Preservation Magazine

Going Against the Grain: Historic Jail Becomes the Maine Grains Grist Mill

Posted on: March 25th, 2013 by Katherine Flynn

Amber Lambke and her business partner, Michael Scholz

When Amber Lambke toured a historic jail building in downtown Skowhegan, Maine, in 2007, she already thought that it seemed like the perfect space for a grist mill that would process grains grown by local farmers. It didn’t matter that the jail would be pricey to renovate, or that, at the time, it was still filled with inmates.

Lambke purchased the 14,000-square-foot building in 2009, beginning a process that she saw as essential to reviving a once-thriving grain economy in central Maine.

“We realized that farmers in our area weren’t really interested in growing grains until they knew who was going to buy them and process them,” Lambke says. She saw the mill as a way to bolster their livelihoods, while at the same time providing residents of Skowhegan and neighboring towns with organic, fresh-milled flour.... Read More →

Katherine Flynn

Katherine Flynn is an editorial assistant at Preservation magazine. Her work has appeared online at the Washington Post and in Consequence of Sound, a music and culture blog.

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[Slideshow] Behind the Scenes: Preservation Cover Shoot at Miami Marine Stadium

Posted on: March 21st, 2013 by Dennis Hockman 1 Comment

The city of Miami at dawn as viewed from the Miami Marine Stadium seating area.
The city of Miami at dawn

In the Spring 2013 issue of Preservation magazine, we’ll be featuring one of our National Treasures, the Miami Marine Stadium. Producing the story required navigating an ocean of red tape -- filling out film permits and “hold harmless” agreements with the city of Miami, providing proof of insurance, etc. -- all to get approval to photograph the stadium, which stands abandoned behind a chain link fence and locked gate.

Abandoned, but not unused.... Read More →

Dennis Hockman

Dennis Hockman is editor in chief of Preservation magazine. He’s lived all over the United States but currently resides in Baltimore where he is restoring a 1918 center hall colonial.

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First-Class Green: A 1934 Post Office Redelivered as a LEED-Certified Office

Posted on: March 18th, 2013 by Dennis Hockman 1 Comment

Use of solar panels. Credit: Doty & Miller Architects
An array of solar PV panels added in 2004 to the Bedford, Ohio post office. The panels are mounted in such a way that they act as shades during the summer and allow sun in for natural heat during the winter.

The 1934 post office in Bedford, Ohio, was recently renovated as office space, so when Preservation magazine was looking for adaptive reuse post office projects for a photo essay, it was a natural candidate. But as we learned more about the renovation, we knew that just a caption and a photo in the magazine wouldn’t be enough.

While working with Chuck Miller to learn more about the post office his firm Doty & Miller Architects adapted as its offices, I found out that in 2007 the renovation earned a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council -- the first Gold certification in the United States for a freestanding architect’s office.

Always intrigued by the balance of preservation and sustainability, I circled back with Miller to find out how the firm went about greening the building. ... Read More →

Dennis Hockman

Dennis Hockman is editor in chief of Preservation magazine. He’s lived all over the United States but currently resides in Baltimore where he is restoring a 1918 center hall colonial.

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Edward Dart: Re-Discovering a Modernist Architect

Posted on: January 1st, 2013 by David Robert Weible 3 Comments

Water Tower Place, 1976. Credit: orijinal, flickr
Edward Dart's Water Tower Place in Chicago.

Although noted Chicago architect Edward Dart (1922-1975) designed everything from well-known public spaces and Modernist lakefront houses to iconic churches, I’d never heard of him. And as you’ll read in Lisa Skolnik’s article, “Discovering Dart,” in our Winter 2013 issue of Preservation, neither had the family who purchased one of his houses.

So, to get a better sense of who this accomplished but often overlooked architect was -- and why he was so obscure -- I called Matthew Seymour, a project manager for Central Building and Preservation in Chicago, who had written his master’s thesis in preservation on Dart and served as a source for our feature.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.

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A Look Inside Yosemite’s Historic Ahwahnee Hotel

Posted on: December 27th, 2012 by David Robert Weible

Ahwahnee Great Lounge. Credit: DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite.
The Great Lounge at Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel.

Diane Cole’s “Grand Spans” in the upcoming Preservation’s "Outside the Box" department details the controversy over saving three of Yosemite National Park’s historic bridges, and highlights the struggle to balance cultural and land preservation within the National Park System. But despite an uncertain future for these bridges, our national parks are an incredible repository for historically significant structures of all kinds, and Yosemite is no exception.

Most of the historic structures under the charge of the Park Service are NPS Rustic Style -- an architectural concept that uses wood shingle roofs, log framing, stone foundations, exposed rafter rails, and dark stained siding, when applicable, to blend each structure into the surrounding natural landscape.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.