A Blast from the Past

…Via a text message.

A couple of weeks back Brian Easler, the head-of-school at Wilbraham & Monson Academy, called to ask if I had second copy of a color drawing of the Academy’s Middle School that he was looking at in his office. The Academy wanted to give it as a gift to the building’s principle donor, S. Prestley Blake, in honor of his 100th birthday.

I was curious but doubtful, but I asked him sent me a photo if he could (above). The drawing turned out to be a quick marker on blue-line paper elevation study I did back in 1996 as part of the value-engineering process we went through while we were designing the expansion of the existing Monticello-like building.  We didn’t create a second copy, but I was able to track down the AutoCAD file, recreate the image for him in Photoshop, and have it printed on archival paper. The Blakes have a long history with the academy, and S. Prestley and Helen Blake were the principle donors of the recently complete International Middle School Dormitory built adjacent to the middle school, a project Kuhn Riddle designed as well.

I wonder what drawing will resurface in another 19 years?

Jonathan Salvon