The City of Cambridge’s Planning Board approved a special permit application for the Garage’s renovation process Tuesday, clearing the path for the next step in the historic landmark’s redevelopment.
Trinity Property Management, the developer that owns The Garage, was granted special approval pursuant to six zoning codes, including renovating the existing structure into a six-story building.
The Garage — one of the oldest structures in Harvard Square — was constructed as a horse stable in the 1860s and later used as a parking garage. It was last renovated in 1972 when it was converted into a shopping mall.
Trinity Property Management owner John P. DiGiovanni unveiled a plan last year meant to pay homage to the building’s historic presence in the Square. The plan was granted a Certificate of Appropriateness by the Cambridge Historical Commission in June 2021.
Jason J. Jewhurst, the lead architect of the proposed renovation, said the plan balances the historic importance of the building with modern features and “reimagines a future for a memorable and active contributor for Harvard Square for decades to come.”
DiGiovanni discussed the building’s current state, saying that modern changes to the shopping mall are needed.
“Its interior food court and internal ramps, both relics of an early era, make it less appealing and, quite frankly, less accessible to people today,” he said, “It is no longer engaged in the life of Harvard Square as it once was.”
The proposed development will retain the original masonwork of the gable facade and will feature basement entertainment capacity, office space, and six outdoor terraces, according to Trinity’s website.
Harvard professor Suzanne P. Blier, who is president of the Harvard Square Neighborhood Association, thanked the developers at Trinity for their communication.
“It’s been really wonderful to have this terrific collaboration,” she said.
Harvard Square resident Philip A. Borden said he applauds the developers for their proposed renovations.
“We are very, very appreciative of how this developer has communicated directly with residents like us all throughout the design process,” he said.
During the hearing, some members of the planning board expressed concerns over the type of tenants who would be occupying the new space. Steven A. Cohen, a member of the planning board, said first floor tenants should encourage foot traffic.
“I would like to make sure that there are rules and restrictions there for this project so that the first floor shall be, and will always be, retail and not office space,” he said.
In response, the board added an amendment mandating all first floor storefronts to hold “active” residents, meaning non-office space establishments.
Denise A. Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, said she was “delighted” with the board’s decision to approve the permit.
As for disturbances to Harvard Square during the construction, Jillson pointed to the potential economic benefit for local restaurants with the influx of construction jobs to the area.
“We’ll put up with a disruption and hope that all the construction workers are very hungry,” Jillson said.
Print
Harvard Art Museums Celebrate Brandywine Workshop and Archives with Spring 2022 Exhibition
This spring, the Harvard Art Museums celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives-a Philadelphia-based organization with a history of introducing printmaking to practicing artists and members of the surrounding community-in an exhibition that unites innovative works by 30 artists. Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities, on display March 4 through July 31, 2022, marks the first presentation of a group of works acquired by the museums in 2018 and honors the creative spirit of the workshop.
Founded in 1972 by artist Allan Edmunds, the Brandywine Workshop and Archives<https://brandywineworkshopandarchives.org/> is a nonprofit cultural institution celebrated for its engagement with the local community and educational programming. For five decades, the workshop has offered arts programming in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia and sponsored printmaking residencies for both undiscovered and well-known artists. At Brandywine, collaboration and the exchange of ideas feed a culture of experimentation, in which master printers and artists continually challenge conventions of the creative process and push the technical boundaries of printmaking to produce compelling new works.
The Harvard Art Museums acquired more than 80 works by 30 artists from the Brandywine Workshop in 2018, as part of the workshop’s initiative to place “satellite collections” in university art museums across the United States. The acquisition itself was a cooperative effort between curators and other museum colleagues as well as Harvard University students and professors, who selected works that highlight collaboration and innovation, values at the core of Brandywine’s pioneering approach. The collection spans the history of the workshop, from the early 1970s to today, and includes works by artists who had not yet found representation in the marketplace or museum collections when they arrived at Brandywine-a key constituency of the organization, which seeks to create opportunities for such artists. Harvard’s collection is also distinguished by the decision to include working proofs by some of the artists for future study by students and scholars.
“The Brandywine works in Harvard’s satellite collection have introduced new worldviews and historical perspectives into our collection of contemporary prints,” said Elizabeth M. Rudy, the museums’ Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints and a member of the exhibition curatorial team. “This direct engagement with urgent social, political, and cultural issues will be of interest to students and faculty across the university and to the public as well.”
Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities is the first major public presentation of the museums’ Brandywine collection, displaying works by 30 artists:
Pedro Abascal, Danny Alvarez, John Biggers, Andrea Chung, Louis Delsarte, Allan Edmunds, Rodney Ewing, Sam Gilliam, Simon Gouverneur, Hock E Aye VI Edgar Heap of Birds, Sedrick Huckaby, Hughie Lee-Smith, Ibrahim Miranda, Tanya Murphy, Kenneth Noland, Odili Donald Odita, Janet Taylor Pickett, Howardena Pindell, Robert Pruitt, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Eduardo Roca Salazar, Juan Sanchez, Clarissa Sligh, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Hank Willis Thomas, Larry Walker, Stanley Whitney, Deborah Willis, and Murray Zimiles
The exhibition and its associated programming were developed by a creative community on the Harvard campus that sought to emulate the generative, collaborative, and diverse environment fostered by the workshop. Colleagues in two curatorial divisions worked together on the plan: Hannah Chew, Summer 2021 SHARP Research Fellow and 2021-22 Student Assistant; Jessica Ficken<https://harvardartmuseums.org/about/staff/35>, Cunningham Curatorial Assistant for the Collection; Sarah Kianovsky<https://harvardartmuseums.org/about/staff/36>, Curator of the Collection; and Joelle Te Paske, Curatorial Graduate Student Intern, all from the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Elizabeth M. Rudy<https://harvardartmuseums.org/about/staff/30>, Carl A. Weyerhaeuser Curator of Prints; and Natalia Ángeles Vieyra<https://harvardartmuseums.org/about/staff/318>, Maher Curatorial Fellow of American Art, both in the Division of European and American Art.
This core team then invited a variety of perspectives from across campus and beyond to shape the exhibition’s interpretive materials and programming. Each work on display in the gallery is accompanied by a written response from a member of museum staff, a scholar in related fields, a student, or a local artist-and their approaches are as varied as the works described. The exhibition also features a digital companion with students’ creative responses to works in the show. It will be accessible via QR code in the galleries and at hvrd.art/brandywineresponses<http://hvrd.art/brandywineresponses>.
“It’s been so gratifying to see our goals for the interpretive strategy come to life,” said Sarah Kianovsky, of the exhibition curatorial team. “We worked together to identify partners who would be interested in the exhibition, the prints, and their subject matter for future teaching and research, taking it all one step further by inviting them to contribute their perspectives directly on the gallery walls and in exhibition materials. Their responses to the works have been even more rich and varied than we could have hoped for.”
The exhibition will feature a wide range of colorful prints, from individual prints to large multipart installations. An in-gallery video will show archival footage provided by the Brandywine Workshop as well as short interviews with many of the artists. Learn more about the exhibition and the works on display at hvrd.art/brandywine<http://hvrd.art/brandywine>.
Notable works include:
* Nigerian-born Odili Donald Odita’s offset lithograph Cut<https://hvrd.art/o/361197> (2016)-comprised of shards of bright colors that emanate from a diagonal axis-is directly related to the large outdoor mural Our House, which the artist painted on the façade of the Brandywine Workshop building in 2015.
* Me as Me (unframed)<https://hvrd.art/o/361207> (2011), a powerful four-part print by Botswanan artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum that shows two life-size figures-representations of Sunstrum’s alter ego Asme-challenging appropriation and misrepresentation of Black female bodies.
* Telling Many Magpies, Telling Black Wolf, Telling Hachivi<https://hvrd.art/o/361192> (1989), a large two-part screenprint by Native American artist and activist Hock E Aye VI Edgar Heap of Birds that uses bold text to convey the voice of European Americans who displaced Indigenous peoples while taking their names, images, products, and land.
* Wissahickon<https://hvrd.art/o/361190> (1975), a complex abstract screenprint by Sam Gilliam, the first artist to join the workshop’s artist-in-residence series.
* An installation of the 101 intimate portraits that make up Sedrick Huckaby’s series The 99% – Highland Hills<https://hvrd.art/o/361228> (2012-13), which depicts individuals from the artist’s community in Fort Worth, TX. The artist will collaborate with Harvard students on the installation.
* A selection of lithographs from Murray Zimiles’s portfolio Holocaust<https://hvrd.art/o/361213> (1987), showing the horrors of the genocide carried out by the Nazis against Jewish people and other minority groups during World War II.
On view in the museums’ Special Exhibitions Gallery on Level 3, Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities will run concurrently with another special exhibition, White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph<http://hvrd.art/anneliesehager>, the first to focus on the role of women makers in the history of the photogram.
Press Preview
An in-person preview of the exhibition will be held for members of the press on Monday, February 28, at 3:00pm. The preview will also include a tour of the exhibition White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph<http://hvrd.art/anneliesehager>. Invitation to follow.
