Architecture

Ex-Elks Lodge Demolished For Dixwell Plaza Redev

by | Nov 16, 2023 5:02 pm | Comments (32)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

87 Webster St. destroyed, in preparation for Dixwell block's rebirth.

As an excavator arm reached out to tear down the wall of the old Elks Club at Webster Street and Dixwell Avenue, Beverly Barnes lifted a hand to shield her face from the sight — then readjusted her focus to an anticipated future of bustling sidewalks, modernized apartments and new neighbors.

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Peabody Building Project Goes Beyond Sustainability

by | Nov 14, 2023 3:35 pm | Comments (15)

Brian Slattery Photos

A Yale-owned research station that is an experiment in regenerative architecture” poses a profound question about the future of making, and unmaking, buildings: how can new construction not just have zero impact on the environment, but also reverse some of the damage humans have done?

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Newhallville Church's Roof Repairs Celebrated

by | Nov 13, 2023 9:05 am | Comments (1)

Christopher Wigren, Stacy and Frankie Vairo, Jane Montanaro, Lady Shalene McClam, Pastor Darrell McClam, and Mother Helen Jean Carr on Sunday.

The congregants of Pitts Chapel United Free Will Baptist Church are not only raising their historic sanctuary’s roof in dancing, singing, and exuberant prayer as they do every Sunday — now they are also able to fix it.

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Regina Winters-Toussaint To Be Inducted Posthumously Into CT Women’s Hall of Fame

by | Oct 12, 2023 4:00 pm | Comments (2)

Regina Winters-Toussaint.

While a student at the Yale School of Architecture in 1992, Regina Winters-Toussaint created her own summer internship. As one of the first counselors for LEAP, then a new youth enrichment program in New Haven, she moved into Westville Manor public housing, where she mentored the young people living there.

That willingness to steep herself in the experience of those who would live and work in the structures she built is among the reasons for the induction of Winters-Toussaint, who died of cancer at 47 in April 2016, in the CT Women’s Hall of Fame, according to its executive director Sarah Lubarsky. 

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Preservationists Preach Hardware Love

by | Oct 5, 2023 11:07 pm | Comments (3)

Allan Appel photo

A painted hinge, ready to be cleaned up on Wednesday night.

There’s an unusual and still little known new hospital in New Haven: It doesn’t accept most insurance, patients for the most part perform the treatments on themselves, and — most remarkably — it makes the old new again, well, at least look new, provided you are a hinge, doorknob, rosette, latch or lock.

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Armory Ailments Detailed, Futures Floated

by | Aug 4, 2023 9:16 am | Comments (10)

Laura Glesby file photo

Desmone Gambrell-Claxton and Fabian Menges present their group's ideas for the Armory (pictured above).

The abandoned armory on Goffe Street is starting to house dreams of sports facilities, small businesses, social services, and citywide celebrations.

But before neighbors’ visions for the historic structure can become a reality, the building will need to be cleared of asbestos, sealed off from water, and bolstered to support more weight.

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I'll Take "Columns" For $500 ...

by | Jul 18, 2023 9:51 am | Comments (8)

ASHER JOSEPH PHOTOS

Michael Waters explains different styles of columns at Monday night's Preservation Trust event at Make Haven.

Fifty homeowners and architecture enthusiasts sat stumped by the house’s sloping turret, asymmetrical facade, and spindly woodwork.

Then New Haven newcomer Madeline Altman put the pieces together: It’s a Queen Anne.”

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English Station Mess Put Back In Spotlight

by | May 3, 2023 9:19 am | Comments (17)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Save The Sound's Roger Reynolds joins enviro allies in lamenting the still-polluted state of English Station (pictured above).

Local environmental advocates gathered in front of a graffiti-laden gate cutting off the contaminated former English Station power plant from the public — and lauded a recent move by the state’s attorney general pushing United Illuminating to finish cleaning up the site or pay a $2 million annual penalty.

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Firehouse 12 Celebrates Rejuvenations

by | Mar 14, 2023 9:02 am | Comments (15)

Brian Slattery Photo

Lloyd.

For Nick Lloyd, owner and chief engineer of Firehouse 12 on Crown Street, the announcement of the space’s spring concert series — kicking off March 24 and running every Friday through June 23 — is both a return and a rejuvenation. As in the past, the concert series features many of the leading lights of the experimental music scene, locally, regionally, and nationally. Those groups, however, will get to play in a renovated space that reflects, after two decades, Lloyd’s even surer sense of what a concert venue can sound like, and what it can do for players and audience alike.

