Can architecture make the world a better place?

In the years after World War II, a diverse group of bold young architects sought an answer to that question in Lexington. They came to the sleepy Boston suburb with a dream of revolutionizing home architecture and design, and embracing mid-century modernism to achieve a utopian ideal. What they accomplished here has been called Lexington’s second revolution, and it certainly was an architectural “shot heard ‘round the world.”

The Lexington Historical Society will celebrate the town’s unique architectural legacy with a new exhibit that opens in June 2015: Lextopia: Lexington’s Launch of Mid Century Modern. The exhibit will highlight the architects who worked here and examine how their work affected Lexington and the larger world. It will showcase modernist architecture, furniture, and housewares from the Society’s collections, as well as artifacts donated by other individuals and organizations. Several mid-century modern house tours, a mid-century modern marketplace, Sunday afternoon gallery talks and other events will occur throughout the summer and fall.

The exhibit is sponsored by Century 21/Lester E. Savage Real Estate. Additional support comes from the Lexington Council on the Arts.

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Highlights from the ExhibitTimelines and infographics bursting with historic photos and documents chart the development Mid-Century Modernism in Lexington, and bring together the story of the architects, the neighborhoods they created, and their impact on the world.Mid Century Modern living is showcase with a display of vintage furniture. Items include:      -Eames Molded Plywood Chair      -Original Design Research Couch      -Adult and child folding butterfly Chairs Re-created architect’s office populated with artifacts used in the office of famed Lexington architect Walter Pierce (and supplied by his former partner Phil Poinelli.) Features blown-up quotes from Lexington’s Mid-Century Modern architects. Neighborhood display that includes photo essays, unique 8mm home movies from Moon Hill, artifacts from the recently replaced 1961 Estabrook School building, and more. A detailed scale model of a house from the Peacock Farm neighborhood (see right). A display of Marimekko fabrics, kitchen items, and dishware of the type sold Design/Research, the groundbreaking store started by Lexington architect Benjamin Thompson.

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Sunday Gallery TalksJune 21 –  Wendy Cox,  Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Art  at Norwich University, Tracing Intentions-The Founding of The Architects Collaborative and Early Housing Project Six Moon Hill.June 28 – Susan Ward, independent curator and consultant, Textiles in Mid-Century Interiors: The Softer Side of Modernism July 12 – Jane Thompson, co-owner with her husband Ben of the Design Research stores, and author of Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes July 19 – Peter McMahon, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust and Christine Cipriani, author of the new book Cape Cod Modern July 26 – Timothy Techler, architect principal of Techler Design Group, A Moon Hill Restoration August 2 – Wendy Hubbard, Site Manager of Historic New England’s Gropius House in Lincoln, Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus and the Gropius House: Roots of Mid-Century Modern in Middlesex County August 9 – Andrea Quagliata, former Moon Hill resident, creative director, photographer and author of Modern Orthodoxy and Eclecticism, The Case Study of Six Moon Hill. August 16 – Pamela Hartford, landscape historian and preservation consultant, It’s Not Just the Buildings: Landscape in the Aesthetics of Mid Century Modernism August 23 – Bruce Clouette, senior historian of the Public Archaeology Survey Team in Storrs, Connecticut and author of the National Historic District Nomination for Moon Hill in Lexington August 30 – Katie Rowley, Manager, and Somers Killian, Associate of Machine Age, Highlights of Mid-20th-Century Furniture Design. September 13 – Bill Janovitz and John Tse – Marketing and Purchas

“We are really expanding our horizons with these events,” says Historical Society Executive Director Susan Bennett. “Our revolutionary history will always be central to our mission, but it is exciting to branch out and celebrate other areas where Lexington has played a pivotal role in our nation’s history.”

Inspired by Walter Gropius and his contemporaries, a number of architects made the town a laboratory to test their ideas. By the 1960s there were more neighborhoods of modernist homes here than any other town in the country. Nine neighborhoods with such whimsical names as Six Moon Hill and Peacock Farms expressed the visions of The Architects Collaborative (TAC), Walter Pierce, Hugh Stubbins, Carl Koch and others. Many of the modernist architects who worked and lived in Lexington would develop international reputations. One of them, Benjamin Thompson, went on to found to found Design Research, the innovative retailer that played a key role in spreading awareness of modern design in the consumer world.

These architects sought to create neighborhoods that would change the way people lived together. “We had grandiose thoughts about reforming the world,” recalled TAC architect Norman Fletcher. These neighborhoods attracted a new kind of resident to the small town. There were scientists and academics – including four Nobel Prize winners (two of whom lived across the street from each other.) Unusual for the time, there were women who were doctors and architects and editors. These new residents were more progressive than Lexington residentsof the time – 90% were Democrats, according to one survey.  Their presence had an undeniable role in shaping the community.

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Lextopia Exhibit
June 20 – September 19
Open daily 1 – 5 pm
The Lexington Depot | Lexington Center
Admission: $5 / Free to members

The In Anne’s Spirit foundation is celebrating fifteen years of continued service to the community.  Robert D. Putnam to speak at the celebration about his new book Our Kids.

