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Peter Anderson
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- Biloxi, MS
- United States
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Main Street Partners, LLC
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Profile Information
- I am a:
- architect, planner, preservationist
- I am a member of:
- DOCOMOMO US
- My interests are:
- preservation advocacy
- About Me:
- Working in the Grants Department of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in New York City, I helped provide public service in support of preservation efforts for moderate income and not-for-profit owners of historic properties. Much of this work was educational promotion of government programs to individual home owners and to the control and management of historic properties under the control of not-for-profits.
For four years I served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust working with Yale University and the community of New Haven to help manage redevelopment of historic areas of New Haven and to promote preservation activities.
As an architectural consultant and commissioner of historic preservation in Sedona, Arizona, I was involved with resource management and historic property protection in a region threatened by rapidly expanding economic development. Of particular importance was the fair and appropriate balance between government programs for preservation of heritage structures and the natural landscape within the community of Sedona and the rights of property owners to benefit from financial expansion in the area.
Professional Experience:
Main Street Partners, LLC
Architect and Preservation Planning Consultant
Directed projects for new construction and historic preservation in Connecticut and New York. Helped clients negotiate construction and sub-contractors contracts and provided supervision during construction for the monitoring of project costs and scheduling.
Projects include restoration of historic properties, preparation of reports for adaptive reuse of landmark sites and documentation and building condition surveys for state and national historic property listings in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Serving on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust, developed programs for enhancing community awareness of local preservation issues and for supporting redevelopment opportunities of historic properties. Worked with city officials, representatives of Yale University and other community organizations to promote redevelopment and reinvestment in historic neighborhoods throughout the city of New Haven.
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Assisted with grant program for preservation of private and not-for-profit landmark properties throughout the city’s five boroughs. Aided owners’ participation in Community Development Block Grant initiative providing financial and technical support for preservation of historically significant structures and designated historic districts.
H. Pearce Real Estate Company
Real estate sales associate for historic properties in Greater New Haven region. Specialized in sale and financing of properties in historic districts in New Haven as well as surrounding communities. Designated outstanding new salesperson for 1998.
- I am an alumnus/a of:
- Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia
- I work at (for students, list your current university):
- Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Historic Preservation Division
- My business sector is:
- professional
- My Personal Website:
- http://gulfcoastalliance.org
© 2009 Created by Jorge Otero-Pailos
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I was really glad to get your last note. Your proposed thesis suggests an exceptionally interesting area for investigation and analysis. The two years I spent with Kahn’s Bathhouse was an incredible opportunity to explore his work in general and to develop an understanding of the context in which he created his buildings for the Jewish Community Center in Ewing, New Jersey. This is, of course, the same period of importance for your thesis and it is amusing to imagine the “Kahn Corner” of Avery once again being stocked with reference material to the 50s and the popular culture of the times.
I’ll send you a copy of some of the bibliography listings I used for the Kahn research (And you can also check the library copy of The Architecture of Interpretation. The “Boomer Age” continues to be of broad interest and it seems more and more reflection of this period is appearing in print as this segment of the population turns its self-absorption toward the nostalgic documentation of the good old days. An absolute treasure that I happened to stumbled upon is Populux, a perceptive review of the main issues of the 50s presented in low-key, tong-in- cheek, coffee-table format. A quick read and an amusing and vastly informative survey of the image of the age.
I became so consumed by an attraction to currents underway after World War II that I shifted my analysis of Kahn’s Bathhouse from a focus on his architecture and its preservation to issues of interpretation and a discussion of how little attention is given to this aspect of the preservation agenda in Columbia’s graduate program or in the practice of preservation in general.
http://www.geocities.com/aliciainelpaso/bomb.gif
I’m sure you’ve seen, early on, the article about 50s shelters in Slate online: www.slate.com/id/2078892/
With the warning to beware of the potential seduction with an expanding field of interests related to your topic, I want to give you a list of some of the fascinating “background” elements of the 50s that attracted my attention.
1. Keeping up with the Jones.
2. Suburbia and an anti-urban bias.
3. Immigrants in the new, post WWII world.
4. American’s supreme leadership position.
5. New economic, social and educational opportunities.
6. The Cold War.
7. Equal rights and segregation.
8. The commercial culture, consumerism and marketing.
9. McCarthyism and the conservative agenda.
10. “Better red than dead.”
