UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 34, Page 10
June 9, 1994
A preservationist's view; Plan creatively melds historic, new buildings
by David Ames
A number of people at the University and in Newark are concerned
about the proposed demolition by the University of the rear of
Daugherty Hall as part of the new student center planned for West Main
Street.
I would like to share my views on the proposal with my colleagues
in the University and neighbors in Newark.
Daugherty Hall is, of course, the Old First Presbyterian Church
on West Main Street-an historically significant structure listed on
the National Register of Historic Places. The original Gothic Revival
church was built in 1868; an addition for the Sunday School, built in
a similar Gothic Revival style, was added to the rear of the church in
1927.
It is the additi on that will be removed under the present plans
for the new student center. Although the addition is an important part
of the church and I do not like to see any historic building
demolished, I believe that important goals of preservation, of the
community and of the University will be accomplished by this and other
projects the University has carried out along West Main Street and
that these important goals outweigh the loss of the Sunday School
addition to the Old Presbyterian Church.
First, the Old Presbyterian Church is being saved; the original
1868 church, historically and architecturally the most significant
portion of the building, is a dominant architectural element in the
proposed student center. The University also will be restoring the
sanctuary by removing the dropped ceiling, restoring the wood and
repainting the walls in their original colors. Secondly, the proposed
student center project is an extremely important one for the
University, and the corner of West Main Street and South College
Avenue is perhaps the best site for it on campus-both because of its
location and because it reclaims a site that is a sea of surface
parking around the Old Presbyterian Church.
In my view, the proposal for the new student center successfully
melds the historic buildings and fabric of Newark and the campus with
a modern and architecturally distinctive student center, in a manner
than symbolizes the relationship between the town and the campus.
A number of important historic preservation goals are
accomplished by this project. First, the historic integrity of the
entire block that is the site of the student center, including the
1863 Evans House, has been preserved. About a year ago, there was a
proposal to straighten out the dogleg in South College Avenue where it
meets Main Street.
This was to be done by demolishing the Evans House on the corner
so that a realigned College Avenue could be run through the site.
By resisting that proposal, the University preserved not only the
Evans House, but also the integrity of the block and the historic
street pattern, which are critical elements of the historic landscape
of the Old College area and the larger campus.
Indeed, in establishing architectural guidelines for the design
of the new student center, the University required that it be
integrated into the historic streetscape of West Main Street and that
the Old Presbyterian Church and Evans House, with their trees, be
maintained as dominant visual elements.
With this decision, the renovation and adaptive reuse of Elliott
Hall and the continued maintenance of the historic character of Alumni
Hall, the University has made a commitment to enhance the streetscape
of Newark's historic Main Street within the campus and to view these
buildings as community resources as well as University ones.
It is important to point out that the University is saving whole
buildings-all of the 1868 Old Presbyterian Church and all of the 1863
Evans House, having just restored all of Elliott Hall. The University
is not just making a symbolic gesture to historic preservation, such
as the "facadectomies" (in which building facades are left to front a
new building) that George Washington University performed along
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
Also worth noting is that the rear of the student center will be
shielded by the historic residential streetscape along Delaware
Avenue. This means that the architects have sited the low, three-story
student center on the site so that it lies behind the historic
streetscapes and buildings of both West Main Street and Delaware
Avenue.
Historic preservation planners know that the best way to preserve
buildings is to maintain them in continued use. The decisions to
incorporate the Evans House into the site of the student center and to
incorporate the Old Presbyterian Church into the center itself
represent not only a commitment to the historic streetscape of West
Main Street but a way to integrate these buildings more fully into the
activities of the campus.
The Evans House has long been shunned by University activities
because of its isolation, for example. Churches abandoned by their
congregations are the great white elephants of preservation, since
there are so few ways to reuse them. In my view, incorporating the Old
Presbyterian Church into the student center guarantees its survival
well into the 21st century, whereas leaving it freestanding, with the
addition, leaves it open to threat.
Even if the student center were moved down the block and the
parking garage put elsewhere, the church would be more vulnerable than
it is now because its role as a pit stop for students for fast food
and study would be assumed by the new student center. To reuse it as a
nondedominational chapel, as has been suggested by some, would be, in
effect, to ask the University to maintain it as a museum. Sitting
alone on one of the prime sites on the campus could be a constant
invitation to future University administrations to demolish the entire
church and reuse the site, perhaps even, for example, to expand the
student center in 2020.
So, while we are regrettably losing the addition to the church,
we are, in effect, taking out an insurance policy on the original 1868
church that will allow it to complete its second century on West Main
Street.
