Tuesday, July 24, 2007

"Our House is Bauhaus" (Vassar: The Alumnae/i Quarterly; Winter 2006)

Vassar: The Alumnae/i Quarterly
Winter 2006 Volume 103 Issue 1 : features
Cover Story
"Our House Is Bauhaus"
By Dakota Kim

For 55 years, architect Marcel Breuer’s Ferry House has kept cooperative living a residential option at Vassar. In early November, approximately 42 Ferry House alumnae/i, ranging from the classes of 1952 to 2006, revisited their former home.

In November, Ferry House alumnae/i spanning six decades convened on campus for a reunion.
Entertained by opportunities to mingle with current Ferry residents and discussions about the history and development of the house, these alumnae/i shared memories of living in one of Vassar’s most progressive—both architecturally and philosophically—housing options.

Vassar’s first modernist building and the only remaining cooperative residence on campus, the Dexter Mason Ferry House was designed and built in 1951 by Marcel Breuer, a Hungarian Bauhaus architect renowned for designing the Whitney Museum, the UNESCO Building, and the Wassily Chair. Ferry House was a shock to a gothic, traditional campus when it was built. While Vassar’s “first (and belated) venture into modern architecture,” as William H. Jordy, a Brown University professor of architecture, wrote in 1972, may not have sent shockwaves through a nation by then accustomed to the popularization of European modernism and the International Style, it most certainly caused quite a stir with students, faculty, and alumnae.

“[Ferry House] was glaringly different, but not a great controversy to most,” said Doris Kaplan Goldberg ’53, who lived in Ferry from 1951 to 1952. It was more about “excitement and wonder.” Added Nancy Beamer Dill ’53, “You couldn’t help but be interested in the architecture and design. Still, I wasn’t sure what it would be like living in what everyone was calling ‘the fishbowl.’”

In October 1951 the Vassar Alumnae Magazine published an article and photo essay that described the architecture and interiors of Ferry House in detail. This first look for alumnae ended with the exuberant statement that “Vassar now boasts a stunning example of the best in contemporary building and decoration. It’s really something to shout about!”

The building was endowed by Dexter Mason Ferry Jr., chair of the board of the Ferry-Morse Seed Company in Detroit, and represented both a bold step for Vassar into the world of modernist architecture and a continuation of its trust in tradition and strong community relationships. (The Ferry family itself was a formidable Vassar legacy; Dexter’s two sisters, two daughters, daughter-in-law, and five nieces all went to Vassar. It was daughter Edith Ferry Hooper ’32 who suggested Breuer as the architect after his successful completion in 1949 of the first of two modernist houses for her in Baltimore.)

Support from within Vassar for architectural modernism originated from the college’s ambitious first female president, Sarah Gibson Blanding (1946–64). “We had a song about her,” said Goldberg. “Miss Blanding, Miss Blanding, Miss Blanding Makes the World Go Round.” Indeed, during her administration, Blanding made the Vassar world tilt on its axis, commissioning, in addition to Breuer’s Ferry House, Eero Saarinen’s Emma Hartman Noyes House (1958) and Paul Schweikher and Winston Elting’s Chicago Hall (1959). Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller ’31 (daughter of Blanche Ferry Hooker 1894), head of the Vassar trustee building committee and board member of the Museum of Modern Art, was an important influence on Blanding’s modernist choices.

Blanding and the board of trustees faced strong opposition, however, regarding Ferry’s proposed location in the prominent plot between Strong House and “The Circle” (as Noyes Circle was then called). Instead, Ferry was relegated to “the backyard of Vassar,” near the laundry and power generator facilities behind Main Building.

Commenting upon the unintended and yet striking stylistic contrast of the two juxtaposed buildings, Jordy noted, “The stiff effulgence of this immense reddish-violet brick block (Main Building) gives no forewarning of the taut precision and low spread of the dormitory it conceals (Ferry House).” Even stranger than the vast architectural difference between the two buildings was the fact that tiny Ferry later became the sister dormitory of populous Main Building, resulting in the nickname “David and Goliath.”

