Against a beautiful mountain backdrop, the Jesse Lee Home stands ready for some TLC.
Tuesday morning, when the next chapter of the Jesse Lee Home started, architects and engineers met at the Friends of Jesse Lee Home’s Washington Street office in Seward. They shook hands with members of the Seward Historic Preservation Commission and shared their hopes and dreams for the project. The rough road to transfer of property was in the rearview mirror, it seemed.
The Friends of Jesse Lee called in the big guns to get the restoration project injected with new energy.
In the world of historic preservation architecture, they don’t come much bigger than Barbara Campagna. She is a specialist in “greening” historic preservation projects. In 2002, she was named young architect of the year by the National American Institute of Architects and since then, she has won yearly awards in her field. She was a keynote conference speaker attended by Dorene Lorenz and Kirsten Vesel, the Jesse Lee Home project manager. She remembers being approached by Lorenz and was impressed by her passion for the historic preservation of the Jesse Lee Home.
“We need you,” Campagna remembers Lorenz saying.
Campagna says her speciality is adding value to projects by tapping into the existing structures. It’s a myth, she says, that old buildings are problems when it comes to sustainability and alternative energy systems. She isn’t deterred by issues such as asbestos and contaminants because she knows preserving the history is worth the work.
The high powered architect from New York brought engineering muscle with her to Seward. Gordon Sheppherd and Marcus Eliason, engineers based in Houston, are working with the Friends of Jesse Lee to determine the best way to make sure the historic home will withstand another 100 years.
Because the Jesse Lee Home project’s biggest challenge is funding, Campagna brings a magic ingredient to the mix. She is an expert at certification under a nationally recognized scale that helps projects earn points toward tax credits for historic preservation.
All the stakeholders were scheduled to meet Wednesday in Seward for a workshop Campagna calls Eco-Charrett.
“It’s a brainstorming session of sorts,” said Campagna. “We will look at the goals and balance preservation needs with green technologies and costs.”
Campagna’s goal is to create a “model” for the state of Alaska because that is what the Friends of Jesse Lee has asked of her. The rating system, called LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building certification program that recognizes best practices. To receive LEED certification, building projects have to meet specific requirements for different levels of certification. Prerequisites and credits differ for each rating system, and teams choose the best fit for their project.
“It’s like a menu,” said Campagna. “Projects pick and choose the elements that make sense for that place, project and goal. So far, no historic building in Alaska has achieved a LEEDS rating, so we are breaking new ground.”
There are levels of achievement, said Campagna, that range from silver to gold to platinum.
“I want platinum,” Lorenz said to Campagna. The architect says she told the Friends she felt they could achieve silver with no problem. But, they wanted platinum as their goal, so Campagna said, “platinum it is.”
“It’s a lofty goal,” said Campagna. “But I think they are up to the task.”
To reach their platinum goal, the architects, engineers, board members and non-profit leaders will speak to people in the Seward community to learn more about the kinds of services offered because points are awarded for things like access to greenbelts and other environmentally friendly businesses. The group will meet with the electric company to discuss wind turbines and they will tour the SeaLife Center to learn about alternative heating methods.
At the Tuesday meet and greet between the Historic Preservation Commission and the architects and engineers, amid antiques donated by the Darling family to an office space that screams historic preservation, Kirsten Vesel looked relaxed and ready to tackle the next phase of the project. Vesel is the project manager and the former Seward assistant city manager. She does project consulting in the field of environmental and civil engineering. She has formed a bond with Friends of Jesse Lee Home president Dorene Lorenz, who has just been named anchor of Good Morning Alaska for Fox TV. Both have a connection to the historic building through their grandmothers though they didn’t know that when they first met.
Just as Lorenz tears up when she talks about the dying wish of her grandmother, Vesel tears up when she recounts finding a picture of her grandmother handing out the last signed copy of the Alaskan flag designed by Jesse Lee Home student Benny Benson. Vesel’s grandmother was affiliated with Children’s Services and the United Methodist Church. As a third generation Alaskan, Vesel feels like it is her duty to leave a legacy her grandmother would be proud of. Legacy is also a word used in the Friends of Jesse Lee promotional materials. It’s a simple tagline: A legacy of leadership.
“I think all of us involved feel a sense of legacy,” said Vesel. “Even Paul Ongtooguk, from UAF, who is our educational expert for development of the Balto School, wants to take all that he is has learned and apply it to a new and exciting project so he can leave a legacy. We all feel a sense of duty.”
Lorenz sums up her thoughts on the project like this: “I am honored and privileged to be in a position to give back for all that has been given to me.” Those sentiments are echoed by all of the partners involved with the resurrection of the Jesse Lee Home.
Leave a Reply