour of Fort Boise a short walk away at the edge of the downtown core. “New” Fort Boise (as opposed to Old Fort Boise, a Hudson’s Bay Trading Company Post) was established in 1863 and was decommissioned by the U.S. Army in 1912. After that it served the Idaho National Guard, the Public Health Service, and the Veterans Administration, which continues to operate it. Ken Swanson pointed out some of the oldest buildings on the campus, including the Quartermaster Building and the Officer’s Quarters, both dating to 1863 and constructed of sandstone. As a facility in active use, the Fort faces constant pressure to expand and modernize. Buildings were in the process of being added or renovated during our visit. Unlike structures added during the second half of the twentieth century, which were modern in character (at least one of these appears to be slated for demolition), the new constructions are in a more Post Modern idiom, with detailing referencing the brick buildings constructed from around 1910 through the 1920s. As the tour concluded a small fox crossed our path reminding us that while the West may be increasingly tame, the wild still makes its presence felt in Boise.
Fort Boise Officer's Quarters