At the time Ferry was constructed, cooperative living was not a new idea on campus, but it had not been permanently incorporated into the college plan. In the wake of the Great Depression, cooperative living was created both to afford scholarship students the ability to make ends meet at Vassar and to try a new style of living. As home of the department of euthenics, Blodgett, in 1933, was designated the appropriate site for an experiment in the first full-fledged campus cooperative.

(Euthenics, a term coined by Ellen Swallow Richards 1870 from the Greek verb “euthenein,” meaning “to thrive or flourish,” taught what she called “the science of better living,” including environmentalism, the prevention and removal of disease, social interaction skills, nutrition, and home management. While supported by President Henry Noble MacCracken [1915–46] and trustee Julia Lathrop 1880, the program was never fully accepted by the faculty because it was viewed as a step back toward traditionalism for women.)

The same year Blodgett went cooperative, Raymond House became a “self-help house” so that more students could decrease tuition payments by performing dining and cleaning services. This partial cooperative proved to be a well-liked experiment rather than an impediment to the academic or social life of students. Indeed, it had such a positive social effect that it became an increasingly popular mode of living on campus. One senior at the time wrote, “There is very little evidence of the ‘clique’ spirit so often observable in a college dormitory, and no difference between the classes….The spirit of cooperation is exceptionally high, and every one is willing to help out.” A freshman added, “Besides the mechanical training it affords, it trains us in a practical way to be considerate of others. When one has to care for something used by the group, one realizes the unnecessary work created by thoughtlessness.”

In 1938, 22 students moved from Blodgett, which was being consumed by its academic uses, into the newly remodeled Palmer House on the Vassar Wing Farm, some distance from campus. Vassar Historian Elizabeth Adams Daniels ’41 lived there from 1938 to 1940. “We had a common problem, which was not enough money,” she said. “We had to work very hard. There were committees—people to cook, clean up, and devise recipes—and we were a happy group.”

However, geographically isolated as they were, Palmer students felt a lack of participation in college activities. In 1947 Palmer House was closed to make room for faculty housing.
At the dedication ceremony for Ferry House on October 5, 1951, Breuer gave a typically enlightening and philosophically practical speech. “When you experience a building, its space, its walls, roof, windows, the brick, the stone, the glass, you probably never realize that it is the expression of many individual efforts, coordinated. And I mean this not in a technical sense….That this ‘cooperative house’ of Vassar stands now as it is, is actually a result of those human colors and social actions which you probably would never take into consideration when you think of architecture.”

Therein Breuer clearly aligned himself with the social philosophy that he would later express regarding architecture. His purposeful design of Ferry as a crossroads of communal prosperity and aesthetic pleasure, rather than as just an architectural machine of precision, matched his Bauhaus education and philosophy, which emphasized “the social responsibility of art and design…. This led students to an engagement with building, particularly with housing, in their crusade to remake the world in the aftermath of the war,” as Isabelle Hyman wrote in her 2001 book, Marcel Breuer, Architect: The Career and the Buildings.

In Ferry House, one finds a commitment to social responsibility in its clear design for cooperative living and the cues that its inhabitants take from its organizational purpose. However, after living in the house, many residents have also cultivated an aesthetic appreciation for its design. In an architectural world of excess, it seems radical to suggest the idea that modest Ferry propagates—that beauty serves a practical purpose and that practicality is beautiful. Breuer “modified the strict machinelike modernism of the 1930s into a very particular American mode that included modern stone materials and an interest in texture and linking the building to the landscape,” noted former Vassar President and architectural historian Frances Fergusson.

The simplicity of Ferry’s binuclear design, a design originally created and instituted by Breuer in his Geller House—“in which public and private activities are formally separated by volume and spatial composition,” wrote Karen Van Lengen ’73 and Lisa Reilly ’78 in The Campus Guide: Vassar College—is executed by layering the ground and upstairs floors into a T-pattern so that sound from the downstairs common areas does not travel to the private living quarters upstairs. The intended exterior effect of the binuclear arrangement was “covered outdoor areas for ping pong tables, games, bicycles, and an uninterrupted through-view underneath,” as indicated in the 1951 dedication speech.

