-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Kestenbaum <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, April 12, 1998 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: Identity


>On Sun, 12 Apr 1998, Ken Follett wrote:
>
>> A recent posting to PL has swelled our numbers and, as always, I think
>> it important that we all get to know each other, or whatever. Handles
>> are easy, empathy is work.
>
>Fair enough.  Looking over my accumulated files, I see that I have never
>properly introduced myself here.
>
>I'm Larry Kestenbaum.  I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and teach at two
>universities.  I'm also an attorney.
>
>I've been involved in preservation for a long time.  Currently, I'm
>teaching a course in historic preservation law, and I'm chair of the Ann
>Arbor Historic District Commission.
>
>As I mentioned before, I'm a programmer, starting with Fortran in 1974,
>and I've written probably a million lines of code in my time.  I've been
>involved in online conferencing of one kind or another for 15 years.  I
>have also created an unexpectedly popular web site, The Political
>Graveyard -- http://www.potifos.com/tpg/ -- about historic cemeteries and
>political history.
>
>And I'm a small-time politician.  I was a county commissioner for six
>years back in the 80's, and lately I'm back in the fray, running in the
>Democratic primary for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.
>
>I think I was a more or less charter subscriber to both Preservation-L and
>Bullamanka-Pinheads.
>
>---
>Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
>http://www.potifos.com/
>

The first time I became familiar with the name of Ann Arbor, it was almost
15 years ago when I was a restoration architect and project manager for the
Polish company PKZ delegated to Riga, capital of Latvia (they called it the
Soviet Latvia then) on the design and management duty in the large
restoration project for the Old City. My colleagues ,of Latvian origin, were
very proud of Gunnar Birkerts FAIA, the Latvian architect who designed the
Law Library addition for Michigan  University in Ann Arbor. They used to
show me the publications about the Ann Arbor project from the western press
with precautions like with the samizdat (underground publication).
Personally, I found it an ingenious idea as a contemporary project in the
historical environment. For BP members who are not familiar with the
project, it was the underground structure with an opening below the ground
(lawn) level to catch the light completely unobstructive to the existing
university structures. The philosophical question is, if the only right way
for contemporary architecture in historical environment is to go
underground? My very personal opinion in Ann Arbor case is yes, but as
conservation goes still more than an art and less than a science there is no
one thing we can call the only truth. First, I would like to know the
opinion of the library users, how it really works, then if anyone else would
like to pursue the thread  - contemporary versus historical. For some
reason, I get attached to Larry Kestenbaum introductions, but it is really
not my fault that he is from Ann Arbor.

Witold Karwowski