ecoMOD

The locus of our activities -  drawing, designing, deconstructing and constructing - in Falmouth was 10 Albert Street.  We walked to work at our “site” about six blocks from our “home” at the Baptist Manse, headquarters of Falmouth Heritage Renewal.  We caught glances and occasionally comments as we trudged in concrete-stained pants or carrying our large drawing boards.  We were seen jogging in the mornings before breakfast, looping Rodney Street to Cornwall to Market, and again until we tired.  Some cheered our exercise efforts, some laughed!  I think we were *noticed* in the neighborhood.

I took a detour with my sketch pad frequently throughout our four weeks. Trying to be less conspicuous, I enjoyed overhearing household conversation in Jamaican patois, children playing, a variety of music on the radios. The barrier between the household and the street is permeable in places where buildings  ”breathe”, ventilated rather than air-conditioned. Sometimes, residents approached me to ask what I was doing, and I explaining our Field School experience, particularly our partnership with Falmouth Heritage Renewal in re-building the house on Albert Street.  They asked if their houses could be helped, and I explained the mission of FHR and the great work they are doing to preserve historic buildings in this town, celebrated for its treasury of Georgian architecture and vernacular board houses built by free blacks in the 1800s. I’ve learned that, though some outsiders appreciate Falmouth’s architectural heritage – scholars, preservationists and, last but not least, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line who chose to build their gated wharf here, named ‘Historic Falmouth’ and developed to imitate the Georgian architecture of Real Falmouth – the stewards of Falmouth’s heritage are its residents.

The goal of this ecoReMOD project is to make one historic board house, built without plumbing, VIABLE by preserving the house (in this case, salvaging and re-building, due to extensive termite damage) and adding new kitchen and bath facilities designed to complement and not obscure the board house. Making the historic house liveable SUSTAINS not only the house, but the town of Falmouth. This is likewise the mission of FHR,  “to accurately preserve and restore the historic buildings of Falmouth, Jamaica while improving the lives of its residents.” Though Falmouth is designated an historic district,  enforcement by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust will not prevent demolition, but resident owners who VALUE Falmouth as an architectural, cultural and economic resource can choose to adopt an approach of SUSTAINABILITY through PRESERVATION. Whenever a resident decides to preserve an historic house and build necessary facilities incrementally, instead of demolishing an historic building altogether and replacing it with a modern concrete house, the architectural heritage of Falmouth is honored, one building at a time.

My documentary detours led me to examine the neighborhood urban scale by attempting a rooftop plan of the historic blocks we traverse daily. I was impressed by the roof forms of Jamaica, the likes of which I’d never seen in combination quite like this before. Many small roofs traditionally cover a historic house in Falmouth, many hip roofs especially. Roof forms meet edge to edge within the footprint of the building. I thought, with my US mindset: This looks like a real challenge to a watertight building! and, More expensive to build, with a greater number of members and complex forms!  I learned: In an environment threatened by hurricanes, a composition of many smaller roofs fares better in the storm. Better to replace one small roof than to lose your entire building with the lift-off of one large roof. Additionally, it’s possible imported lumber was hard to obtain in greater spans.  I learned a little about roofs in my detours, and thought a lot about the preservation of the Real Historic Falmouth as I listened to the neighborhood patois.

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Kirsten Sparenborg

Looking back, this month has been incredibly full and rewarding, with a fare share of small frustrations and a very large learning curve. We all knew this would be a different kind of ecoMOD project, but I’m sure no one could have predicted how many ups and downs, false starts and innovative fixes it would contain.
For my part, as the sole landscape architecture student, I cannot understate how much I’ve learned being onsite daily, working out grading and drainage, visiting nurseries and laying foundations. Design/build has been a welcome shift from large-scale, conceptual studio problems, and while I wish we could have stayed throughthe planting phases, I am confident in the drawings we’ve handed off to the very competent FHR crew. Finished grading/compaction is not complete and the topsoil still needs tobe brought to the site, but I am now sure we have addressed the site’s worst drainage issues. Given the state of the ground when we arrived, that’s a huge accomplishment.