With transparency to the outside world, slate floors that convey a sense of visual and emotional unity between the indoors and the outdoors, and a sense of sunny airiness due to the large open glass windows, Ferry is quite conducive to a house that concerns itself with the living environment and nature. Multiple common areas—including a large kitchen for cooking meals for guests and residents, a large dining room, a downstairs lounge, an upstairs lounge, a roof deck, outdoor patios, and a television room—allow for multiple facets of privacy and interaction between residents, friends, and guests.

Few other houses in the world have been intentionally designed as cooperatives, with each architectural and design detail oriented toward making the cooperative a smooth-running, successful social venture. Breuer stated in his dedication speech that “the dormitory… should be run as automatically as possible. The plans, the details, even the furnishings and colors have been arranged around these main conclusions.”

In 1995 an initial renovation of Ferry House (funded by Patricia Parton Rosenwald ’56 and husband John) was undertaken, based on original drawings by Breuer. However, the building still needed central structural renovations, and an opportunity arose when Avery underwent renovation for its transformation into the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, making Ferry House nearly uninhabitable due to the construction noise.

The renovation began in 2000. President Fergusson recruited Herbert Beckhard, who had worked with Breuer & Associates and was not only familiar with the architect’s style, but would also have an idea of how Breuer would creatively solve a modern problem while maintaining veracity to its original form. And problems there were—the pipes and sprinklers, the windows and the landscaping, the fire codes; the architect had 50 years of usage to renovate creatively.
Beckhard’s associate Yutaka Takiura said, “The question was how to keep the original spirit alive but accommodate today’s students’ lives. We modified it based on what we thought Breuer would do now.” Though Beckhard passed away in 2003, before the project was completed, Takiura continued the project in the same spirit. And Takiura had the opportunity to chat with Breuer’s wife for philosophical and practical inspiration. “She said that Breuer thought modernism was about decency, not about being flashy or expensive,” said Takiura. “Breuer wanted to spread good design to everybody, not just to a limited number of people.”

Although plaster was used for the original ceilings, Takiura and Beckhard chose heart cypress for the new ceilings, to add additional warmth and counteract the cool slate below. The heart cypress also performs an additional function of recalling the memory of the Dutch elms that originally cradled the second floor of the cooperative, framing them in a natural fashion until taken by Dutch elm disease. The original cerulean Breuer blue of the downstairs lounge and the original crimson-orange Breuer red of the underside of the building were vibrantly restored. The heating and plumbing systems were revamped, and the roof was patched.

Care was also taken to replicate the original furniture design, though in a different layout. Takiura requested Californian manufacturers to reproduce the original Saarinen grasshopper chairs for Ferry, even though they had stopped manufacturing them. “They were very important in Breuer’s original design, and we needed them because they showed the spirit of the time.” The chairs were placed in both the downstairs and upstairs lounges instead of in students’ rooms. Eames chairs were used in the dining room, true to the original setup. Reproductions of the original Nelson vintage benches had already been brought in several years earlier during a partial restoration.

The influence of Ferry House upon its alumnae/i seems monumental. Such a unique microcosm of life at Vassar would not have been quite so inviting or well-designed without Breuer’s forethought. Said Lee Perkins ’64, “It is one thing to study environmental concerns, cooperative living and consensus making, and politics in class. [But] Ferry is putting the theory into practice.”

While college is often a memorable period, the memories that Ferry students have made seem more complicated due to the additional tasks and struggles they faced together in running a house while tending to their academics. Nancy Beamer Dill ’53, president of Ferry House in 1952, recalls one night when her calculus homework piled up and she had six lemon meringue pies to cook as the dessert chef. “It was the one and only time in my life I stayed up all night. But we all took turns cooking, and it made it easier.”