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Hello, Halloumi! Pistachio 2 Opens

by | Jan 31, 2023 11:38 am | Comments (3)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Rahaf Sayet about to press another pistachio halloumi panini.

Rahaf Sayet took two slices of blended whole wheat and sourdough bread from Whole G Bakery, layered on Cyprus-made cheese, and placed the sandwich in a panini press — crafting a local-foreign fusion meal that’s selling fast at a new Chapel Street Middle Eastern eatery. 

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Memory Map Locates Town-Gown Bridge

by | Dec 20, 2022 10:11 am | Comments (6)

Laura Glesby photo

Corie Betha marks the memory map at library workshop.

On the Collective Memory Map,” most streets have no labels. Someone hand-drew the salt piles by the Mill River. Scantlebury Park could be identified only by the caption Skateboarding happens here.” 

Corie Betha peered at the map, orienting herself by the shapes of the unmarked streets, before uncapping an orange pen to add her own landmark. 1974 – 75 Betha & Henderson Ages 4 & 3 yrs old skating,” she wrote by the Yale ice rink, enshrining her and her sister’s last names alongside names of Yale buildings and longstanding businesses that others had preserved on paper.

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Fair Haven Health Eyes Grand Expansion

by | Sep 1, 2022 8:35 am | Comments (6)

Site of proposed new Fair Haven Health building.

Fair Haven Community Health Care plans to build a new medical building focused on treating behavioral health issues and addressing social determinants of health” at the corner of Grand Avenue and James Street, next door to the community health center’s current headquarters and main clinic. 

If suggestions of Fair Haven neighbors come to fruition, the new building will be brightly colored, filled with plants, and adorned with local art reflecting Latino cultures.

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Budding Architect's Word On The Street: New Haven's More Laid Back Than Hong Kong

by and | Aug 4, 2022 2:52 pm | Comments (3)

Nora Grace-Flood photos

Jason Chan checks out the city.

Architecture student Jason Chan landed on the New Haven Green Wednesday and noticed a plaque remembering the park’s history as the central square in America’s first planned city — which made him think about the contrasts between the Elm City and his highly developed hometown of Hong Kong.

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Spencer Luckey Keeps Climbing

by | May 27, 2022 8:29 am | Comments (4)

The pulsating orb-like structure in the Liberty Science Center appears to float, impossibly, high above the heads of people walking below, as if it’s lighter than air, or underwater. The fact that it isn’t just a sculpture, but in fact a playground for children, only adds to its improbable whimsy. Liberty Science Center is in Jersey City, N.J., but the shop that designed and built the orb, Luckey Climbers, is right in New Haven, on East Street. Its chief architect, Spencer Luckey, has been around the playground design business all his life. He took over the company from his father, and has made dozens of climbers for clients all over the world. But he also has a vision for the Elm City.

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Apartment Plan Resurfaces, Minus Seniors

by | Mar 25, 2022 4:45 pm | Comments (18)

Svigals + Partners

Rendering of Canal Trail-side apartment complex plan.

Developer Yves Joseph.

Dixwell residents gathered in the Q House gym to hear about a revived and changed plan to build 176 new apartments on the vacant city lot where Henry meets Ashmun and Canal Streets by the Farmington Canal Trail — and some emerged mulling whether to apply for a new home or a job.

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New "Vlock" House Previewed In The Hill

by | Mar 18, 2022 11:27 am | Comments (0)

Allan Appel Photo

At 2019 opening for the first iteration of 169 Plymouth student-built home.

The newest addition to New Haven’s affordable housing stock will be a 400 square-foot dwelling cheek by jowl to the railroad tracks in the Hill. 

If innovative plans go right, it’ll be just as quiet, or noisy, as if it were 20 feet farther away.

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Newhall Gardens Wins Top Preservation Award

by | Jul 2, 2021 9:27 am | Comments (3)

New Haven Preservation Trust photo

Newhall Gardens.

These photos and the following write-up were submitted by the New Haven Preservation Trust.

This year, the New Haven Preservation Trust celebrates its 60th Anniversary and recognizes the creativity and preservation of some unique structures built in the founding year of 1961. The Trust also reflects on the prescient and deeply relevant vision of one of its founders and embraces a New Haven partner with the shared spirit of appreciation of our city’s multi-cultural heritage.

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