This year The Borghesani Foundation and In Anne’s Spirit is sponsoring a very special evening to celebrate the caring,  hard-working community that has grown up around the foundation named for their daughter Anne who was senselessly murdered in 1990. The foundation and its many supporters are like a second family to the Borghesanis. This is an opportunity to celebrate the foundation’s growth and the work they have done to fight violence in schools and communities for the past fifteen years. The event is open to the public and will be held at the beautiful deCordova Museum in Lincoln.

Robert D. Putnam PhD Is Keynote Speaker

Fifteen years ago Dr. Putnam helped launch the foundation when he spoke about his then current book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Renewal of American Community at the inaugural event.  This year he returns to discuss his recently published and highly acclaimed book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.  He will speak on “Inequality and opportunity: the growing class gap among American young people and the implications for social mobility.”  The public is welcome to attend and learn more about this exciting new book and Dr. putnam will be signing books after the talk.

Dr. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University.  He is founder of the Saguaro Seminar which brings together leading academics, political figures and practitioners to study social issues.

His current book examines the troubling state of income inequality in America and its terrible consequences for social mobility among children of the middle and lower classes. (See box above.)

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About the book, David Gergen, advisor to presidents and CNN political commentator says:

“In yet another path-breaking book about America’s changing social landscape, Robert Putnam investigates how growing income gaps have shaped our children so differently.  His conclusion is chilling: social mobility ‘seems poised to plunge in the years ahead, shattering the American dream.’  Must reading from the White House to your house.”

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Anne’s Story

“At the time of Anne’s death our family was supported by so many in the Lexington community and beyond.  I often felt we were being held up by our friends, family, and neighbors,” says Anne’s mother Betty Borghesani.  She believes that The Borghesani Foundation is an outgrowth of Anne’s loving and generous spirit and wants to celebrate the love, hard work and dedication of those who continue to support it.

Anne Borghesani was a bright, vibrant young woman with hopes and aspirations like any of our young people in Lexington.  She was connected to her family and friends, always had time to listen, and was an active participant at LHS and in her town.  She loved travel, learning about different cultures, and had aspirations of attending law school and being a public defender.

Anne graduated from LHS in 1985 and from Tufts in 1989. Ten months later in 1990, Anne was accosted by a stranger and murdered while walking from her apartment to the Metro in Arlington, Virginia to meet friends to celebrate her 23rd birthday.

The first year after Anne’s death a scholarship was started in her name at Tufts.  A year later Anne’s classmates initiated a scholarship at Lexington High School to be awarded to a graduating female who exemplifies Anne’s qualities of school and community spirit.  This committee of classmates has continued to encourage the growth of the scholarship, maintained relationships with the former scholarship recipients, and they meet annually to select a new scholarship recipient.  They are motivated in their work by friendships forged at Lexington High School and Anne’s memory.

About the Foundation

In Anne’s Spirit was created in 2000 by Anne’s friends and family.  In Anne’s Spirit is a non-profit, voluntary organization dedicated to reducing the incidence and effects of violence by promoting development of healthy children and families. A yearly newsletter goes out to supporters describing the grants made by the foundation. Donations received from this newsletter have enabled In Anne’s Spirit to support inner city day camps, after-school programs, victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, violence prevention projects such as anti-bullying and dating violence programs – in addition to continuing to support the growth of scholarships in Anne’s name at Tufts and Lexington High School.  Without the generous support of so many in the community who still remember Anne, this work would not have been possible.

 

 

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About the Event

A Celebration of Community
With Keynote speaker
Robert Putnam
Author of “Our Kids”
Sunday June 28, 2015
6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
At the deCordova
Sculpture Park and Museum
51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA

Pre-keynote wine reception at 6 p.m.
Talk followed by a community conversation and book-signing
with coffee and dessert.
The museum’s exhibits and Sculpture Park will be open during the reception
For reservations and information, please call (781) 862-7309 or

email Borghesani@inannesspirit.org

Honorary Event Committee
Nancy and Joel Adler, Lexington Town Meeting Members
Prof. Drusilla Brown, Director of Tufts Program in International Relations
Michelle Ciccolo, Lexington Board of Selectmen
Norm Cohen, Lexington Board of Selectmen
Linda Cohen, Friends of Cary Library Board Member
Margaret Coppe, Lexington School Committee
Margaret Counts-Klebe, LHS Scholarship Committee
Dan Fenn, Founding Director of John F. Kennedy Library
Hon. Jay Kaufman, State Representative
Florence Koplow, former member Lexington School Committee
Lyn Lustig, Tufts Scholarship Committee
Jerry Michelson, LHS Scholarship Committee
Dr. Daniel and Barbara Palant
Susan Vickers, Founder of Victim Rights Law Center
Steve Volante, chair of LHS Scholarship Committee

 

By Ami Stix

 

Students will spend the week in intensive study with this year’s Artist-in-Residence, Russ Gershon, the American saxophonist and composer. Jazz Week is a longstanding LHS tradition and has included the likes of David Berkman, Makoto Ozone, Herb Pomeroy and Jiggs Whigham.