It has been a question of debate whether Vassar should have more cooperatives, considering the high level of applications to Ferry House and the numbers of students who are turned away each semester. “More coops should be opened because they are warmer places socially,” said Dill. “There’s a place for the dorm experience, but small is beautiful, and I was grateful to be chosen to go into a smaller house.”

“It’s a more supportive environment for students going through their collegiate experience and a fairer way to live rather than relying upon external service providers,” said Scott Murray ’01. “It’s not just about being more fun and less expensive, but also being more supportive of the experience that Vassar’s trying to create and maintain. I experienced more meaningful interactions with people because we all had to learn how to live and work within a diverse group.”

Life after Ferry has most certainly been influenced by the lessons learned there in environmentalism, social networking, community, house management, art, music, architecture, event planning, and problem solving. Margaret Hellie Huyck ’61 said, “I find my perceptions of Vassar are very influenced by my life at Ferry. At my home now we have a mini-Ferry, with visitors in the guest quarters of two adjoining apartments of 11 rooms and four bathrooms. So we have managed to maintain much of the wonderful cooperative lifestyle, balancing privacy and sharing.”

“Ferry was my first exposure to that atmosphere, and, along with the left-leaning ethos on campus, confirmed in my mind that the liberal values of equality and community were appropriate for me,” said Patricia Longley ’65. “I briefly considered intentional communities twice in my life, but found myself drawn to… condominium living, which is marked by a sense of community with shared social activities and cooperative decision-making via consensus.”
Margaret Seligmman Lewisohn, chair of the trustee committee on undergraduate life just before Ferry opened, concluded, “I believe firmly that a cooperative house is a necessary addition to any American campus….It can be an important and living demonstration of democracy in action.”
—Dakota Kim

Download and read the 1951 VQ article about Ferry House.

Photo credit: Francis Dzikowski

"Center Stage: Boylesque" (Block Magazine; January 31, 2006)

Center Stage: Boylesque
Male Burlesque Artists Roam (Twirl, Trapeze and Strip) through Williamsburg
By A. Dakota Kim

Galapagos on a Monday night is packed, with standing room only for most of the devoted audience. They know what to expect, as burlesque has become the pain quotidian for our urban generation: a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe or Bettie Page look-alike, of course, touting glittery pasties, feathered fans - and maybe a sex toy or fake pistol, if the number ventures on the edgy side.

The red velvet curtain opens to reveal ... a man. An attractive man, clad in a black leather jacket and tight jeans, flashing us a mischievous smile, but, nonetheless - a man. I thought this was supposed to be a burlesque night, a boy says jeeringly to his pals in a thick Jersey accent.
Little does he know.

The man's name is Mario Queen of the Circus, and he's about to knock those Jersey boys off their Dockers. In a thick Italian accent, Mario charms the audience with slapstick one-liners while juggling five balls in dizzyingly different directions. The crowd cheers enthusiastically, and by the end of the night this Williamsburg native has become a local burlesque star.

A Brief History of the Art

Contrary to our modern perception of burlesque as simply striptease, the original definition in the 1800s was much broader, combining musical theater that mocked upper class conventions by showcasing women and men in drag with variety acts by male comedians. By its heyday in the early 1900s, the success of commercialization had made scantily-clad women the central lure of burlesque, and many of the male comedians who had worked the burlesque circuits had graduated to the higher-class ranks of vaudeville.

Neo-burlesque is moving back toward its original definition as traditional striptease acts are hosted by old-fashioned vaudevillian hosts like Murray Hill and The Don and accompanied by talented variety acts like the sword swallowing of Keith Bindlestiff and the fire eating of Tyler Fyre.

Local Lore

Williamsburg has become a reliable destination for new burlesque, with a free weekly show at Galapagos, Bindlestiff Cirkus revues at Union Pool, special burlesque performances at venues like Northsix, the Lucky Cat and the Tainted Lady Lounge, and vibrant street performances and loft parties such as those sponsored by Rubulad.