Related Public Programming
The Harvard Art Museums will offer a series of free public programs related to Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. Some programs will be presented via Zoom, while others may be held in person. For details, updates, and links to register, please see individual listings on our calendar: harvardartmuseums.org/calendar<https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/calendar>.
On Thursday, March 3, 6-7pm EST, short virtual tours will be offered for the Brandywine exhibition, as well as the exhibitions White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph<https://hvrd.art/anneliesehager> and Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs<https://hvrd.art/socialfabrics>.
Allan Edmunds, founder of the Brandywine Workshop and Archives, will join exhibition curators Elizabeth Rudy and Sarah Kianovsky for an Art Talk Live, presented via Zoom on Tuesday, March 8, 12:30-1pm EST.
Credits
Support for Prints from the Brandywine Workshop and Archives: Creative Communities is provided by the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund, the Fund for the Contemporary Art Department, and the Robert M. Light Print Department Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.
About the Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums house one of the largest and most renowned art collections in the United States, comprising three museums (the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums) and four research centers (the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art, the Harvard Art Museums Archives, and the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis). The Fogg Museum includes western art from the Middle Ages to the present; the Busch-Reisinger Museum, unique among North American museums, is dedicated to the study of all modes and periods of art from central and northern Europe, with an emphasis on German-speaking countries; and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum is focused on art from Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Together, the collections include approximately 250,000 objects in all media. The Harvard Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. Integral to Harvard University and the wider community, the museums and research centers serve as resources for students, scholars, and the public. For more than a century they have been the nation’s premier training ground for museum professionals and are renowned for their seminal role in developing the discipline of art history in the United States. The Harvard Art Museums have a rich tradition of considering the history of objects as an integral part of the teaching and study of art history, focusing on conservation and preservation concerns as well as technical studies. harvardartmuseums.org<https://www.harvardartmuseums.org>
The Harvard Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
A shuttle bus veered off the road and collided with a Tasty Burger in Harvard Square Wednesday night, according to police in Cambridge.
According to authorities, shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, police and firefighters in Cambridge responded to a report of a shuttle bus crash at 40 John F. Kennedy St. Police reported no injuries and said the driver was the only occupant on the bus at the time of the crash.
While police in Cambridge investigated the crash, they said the building sustained no serious structural damage.
Photos from the crash show slight damage to the front end of the bus as well as a severely cracked windshield. An awning outside the restaurant was damaged.
Authorities were investigating a shuttle bus crash in Harvard Square Wednesday night.
At 7:16 p.m. Cambridge police tweeted that units were at the scene of the crash, which happened in front of the Tasty Burger and The Garage on JFK Street. Police said it appeared that the bus driver was the lone occupant of the vehicle and there were no injuries.
“There is no reported structure damage to the building,” the tweet said.
A photo tweeted by police showed the bus on the sidewalk in front of 36 JFK St., where The Garage is located. The windshield of the bus was shattered and the awning at 36 JFK St. was broken.
The beloved Brattle Square Florist in Cambridge will not be closing its doors after all.
“My family owned the business 98 years,” Stephen Zedros said.
When it comes to Brattle Square in Cambridge, Zedros and his family have been an evergreen that’s lasted since 1917. Their florist shop always there, their doors always open.
The family sold it nine years ago, and the current owner recently announced he would be retiring and the shop would be shuttered.
“I don’t want the name to go down. One day all of a sudden it goes silent. I wanted it to remain and stay open,” Zedros said.
To make that happen, Zedros – who had remained at the shop as a manager — immediately started a plan to buy back his family’s floral business.
“I had thought about it for a day or so I say it’s going to be so much work, but it’s going to be worth it,” he said.
He knew it would be worth it because of the outpouring of support he received when word first got out about its potential demise.
“I’ve gotten many letters, many cards from everybody that’s come in through the years and you’re finding people through the years that haven’t see in like five years coming in,” he said.
Zedros admits there will be challenges moving forward, including ongoing supply chain issues and staffing shortages.
Ben and Jerry’s reopened its Harvard Square location on Dec. 21 following a nearly two-year-long hiatus.
The shop — once located inside The Garage shopping mall on John F. Kennedy St. — closed in 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its new location sits across the street at 35 JFK St., formerly David’s Tea.
Brattle Square Florist will remain open under the ownership of longtime store manager Stephen Zedros, a member of the Gomatos family who founded the shop, its current owner announced just days away from the shop’s scheduled Jan. 31 closure.
The shop, which has operated in Harvard Square for 105 years, will continue operations at its current location until March before moving down the block to 52 Brattle St. Current owner Randy Ricker announced in December that he planned to retire and close the store, citing staff shortages, rising costs, and the continuing pandemic.
