22 Jul Villa Victoria: Latino Conservation Week

This week has been focused on writing and research for the Existing Conditions report. This report features information on a variety of characteristics written up by Ella, Jenna, Angelina, and myself based on our site visits to the eleven residential properties in Cape Cod during Week 2 of our time at the OCLP. I finished writing up all the Buildings and Structures information in addition to the remaining information that needed to be filled out on Views/Vistas and Small-Scale Features. It was very helpful to finish the AutoCAD mapping for small-scale features in coordination with writing on the Existing Conditions report as I could spatially reference as I wrote. The small-scale features encompass a variety of different objects, such as fences, poles, posts, lamps, signs, markers, monuments, clotheslines, etc. I am happy to report that the AutoCAD site mapping for the houses is almost complete! This mapping features all of the characteristics mentioned in the Existing Conditions, and we will then convert the AutoCAD maps into Illustrator. There is still much more to do before a finalized product is created, but it is definitely a significant step to be finishing the site mapping in AutoCAD. I have also been putting on the finishing touches to the Kuhn House elevations. I have been applying the correct line weight colors to indict depth, and I have also been drawing in the small details to the facades, such as lights, hooks, doorknobs, and hoses. This is Latino Conservation Week, and we just got back from attending my event to learn about Villa Victoria and Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción in Boston’s South End. I have described in my previous blog posts about all the coordinating and planning I had to put into this event. I was in touch with Michelle Romero, the Northeastern Archivist, several weeks ago to discuss the feasibility of arranging a tour and information session of the collection. Once we scheduled a date, I created the poster, sent out information to colleagues, and posted information online. I really believe that all the work resulted in a success as we had a terrific time at Northeastern. I will not be going into depth in this blog post about our time at Northeastern. We only got back to the office recently, and I do not feel I have enough time left in the day to give you the in-depth analysis of the event that I want to give. In short, though, the event was AWESOME, and I’m really looking forward to sharing more about it with you next week. I’ve included a few photographs of the event, but there will be many more to come next week. Additionally, I will be editing the footage I filmed of our experience, and I’m hoping to upload that to the blog next week as well. We have a busy upcoming week. Among the individual projects each DTP intern is continuing to work on, we will be doing numerous site visits. Among these, we will be touring the Gropius House in Lincoln, visiting Margie at Minuteman National Historical Park, touring Connect Historic Boston with Bill Egan, and touring the Arnold Arboretum tour with curator Michael Dosmann. Among these visits, I will be juggling the normal CACO workload in addition to writing an in-depth report about our LCW event on Villa Victoria. I want to end on saying how incredibly grateful I am for all the help and support I received with the Villa Victoria LCW event. When I first brought up the idea for my LCW event, Bob, Margie, Eliot, and Chris were extremely supportive in helping me brainstorm and plan. I deeply thank them, Michelle Romero at Northeastern University for organizing with me to make this happen, Rodrigo and Jessica for their help in coordinating all the LHIP LCW events, and to the entire OCLP team for coming out to support me and LCW. Happy Latino Conservation Week, everyone!

Plaza Betances entrance sign at Villa Victoria

A site map and plan for the city of Boston. Can you find Villa Victoria?

The group holding up different Villa Victoria Festival Betances posters at the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections Department

The group standing in front of the Puetro Rican flag at Villa Victoria