An Open Invitation to Participate as a Volunteer at a Timber Framing Workshop
to be held at Historic Floyd Bennett Field, Gateway National Recreation Area,
Brooklyn, NY.
From May 04 to May 12, 2002.
You are invited; your friends, associates, spouses, children and parents are
invited, to attend the work sessions for these two timber framing projects
and a woodworking workshop.
Preservation Trades Network, Timber Framers Guild, National Park Service and
the Brooklyn High School for Preservation Arts.
A group of ten 9th grade students from the Preservation HS will be working
with experienced craftspeople on the site on Wednesday thru Thursday May 8, 9
& 10. The students were selected by the school to attend the workshop based
on their excellence in the study of US History and an interest in historic
preservation of the built environment.
The students will be exposed to the two timber framing projects, as well as
restoration of wooden pews recently salvaged from an historic church in
Jamaica, Queens and donated to FBF.
The workshops will be videotaped by Charles Thomas of Positive Media for
Youth, Inc., for a cable television program portraying good kids doing
positive things. Charles attended IPTW 2001and videotaped the Preservation HS
kids that were involved at that event.
The gate was first erected by the Timber Framers Guild (TFG) at the Masters
of the Building Arts section of the National Folk Life Festival hosted by the
Smithsonian Institute on the Washington Mall during the summer of 2001. The
Preservation Trades Network (PTN) was one of the official sponsors of the
event. The timber gate has inscribed into the top rail "Masters of the
Building Arts" on one side and "Crafted by the Timber Framers Guild" on the
other.The TFG, working with PTN and the National Park Service, Floyd Bennett
Field, Gateway National Recreation Area, moved and, with assistance of
students from the Brooklyn HS for Preservation Arts, erected the gate at
Floyd Bennett Field in Hangar 5-6 at the International Preservation Trades
Workshops in October 2001 (IPTW 2001).
Permanent installation of the gate, scheduled for the spring of 2002 (next
week), will be at the Ecology Camp. Members of the PTN masonry committee
(John Friedricks), and Jim Hicks, are working on footers and foundation.
Along with the gate project the TFG and PTN, again working with students from
the Brooklyn HS for Preservation Arts, will be completing construction of a
crook frame trail shelter (a medieval timber frame design), a project first
begun at IPTW 2001 for installation at Floyd Bennett Field at the Ecology
Camp. BP members who will be present from the TFG/PTN partnership include
Rudy Christian, Laura Saeger and Lisa Sasser.
The Ecology Camp each summer provides environmental education and an outdoor
camping experience for 17,000 urban youth. The intent of the trail shelter
project is to exhibit the accessibility for anyone to build habitable
structures with their own skills, imagination, and traditional materials.
Current structures at the Ecology Camp are built of commercial lumber
products. Experienced and highly skilled trainers of the TFG will be present,
as well as members of PTN and students from the Brooklyn HS for Preservation
Arts to work on these two projects.
There is no cost for attendance, though we do ask that you be prepared to
provide for your own food and beverages. Floyd Bennett Field is a bit off the
track and though there are restaurants nearby, there are no eating facilities
at the park.
Concurrent with the timber framing projects PTN has been working on research,
design, and implementation of a model project (design & craft working
together) of restoration of the Base Commander's Office in the Ryan Visitor's
Center. Floyd Bennett Field has had a long and illustrious role in the
history of aviation. During WWII the field provided a significant waypoint in
the supply of aircraft to the Pacific Fleet.A visit to the field is not
complete without stopping in to talk to the veterans involved with the
Historic Aircraft Restoration Project (HARP).
Members of the team working on the Base Commander's Office include Misia
Leonard, Jim Van Westering, Witold Karwowski, Duffy Hoffman, Derek Trelstad
and Joan Berkowitz.
Though the work on the Base Commander's Office has been put on hold pending
resolution of an asbestos abatement issue, an alternative plan has been
formed to provide hands-on experience for the students working on the wooden
pews from the historic church in Jamaica, Queens. The woodworking workshops
will be provided by Joan Berkowitz, Duffy Hoffman and Jim Hicks. Misia
Leonard organizing.
The historic park also offers an opportunity to explore the relationship
between ecology of the built and the natural environments.
RSVP Ken Follett at 917-273-5902 (I will be on site from May 8-10.)
Thanks,
][<en
--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>
|