11. “Duck and cover.”
12. The parallel US worlds of unlimited economic advancement and ultimate total annihilation.
13. Levittown, Charles Eames, the Lustron House, plastic. ( The Architecture of Interpretation, pp188-199).
14. Secret, underground control centers.
15. Designed obsolescence.
Good luck on your adventure; have a great time in August with the Kahn field trip and let me know how your work progresses.
Best regards,
Peter
Hine, Thomas. Populuxe, Overlook TP; Reprint edition (August 7, 2007).
Editorial Reviews
John Updike, The New Yorker:
[Hine's] sympathetic grasp of...the affinity between the potato chip's 'free-form' shape and the doubly-curving furniture of Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen showed what a mysteriously alert sensibility could make of vulgar forms usually kept outside the pale of serious consideration.
Alan J. Adler, Los Angeles Times:
Thomas Hine sets forth in clear, entertaining prose his textbook of consumerism in the Push Button Age. This is more than just a coffee table book...It is a historical/psychological analysis that documents the American Dream through the things we bought.
Don O'Briant, Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Hine's illustrated book is a fascinating trip down memory lane. But Populuxe is also an important social history...a study of adolescent America with boundless dreams, a nation of consumers coming of age.
Book Description:
The decade from 1954 to 1964 was one of America's great shopping sprees: never before were so many people able to acquire so many things, and never before was there such choice! These were the years when the United States was virtually unchallenged as a world power, the economy was booming, and the country reveled in a kind of innocent hedonism. It was the era of the newly created world of suburbia, where everything a family owned was provisional: even if it didn't wear out, one always had the hope of being able to move up the ladder to something better. Thomas Hine calls it "Populuxe"--populism and popularity and luxury, plus a totally unnecessary "e" to give it a little class; the word itself as synthetic as the world it describes. By examining the remarkable objects of this time and the life they represent, Hine takes us on an instructive, entertaining tour of this rather peculiar Golden Age. Whether you're a design nut or an appreciator of the defining era of American kitsch, Populuxe is sure to provide hours of insight and fun.
From the Author:
It’s a pleasure to have written a book that so many people love, and it's a particularly rare privilege to have coined a word that a number of distinguished writers have found so useful. This hardcover reprint edition isn't quite as beautiful as the original from Knopf, but it comes very close, and at a very good price, too.
About the Author:
Thomas Hine writes about American history, culture and design for publications. His books include The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager (1999), The Total Package (1995), Facing Tomorrow (1991) and Populuxe (1986). He lives in Philadelphia.
Excerpted from Populuxe by Thomas Hine:
The turning point came in 1954, an eventful year by any standard. It brought not only the downfall of [Sen. Joseph] McCarthy and the momentous Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools but also the introduction of sleek, powerful and finny low-priced cars, and the emergence of a sexy, urgent new kind of popular music--rock and roll. Some 1.5 million new homes were built that year, the great majority of them outside the central cities; 1.4 million power lawnmowers were sold and 4 million babies were born. It was a year in which Americans began to feel less threatened by Communism, and more anxious to enjoy the fruits of American affluence. And it was also a year in which major corporations changed their marketing strategies in order to induce people to spend their increasing incomes.
The next decade--the Populuxe era--presented an invitation to indulge in the luxuries. To the simple mass-produced artifact known to be at the heart of every consumable, from salt shaker to house, was added an overlay of fantasy, of personalization, of style. Americans reveled in a kind of innocent hedonism, buying objects in vibrant, two-tone combinations of turquoise and taupe, charcoal and coral, canary and lime.
I spoke with Susan about a preservation position with RJJM about a month ago while she was in their New York office. She has since let me know that the job has been filled by another candidate.
I continue to look for promising work in preservation planning and am currently investigating several interesting opportunities in Virginia as well as a teaching position in Charleston, SC and a new position in San Francisco.
Your book appears to be getting wide acclaim and I am looking forward to the chance of getting into it. The book is certain to become a major reference source for future work in preservation.
Michael is moving ahead with the restoration of Kahn's buildings in Ewing; I am please with how things are evolving.
I'll keep you posted on future prospects.
Best regards,
Peter
Where are you? Susan Appel of RJJM called me about you and left me a message but I actually never talked to her (I know for her Swanke days)
Theo