Mr. Gershon is an American saxophonist and composer. He is the founder of the large jazz ensemble Either/Orchestra the Grammy-nominated ten-piece jazz ensembles which Downbeat.com called “the best little big band ever,” and the Chicago Tribune described as “the future of big-band music.

 

As well as appearing with headliners like Cab Calloway and the Four Tops, Russ has played countless gigs as saxophonist and arranger in just about every genre imaginable. He was nominated for a Grammy in Arranging for his composition “Benny Moten’s Weird Nightmare” in 1992. Russ has been a visiting educator at scores of colleges including Harvard, Tufts and the New England Conservatory, and currently teaches jazz, pop and classical music history at Lasell College. Currently, he is singing, playing and arranging for the Latin Bugalu revival band Lookie Lookie, and playing and arranging for vocalist Gabrielle Agachiko.

Perhaps the most unexpected excursion in Russ’ career has been his long journey into Ethiopian music. Entrances by the sounds of Ethiopian pop and jazz from the turn of the 1970s, he began arranging these exotic songs for the Either/Orchestra. Soon after, French researcher and producer Francis Falceto, who has almost single-handedly put Ethiopian music on the world stage, heard about the Either/Orchestra’s work and contacted Russ. Francis encourage Russ’ interest in the music with access to rare recordings and information, and invited the E/O to be the first non-Ethiopian band to play in the “Ethiopian Music Festival” of 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

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Jazz Festival Concert
April 17, 2014 @7:30pm, LHS Auditorium
This is a rare opportunity to see LHS students playing with a world-class musician after a week of learning and collaboration in the intimate setting of the high school’s auditorium. A unique concert not to be missed by the community and students—whether or they are musicians, jazz lovers or new to the form.

 

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LHS JAZZ WEEK
AT-A-GLANCE

Jazz Nite 3
April 2
Commons ll
7:30pm

Jazz Festival Concert
April 17
LHS Auditorium
7:30pm

Jazz Nite IV
May 23
Discovery Day
12-3pm

Swing Nite
June 5
Fiske Gymnasium
7-10:30pm

THIS SATURDAY
March 28, 2015
CLARKE MIDDLE SCHOOL

The first ever
Parent Academy is coming to Lexington!
Designed to educate and empower parents to manage the changing demands of parenting in today’s world, this FREE event will be held at Clarke Middle School from 8:30 A.M. – 1:30 P.M. Parents can choose to attend one, two or three workshop sessions based on personal interest and need.

Doors open
8:30 AM

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Session One
9:00-10:15 AM

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Workshop Title:
Understanding and addressing anxiety in teenagers
Presenter: Dale Dillavou

Workshop Title:
An introduction to mindfulness for parents
Presenter: Mary Ann Christie Burnside

Workshop Title:
Safe and healthy eating at school – How to help your child
Presenters: Kevin Silvia and Jean Claffey

Workshop Title:
Concussions and return to academics
Presenter: Susan Kaftan

Workshop Title:
Cybersafety: Teaching children to be safe,
secure and responsible in the digital world
Presenters: James Rettman, Jeff Chaisson, JulieFenn

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Session Two
10:30-11:45 AM

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Workshop Title:
Motivating the unmotivated
Presenter: Blaise Aguirre

Workshop Title:
Motherhood: A demanding and invisible journey
Presenter: KumkumPareek Malik

Workshop Title:
Complementary approach of stress management for students
Presenter: Jing Liu

Workshop Title:
Parents as allies: Supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth
Presenter: Matthew Willis

Workshop Title:
How do you know if your child needs help? And, if they do, how do you find the right resources, the right people?
Presenters: Bill Blout and Tim Dugan

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Session Three
12:00-1:15 PM

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Workshop Title:
Parents as sexuality educators
Presenter: Jennifer Wolfrum

Workshop Title:
They’re not crazy; they’re adolescents.
Understanding the teenage brain and addiction
Presenters: Sion Kim Harris and Julie Fenn

Workshop Title:
Parents as allies: Supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth
Presenter: Matthew Willis

Workshop Title:
Motherhood: A demanding and invisible journey
Presenter: KumkumPareek Malik

Workshop Title:
Help your teenager get his/her first job
Presenter: ReemYared

Come for one session or stay for all!
To see all sessions and presenters, please click on the following link:
Print out the full schedule and descriptions of the workshops:

PARENT ACADEMY WORKSHOPS

Click On
“Lexington Parent Academy Presenters Schedule” halfway down the page.
This event is FREE, and no registration is required.
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The Lexington Parent Academy is sponsored by Lexington’s School Health Advisory Council, PTA/O Presidents Council, Lexington Human Services Department, Lexington Chamber of Commerce, CAAL, IAL, and Lexington Youth and Family Services, Inc.

For further information contact Jennifer Wolfrum, Assistant Coordinator of Physical Education and Wellness, Lexington Public Schools: wolfrum@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us