-Leah

The site as seen on the last day is a work in progress. The foundation has been poured, the timber base is set up, and the electrical tower is being poured. Today the Ecomod team is getting as much done as possible before they leave tomorrow. They are laying blocks for the bathroom and kitchen and putting up some forms for columns. The FHR team is optimistic that it will take one to two more months to finish the house completely. Ecomod students have been busy finalizing drawings and site plans that will aid the FHR team once we leave. The students are sad to leave the site with so much work left to do. Most of us would like to see the project through, but we always knew that this project would take much longer than the month we’ve had here.
For the preservation team, its a rush to get all the drawings finalized. The drawings range from the vernacular to the georgian style. These places are 40 Union Street in Montego Bay, 15 Cornwall Street, and 30 Cornwall Street (Wallymor). These homes are from the 19th to early 20th century and a variety of plans, sections, and elevations were conducted on them. All would agree that this preservation work has been useful and overall a very good experience.

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Laura and David

So far on this project my eyes have been opened to the true complexities of turning design into built objects. I have primarily taken on the design and prefabrication of the sliding doors on the south side. The design is based on the simplicity of vertical lines and louvered slates. I have been pushed to thoroughly understand the way the doors are assembled and the system that makes it functional. Beyond that, I got my hands dirty when I assisted in trimming, straightening, plaining, and sawing pieces of the doors. Additionally, I worked on site for a day where the site crew was charged with the task of finishing up the block wall on the south side. We were partnered up to mix mortar and assemble the blocks. I’ve never worked with mortar before so it took a while for me to get the hang of it but by the end of the day I completed an entire row of blocks mostly by myself, one of the shop guys, Dwayne, helped me at times. The most labor intensive work I’ve done so far was digging the 18″ trench for the concrete piers in the addition. I discovered that I’m more efficient with a pick ax than a shovel, I had a really good time driving the pick ax into the ground as hard as I can. However, the high heat and Jamaican humidity definitely created a harsh working condition. Overall, it has been really gratifying to see the design come to fruition and be a part of the process.

-Tran Le

Once again the town was alive with locals eager to please the cruise ship passengers from one of the large ships. A group photo with the FHR staff and field school students kicked off the day and we bid farewell to Lewis who would be leaving later that morning. We were all optimistic that a lot of work would be done especially onsite, since the sun was ablaze.

The construction of the sliding doors was placed on pause to start making plans for the kitchen cabinetry.

The preservation team was quite active today with some taking turns to strip the two doors which we were able to preserve from the demolished house. Others continued their mylar drawings. We look forward to a new set of buildings to document – that should be happening any time soon!

On site the team was moving as a fast pace as the wall continued to take shape. The back hoe finally arrived with the much needed fill so we eagerly wait the next….

-Latoya Gail, 06/14/2011

Build team finished laying the sills and began to lay the floor joists for the existing house. More progress would have been made had we not encountered problems with the fasteners. In the shop we continued work on the kitchen and began to build a wall for the new addition. Some changes were made over lunch so we needed to adjust the drawings but it didn’t prove to be too much of a problem. Drawings have been finalized and will be handed off to the FHR crew for them to take over one we leave.

Tonight we’ll be celebrating the end of the field school by heading out to dinner one more time. Tomorrow some of us will be flying home while others will enjoy one more day in Falmouth before leaving on Friday.

A special thanks to all the people at FHR for helping us with the ecoREMOD2 project and for making our stay so enjoyable.

-Mike and JD

Much can happen in a week.

The slow plod through groundwork finally sped forward: hand trenching, concrete preparation and block laying filled the last three days. Over this stretch, the effort from the ecoMOD team as well as the FHR crew and our client, Marja, has been heroic at times and steadily dependable.

The images catalog fill arriving at the site, the backhoe (slowly but surely) pushing grade as ominous skies threaten progress, the concrete footers freshly poured on self-fabricated steel reinforcement, and the first two courses of 8-inch block being laid, upon which the floor joists and block walls will rest.

Meanwhile in the shop, the kitchen cabinetry and sliding doors are coming close to completion. By the time the floor is laid, these pieces will be cut, sanded, finished, and ready to install.

In addition to working with us at the site, Marja has come to visit us at the Manse and looked closely at the design for the addition to his house. He is enthusiastic about the drawings as well as being an integral part of the building effort. On top of his approval, we’ve received high praise from the FHR ladies who cook our meals. They believe the kitchen design will operate as well as it looks.

With only three workdays left, we’re certainly hoping to complete as much as we can. Once the block goes up, our pre-cut floor framing will assemble quickly, atop which we can erect preliminary vertical structure and roof framing.

Even with these high hopes, we will not be able to see every detail through; however, we’re confident that our drawings, our relationship with FHR, and our jack-of-all-trades client will contribute to a very successful project.

-Jonathan and Libby
eRM2 Project Managers

The weekend was a perfect combination of a “work hard, play hard” mentality.

