credit: Courtesy Image
caption: Susan Ricker Knox (1875-1959), The Europeans, Oil on board, 16 x 20 inches, estate stamped.




There is something very satisfying when two renowned Boston institutions like Vose Galleries and Mount Auburn Cemetery team up to celebrate the many men and women who made significant contributions to the arts in their day and who are buried at the cemetery. Both institutions are also celebrating important anniversaries: 175th for Mount Auburn and 165th for Vose Galleries, the oldest family-owned gallery in the country.

Located at 238 Newbury Street, Vose Galleries has dedicated the entire first floor to the 24 artists, starting with a charming oil painting by Susan Ricker Knox titled “The Europeans,” which hangs in the vestibule next to the main gallery. Lushly painted in vibrant colors, it depicts a group of mostly women and children, seated, waiting. The clothing implies that they are people of some means, but they are waiting patiently to go somewhere, perhaps enter the United States. Ellis Island, without the stress and strain.

Several of the paintings in the next room belong to the Vose family, including the work of Herman Dudley Murphy, “Pitch Pines, Mt. Monadnock in Winter,” which dazzles the viewer not only with the artist’s technical ability but also with the natural beauty of the region shown by its shadowy contrasts of snow and trees. Murphy insisted on carving his own frame as well, another true work of art.

Murphy’s wife, Nelly Littlehale Murphy, attended what was then known as the Boston Museum School, now the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and met her future husband there. Her expertise with watercolor is clearly evident in “Orchids,” a masterfully rendered work displayed in the back room. Her husband’s comments about her work, “Rarely have flowers been painted with greater charm in arrangement, and mastery of the technique of Water Color,” depict a warm marriage of support and admiration.

The show, not surprisingly, is strong in landscapes and still-lifes, and George Loftus Noyes had tried his hand at both. “Still Life — Wine and Fruit” reflects the many years Noyes spent in Europe, while his “Lobster Cove, Annisquam, MA” speaks of his love for a part of this country in which he taught art. Among his best known students were N.C. Wyeth and Clifford Ashley.

Sometimes a smaller canvas holds major power over the viewer and Stephen Parrish’s “Cape Cod, 1871” is just such a piece. Twelve by 23 inches, it is a delightful composition, painted in pastel colors with a hint of brights, delicately dispersed. The houses appear to float on both water and land, and it is no surprise that he influenced the work of his son Maxfield. In his later years he fell in love with Cornish, New Hampshire, and spent his remaining time there, working.

The artists in this exhibition were clearly gifted and many taught at places like MIT, the Copley Society and the Boston Museum School. Wander through the exhibition first as many of the works are for sale, and then go visit the artists in their final resting place at Mount Auburn Cemetery to pay homage.

Gary Locarno of 339 Marlborough Street has a date with the City of Boston Board of Appeal at 9:30 a.m. on February 27. At that time, he will ask the board for variances from the Boston Zoning Code allowing him to construct a one-story addition with a roof deck to provide indoor parking spaces and an egress.

The Neighborhood Association of the Back reviewed the application in December and opposed the requested variances because they believe the new garage and deck would reduce the light, air and privacy of the neighbors. The proposed structure would replace a garden fence and be at least two feet higher to accommodate cars, according to licensing and building use committee chair Thomas High.

In addition, NABB had public safety concerns. “We believe that infilling the alleys with high walls degrades the character, livability and security of the neighborhood,” said High. “There is a significant difference in one’s sense of security walking down an open alley and walking down an enclosed alley. An open alley provides more eyes on the street and a much more residential feeling.”

Whether jamming for fun or performing onstage before an audience, Berklee College of Music will soon have a place of their own — one that may give residents a chance to watch Grammy-Award winners in the making.

Tuesday, the City of Boston Board of Appeal gave the college the go-ahead to use a portion of the main floor of the Tennis and Racquet Club at 927-939 Boylston Street as a coffee house/entertainment venue. Berklee will also use part of the second floor for classrooms.

It was a proposal supported by the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. “We agreed that allowing a coffee house/performance venue at this location, operated by Berklee as part of their educational program, would be an enhancement to the neighborhood,” said Thomas High, licensing and building use committee chairman. They reached an agreement with Berklee on several license conditions and zoning provisos consistent with this position.

The college administrators are still talking about specific ways they’ll use the new space, in which they plan to invest a million dollars for renovations, according to David R. Hornfischer, vice-president for administration and finance. Generally speaking, he said the first-floor space will be divided into two rooms: The smaller side, where single or groups of music students can improvise, will be a small Starbucks-style coffee house seating about 15 to 20 people. The other side, which can accommodate more than 100 people, will be used during the day as a “hang space” for students and then turned into a performance venue at 4:00 p.m. From then until 1:00 a.m., there will be scheduled shows, some ticketed and some free. Both spaces will be open to the public.

There will be no alcohol served at the venue, said Hornfischer, who added that at most music venues students under 21 cannot enter to listen to the music or even perform. “The interesting thing is that this is a non-alcohol place,” he said. We have an opportunity to break the [thinking] that you need alcohol to enjoy or play music.”

Plans are to open the coffee house in October, after renovations are complete.

SIDEBAR
CAPTION: John Mayer at Berklee in 2004
CREDIT: Phil Farnsworth.

Two graduates of Berklee College of Music walked away with a total of seven Grammy Awards at the awards ceremony held in Los Angeles last Sunday night.

