IMPROVING ON THE OLD WHILE PROTECTING THE HISTORIC

The Commonwealth of Virginia boasts the oldest continuously occupied executive mansion in the United States. The National Historic Landmark building was designed by Boston architect Alexander Parris and completed in 1813. Since its recent restoration, this outstanding example of Federal-style architecture demonstrates that historic houses can actually be improved by sensitive additions. Next week join preservation writer William Lebovich as he describes how the recent upgrades and repairs have made the mansion more sparkling than it has been in years, more accessible, and better able to host the governor’s guests at state functions.

AN EVOLUTION OF IT IN ARCHITECTURE

Information technology is often considered a modern phenomenon, but the exchange of information in design and construction is as old as recorded history. In Western culture, the architect and builder were synonymous for the first 4,500 years of the architect's 5,000-year history. As construction became more complex and relationships within the industry changed, so did the nature of the information exchange. Next week Larry Barrow will make a case for studying changes in communications technology through history as a way to solve some of the problems found today in the complex relationships within the AEC industry.

ANATOMY OF A TENSILE STRUCTURE

The FleetBoston Pavilion, with spectacular vistas of the Boston skyline, is the new home of Boston's summer concert series. Architect Andrew Formichella will describe how it went together, with tensile fabric able to span long distances in doubly curved surfaces, a steel frame that pushes and pulls the fabric into the desired shape, and the cables that transfer the structural forces throughout the whole. The designers applied a combination of physical and computer models to problems of structure and acoustics before tackling the daunting challenges of construction.