The steel rebar for the south wall was completed and placed, opening up the opportunity for the block to be placed in the beginning of this coming week. Furthermore, the backhoe made a lot of progress moving stone and dirt around on site. The grading is coming together and with a little more moving earth around the site will soon be ready for topsoil.

Sunday was a full day of basking in the sun. Blaise, a friend of FHR who owns Good Hope Plantation, was nice enough to let us monopolize his beach house for the day. All the Falmouth Field School students, professors (plus family members), and the FHR workers came together for this Sunday Funday. The events included a very boy biased game of keep-it-away boys vs. girls, an Americans vs. Jamaicans soccer game, a jerk chicken barbeque, and a beautiful sunset. It was a perfect day.

The work will continue on Monday and the reggae here never stops,
We Jammin

While documenting the Tharp house, Ke Vaughn and I unearthed part of the original stairs on the front of the late 18th century building. Ke Vaughn is the architect working with Falmouth Heritage Renewal on the restoration of the house. Fueled by a desire to hammer stuff, we followed a hunch and uncovered the 10th step down from the middle landing. A previous artistic rendering of the Tharp house shows the original stairs with only 9 steps. However, the painting prominently highlights the steps terminating with a curtail step with iron scrolls on either end. This design mirrors the stairs found at Good Hope Estate, the nearby plantation house also owned by John Tharp. Underneath a couple inches of asphalt we found the final step and traces of the iron railing.
Today, the stairs have concrete balusters but for the restoration the modern handrail will be removed and replaced with iron railings. The discovery of the 10th step helps ensure accurate placement of the railing for the restoration and further connects the house with Good Hope.

Chris Young

The sunny weather on Thursday was a welcome departure from the frequent rainstorms in Falmouth. The ecoMOD and preservation team divided into small groups and tackled various projects throughout the morning and afternoon. The preservation group worked on documenting the Tharp house and Abbey Villa while others joined Ed Chappell at the Hampden Great house, just outside of town. Hampden, an early 18th century sugar plantation, is one of the few remaining sugar producers on the island.

Students focused on site design at the ecoMOD site visited Hope and Faith Plant Nursery and Rosehall Nursery in Montego Bay. The team was slated with the task of seeking out plants that would thrive at a site with poor drainage. The rest of the ecoMOD team spent the rest of the afternoon working with carpenters from Falmouth Heritage Renewal preparing the lumber for the site. Some students worked on the floor joists and several began construction on the sliding panel doors featured on the addition.

Grading on the Albert Street site and woodwork continue today, while preservation students finish up documentation at the Tharp house and Hampden Great House.
We hope it stays sunny well into the afternoon!

Chris Young and Jess Underhill

Several students on the ecoREMOD2 team began their days by walking to the site and continuing preparations for the backhoe. By this time the rains had stopped, but the site was a bit deeper in water than days prior. When the team arrived on site, they assisted a dump truck in unloading fill that would be moved into place by the backhoe. Once the backhoe arrived on site, it moved some fill, but left early due to incoming rains and a lack of fill.

The rest of the ecoREMOD2 team continued to take off from the design suggestions that they received last night (and the students on site joined them after lunch).

The preservation team began this sunny Wednesday morning with part of the group working on their mylar drawings, putting finishing touches on the drawings of 10 Albert Street, as well as continuing to work on Abby Villa drawings. Although the team found it to be a trying process, prone to smudges and mistakes, they also found it to be a good skill to learn with a very satisfying end product. The rest of the preservation team headed over to the Tharp House again to take more field notes of the front elevation and a cross section. Taking measurements for the field notes proved challenging, and required the team to climb around a jungle gym of scaffolding. The measurements were finalized and the team headed back to the Manse to complete the field notes.

In the afternoon, a group of the students headed over to the “Bend Down Market” to search out some good deals on ‘Gucci’ flip flops and ‘Dolce and Gabbana’ sunglasses. There was also an impressive array of fresh fruits and vegetables available at the market.

In the evening, the preservation team and the ecoREMOD2 team worked together to unload the lumber for the existing house and for the framing members of the addition. It was hot, sticky, humid, and rainy, but the teams were able to work together and get a truckload of lumber unloaded behind the Manse.

Tomorrow, the preservation team will continue their drawings of Abby Villa and of the Tharp House while the ecoMOD team prays for the expected heavy rain storms to avoid Falmouth!

-Hannah Beckman and Matt Jungclaus

PS: The team would like to wish Quinn Weber, an ecoMODer in the USA a very happy birthday!