Elm StreetBC.pdf
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM B − BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Topographic or Assessor's Map Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons Organization: PVPC Date (month /year): March, 2010 Assessor’s Number
USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 31D-007 Easthampton NTH.2449 Town: Northampton Place: (neighborhood or village) Address: Elm Street Historic Name: Brown Fine Arts Complex Uses: Present:
museum, art department, art library Original: museum, art department, art library Date of Construction: 1972 and 2003 Source: Smith College Records Style/Form: Contemporary Architect/Builder:
John Andrews architect, 1972; Polshek Partnership, architects, 2003 Exterior Material: Foundation: concrete Wall/Trim: brick, glass, steel Roof: not visible Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates): 1972 building taken down to structure for new exterior and interior 2003 Condition: good Moved: no | x | yes | | Date Acreage: Setting: The Brown Fine
Arts Center is located on the north east edge of the college campus facing Elm Street on the north and the campus center on its south. It is on a raised lot above Elm Street behind an
embankment.
INVENTORY FORMB CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [ELM STREET] MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet
1 NTH.2449 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This property is within a local historic district. If checked, you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The Brown Fine Arts Center is a two-story building with
an irregular and complex plan and elevation. Its elevation is composed of planes that recede, are transparent, float, and advance in space. They are brick, glass, and steel in material;
the building has concrete foundations and a flat roof whose material is not visible. The plan of of the building follows the curve of its lot on Elm Street from east to west in a succession
of planes ending in a long north façade parallel to Elm Street. This building was designed in a style that offers considerable visual interest as light passes over and through its components
at various locations in space, yet its only ornament is the variety of textures that its materials offer. The choice of its brick walls was a contextual choice reflecting the brick buildings
surrounding it on the Smith Campus, and its height does not compete with 19th century College Hall to its east. But the use of light and transparency is a 21st century strategy that
draws people into the building and its first floor museum gallery, while insuring that the building’s interior is dominated by light-filled space where appropriate. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.
Smith College established an art department, library and museum in College Hall in 1875, at the time of its founding, reflecting the importance of the arts in the Smith College education.
The three art resources remained in College Hall for over five years but as the Hall also contained administrative offices, larger space was needed and the three art resources were moved
into Hillyer Hall when it was built in 1881. Meanwhile, the college continued to build its museum collection through purchase and donation until by 1926 a new gallery was needed to display
its works in shows and as permanent collection. One of Smith’s fine arts professors, Dwight William Tryon, and his wife Alice Belden Tryon donated money in 1926 for a new gallery and
the Tryon Art Gallery was built. It acted as the College’s art gallery until 1972 when a new fine arts complex was completed and once again the museum, the art department and the art
library were all held in the same building. The 1972 fine arts complex was designed designed by Toronto architect John Andrews who was known for his work with college buildings in the
United States. A building in the a style akin to the Brutalist style, the complex served the College for about thirty years, but flaws in construction materials led to water damage to
the building, a not uncommon issue at the time. So in 2000 Smith selected Polshek Partnership Architects of New York to rehabilitate the building. The architects’ rehabilitation – the
current building -was an almost complete reconstruction, as the walls and floors were taken down to the building’s steel structure and concrete foundations, and rebuilt. The building
was reconstructed with a new floor of art galleries, new storage areas, improved classrooms, faculty offices, an imaging center, improved access and student gallery. Its cost was $35,000,000.
In 2002 the Department of Art and the library opened, and in April of 2003 the museum opened. The complex was re-named the Brown Fine Arts Center. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Smith
College website. Polshek Partnership website.