We also need to ask what the proposed student center is bringing
to the campus and Newark aesthetically as architecture, what it
contributes to the appearance of the place. In my view, the site plan
and architectural design for the student center itself are outstanding
ones. Developed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, one of the
leading architectural firms in the country, the design melds the
historic landscape and buildings of Newark with a modern student
center that will be a candidate for preservation awards in the future.
In the debate over Daugherty Hall, no one has really talked about
the design of the student center, and that design is important because
that is why the addition to the Old Presbyterian Church must be
removed. In working with Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, the
University asked the architects to see if they could keep the entire
church.
They decided they couldn't, for at least one reason that is
evident from the site plan. Those opposing the demolition of the
Sunday School addition have proposed at least two alternatives, one of
which is essentially wrapping the proposed student center around the
Sunday School addition. This presents an extremely difficult, if not
impossible, architectural design problem because Daugherty Hall is a
very long and narrow building that essentially cuts the site in two.
To incorporate the Daugherty Hall extension into the proposed
center would be to create an architectural sandwich with Daugherty as
the filling and two slices of a new, bifurcated student center as the
bread.
The second alternative suggested has been to move the student
center down the block and relocate the parking garage.
I have a couple of problems with that; the first is that it would
be hard to make work, and the second is that, even if it did work, it
isn't a good idea.
This location at the corner of West Main Street and South College
Avenue is critical to the success of the student center, and to move
it even half a block would make it less so. And, the parking garage is
an extremely important supporting facility for the student center,
especially for commuting students.
We need to remember that the campus is, in effect, a "walking
city": The most predominant transportation mode is feet and the most
important transportation facilities are the sidewalks.
The new student center will become the center of the pedestrian
circulation system on the campus, the geographic center of gravity of
which has been moving north.
Since we measure our travel in minutes and, running between
classes, sometimes in seconds, the student center needs to be in the
least-travel-time location and at the symbolic center of the campus,
across from Old College.
As importantly, to one who commuted to college, by having the
student center and parking garage on the same block, the University
will be linking the automobile street system commuting students use to
get to the campus with the pedestrian system of the campus, and the
student center will serve as their portal to the campus.
In my view, coupling these facilities on the same block marks a
real advance in our ability not only to serve our students on campus,
but also our commuting students who must drive in all weather, find
parking, get to class and, oh by the way, catch a bite to eat on the
way.
Given the needs that the student center and parking garage
development must meet, I think the proposed design is excellent.
As can be seen from the site plan, the student center has been
set back from West Main Street, with the Evans House maintained as the
focus on the corner and the Old Presbyterian Church architecturally
bringing the student center to Main Street.
The student center is designed to fit into the scale of the block
by making the church the dominant visual element, by maintaining a
low, three-story profile, by coming to South College Avenue at an
angle, leaving space open behind the Evans House.
One will enter the student center into a glass-faced corridor
that runs at right angles to the Old Presbyterian Church, so that the
stone, Gothic Revival architecture of the church will dominate the
inside of the student center as well.
Lastly, the student center and parking garage complex are
important to the larger community of Newark. A petition to the
University against the demolition of the rear portion of Daugherty
Hall moves beyond the church to question the entire project, stating
"[t]hat a massive development like the student center/parking garage
complex is not only a physical intrusion into the traditional scale of
Main Street but a threat to its small-scale functioning."
Whereas I can sympathize with their opposition to removing part
of Daugherty Hall, I think questioning the need to redevelop this
largely empty block on the west end of downtown is simply wrong-
headed.
The University is making a substantial investment in the core of
the town and how it looks, even as businesses on Main Street are
savaged by stores in new shopping centers on the edge of Newark, which
were approved, for whatever reasons, by the city of Newark.
The result is that, increasingly, Main Street businesses are
dependent on University folks for their market.
The question of Main Street's viability is on the east end. The
city of Newark has recently become part of the National Main Street
Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the purpose
of which is to wed historic preservation and economic revitalization.
My own view is that the preservation energies now opposing the
student center project might more positively be directed to supporting
the Main Street project and enhancement of Main Street east of the
campus.
The only real question, in my view, about the proposed student
center/parking garage development is whether the Sunday School
addition to the Old Presbyterian Church needs to be demolished.
As a preservationist, I regret that my conclusion is that it
does. However, I also believe that some of our most successful and
aesthetically pleasing landscapes and living spaces are those in which
we creatively meld historic buildings with well-designed new ones.
I think that the University and the architects have created such
a landscape in the proposal for the new student center, while
accomplishing important goals for the University and the community.
Although it will hurt when the Sunday School addition comes down, I
believe the accomplishment of these goals outweigh its loss.