Natalie Maines, who graduated in 1995, is one of The Dixie Chicks, the evening’s biggest winners, who took top honors in all five categories in which they were nominated: The group’s “Taking The Long Way” won album of the year and country album of the year; the song “Not Ready to Make Nice” was awarded record of the year, song of the year, and best country performance by a duo or group with vocal.

John Mayer, a 1998 graduate, who performed at the ceremony with John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae, received the fourth and fifth Grammy Awards of his career, with wins in the categories best male pop vocal performance for “Waiting on the World to Change” and best pop vocal album for Continuum.

With this year’s wins, Berklee alumni have now won a total of 154 Grammy Awards.

The Berklee College of Music is still exploring ways to meet the demand of the college’s increased enrollment, which has grown by 40 percent over the past ten years. At a recent meeting of the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Community Task Force, Berklee officials updated Task Force and the public on plans to conduct a traffic study at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. The study would help determine the feasibility of a high-rise residence hall and theater complex at that location, which would to relieve the college’s student housing problem.

Berklee has expanded its enrollment to 4,000 students and while the college’s undergraduate program has expanded Berklee's physical space grew only 14 percent.

The proposed 25- to 30-story complex on that corner would replace two buildings, the Berklee Performance Center and a two-story academic building. The project would cost the college about $120 million. The benefit for Berklee is that the high-rise would house 600 students and a state-of-the-art performance space.

“The college has no plans to further expand enrollment,” said Berklee’s Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance David Hornfischer. “We are just trying to catch up to the growth we’ve already experienced in the past decade.”

While there’s no concrete plan just yet, and Berklee has not formally filed any intentions with the city to build, the college does plan to spend $200 to $300 million over 10 years on the proposed building complex and other projects to accommodate the past spike in enrollment.

“We are in the very early stages right now but I think what we are doing is revolutionary,” said Hornfischer on the community process. “Before we get too deeply committed in a project, we want to be able to hear from residents and get their opinions on proposed plans.”

“So far it’s been a good process, and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from members of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay and residents,” said Hornfischer.

BRA project manager, Gerald Autler said until a formal plan is submitted with the city it’s hard to tell what impacts construction might have in the Back Bay. With that said, Autler is confident that Berklee will receive good support from the neighborhood.

“Berklee has long enjoyed a good relationship with its neighbors in the Back Bay,” said Autler. “I think residents are sympathetic with the college’s needs and desires to expand, and Berklee is working closely with residents on any and all ideas.”

The next meeting of the community task force is scheduled for March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at 921 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

credit: D. Harney

First snowballs

Suffolk University students Andres Werthein and Simon Angel gathered enough snow together on Valentine’s Day to have a snowball fight in the Public Garden. It was Angel’s — who is from Columbia — first snowball fight, ever. Werthein is originally from Argentina and both live in the Suffolk dorms.




Safe sidewalk

Kreso Brumec of the Hare Krishna Temple on Commonwealth Avenue shoveled a path for passersby on Wednesday during the city’s first snowfall of the season.

The 1960s and 1970s

Architectural historian and Commonwealth Avenue resident Douglass Shand-Tucci is the latest advocate to throw down the gauntlet to the preservation world.

Shand-Tucci, like other admirers of certain examples of 20th-century architecture, says there are buildings, pools and plazas worth saving. He proposes that one in particular, the Christian Science complex, should be granted landmark status.

The only problem with this point of view is that the architecture modernist admirers are promoting is a product of the period of architecture — 1960s and the 1970s — that might be the most detested by the typical Bostonian.

There is a lot to hate in these buildings. Let’s start with the materials. Concrete gets dirty and can’t be easily cleaned — or at least no one attempts it. Aluminum pits.

Some buildings of this era repel people instead of inviting them. Go out and count the number of people lounging on City Hall Plaza, or even around Shand-Tucci’s beloved Christian Science reflecting pool. The dozen or so people hanging around pales in comparison with the hordes occupying every square inch of the Esplanade or a sidewalk along Newbury Street.

Their monumental plazas appear to be designed only for photography or processions. For people, they can be scary, in a science fiction kind of way, and take a long time to negotiate. Two of the worst are, luckily are not in Boston. They are the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France on the outskirts of Paris. (The French library is actually of a later decade, but it exhibits all the problems of the ’60s and ’70s.) Structures such as these may make bold graphic statements, but no person wants to be near them. Surely a building worthy of landmark status has to provide a pleasant experience for people.

The architectural ideas for many of these buildings come from Mies van der Rohe’s disciples, who spread out from Germany over all of bombed-out Europe after World War II, conquering that continent and parts of ours with architecture instead of Panzers. They claimed that “less is more,” without noticing that builders of New England churches had already held that idea long ago, while also creating a sense of place that we still enjoy today.

The Back Bay has perhaps fared as well as any part of Boston with its 1960s and 1970s architecture. Take the Christian Science complex as an example. Shand-Tucci points out that the concrete on the high-rise administration building is of the best quality. He admires the reflecting pool as a serene and contemplative space. We might give him that, understanding that a handsome city must be filled with different kinds of spaces with different aspects.

If that complex is designated as a landmark, more 20th-century buildings will be proposed for landmark status, and many of them are in the Back Bay.

The Pru and the John Hancock Tower. Should they be landmarks? How about the BPL’s Johnson Building? The 1984 building called One Exeter Plaza? The Newbury Street building built for the Boston Architectural College?

Boston City Hall, was built, of course, during the same period. Should we landmark it or tear it down?

The questions over these buildings are just beginning. What happens at the Christian Science complex will begin to provide some of the answers.