“Boylesque,” as burlesque veteran and boylesque coach Dirty Martini calls male burlesque, has a long tradition of queer and transgender performance. From legendary stars like Tigger and Scotty the Blue Bunny, to new burlesque favorites Bradford Scobie, Roky Roulette and Seth the Zog, boylesque plays host to a wide spectrum of fluid gender and sexual identities and exposes audiences to realistic male forms in a live context.

“At first, there were no male burlesque performers,” said Galapagos Artistic Director Travis Chamberlain. “Pretty soon, Scotty and Tigger came to our attention, and once they paved the way, others soon followed. The men who are really serious about pursuing burlesque as an art have now taken center stage.”

Tricks of the Trade

On a burlesque night, besides watching female performers like Miss Saturn spin a dozen hula hoops simultaneously or the Wau Wau Sisters twirl around one another on the trapeze, lucky audiences may be treated to the likes of a deadpan Magic Brian doing card tricks and biting the head off a rubber chicken; Scotty, a 7-foot tall gay blue bunny, teasing the audience about being too straight; AJ Silver, a lassoing cowboy, stripping it all off except for chaps and a cowboy hat strategically placed; or Tigger, a professional movement actor, performing acrobatic feats in drag.

“Burlesque has more gender fluidity in it than almost any other performance art,” said Rose Wood, a transgender performer whose avant-garde burlesque acts challenge static gender identities. “These audiences are being exposed to a raw, personal transgender and queer experience.”

While more mainstream audiences might not be ready to see such unconventional displays of sexuality and gender performed by male bodies that are hardly picture-perfect, relatively young and liberal Williamsburg residents have embraced this highly comedic and challenging form where bodily perfection is not necessary for an electrifyingly entertaining performance.

“Burlesque in general is a very body-positive industry no matter what size or shape you are,” said burlesque host The Don. “In my case, it’s short, fat, hairy and male, and I’m still cheered and appreciated for what I do.”

"Club 60 Fetes Its Golden Years" (The Poughkeepsie Beat; May 10, 2002)

Club 60 Fetes Its Golden Years
By A. Dakota Kim For The Poughkeepsie Beat

Some things only get better with age. On Tuesday, May 14, senior citizens and many other Poughkeepsie residents will get together to celebrate the community organization that emphasizes that fact at Club 60's 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel.

Club 60 is one of the oldest senior citizen organizations in New York State. Founded in 1952 as a joint program of the Women's City and County Club and Arlington Central School, Club 60 offers social, educational, and recreational activities for Town of Poughkeepsie senior citizens.

In attendance will be many honored guests, including Walter Neihardt, the former director of adult education at Arlington High School. Neihardt was instrumental in organizing and starting Club 60 in 1952. Arthur May, former director of the Club 60 Adult program, former Club 60 art teacher Edith Emery, town officials Joe Davis, Stephen Krackower, and Todd Tancredi, representatives from Congressional offices, and many members of Club 60 will also be in attendance. Scott Graham, Town of Poughkeepsie Recreation Director, will emcee the event and read a letter of commendation from Governor Pataki.

"The club makes you feel like when you get older you have a lot to look forward to," said former director Alicia Stoffers. "There are women in their 80s who are active, driving their own cars, taking trips, having control of their lives. They're still interested in learning things and meeting people."

In 1973, the Town of Poughkeepsie began to sponsor Club 60 and pay for its budgetary needs. In 1984 a second branch, Club 60 II, was formed, and in 1993 Club 60 III was formed. Together, the three clubs have over 200 members. The group meets from September until July at the Town Police Community Room and the South Road Civic Center.

"These club members look forward to that club meeting once a week," said Club 60 friend George Stoffers. "They see their friends and get to have the experience of being with 60 or 70 other people like them."

Club 60 member Luella Oscarlece noted that in addition to social activities such as spaghetti dinners, holiday parties, outings, games, and arts and crafts, Club 60 members often work with children and engage in activities that benefit charities and special causes.

"We have made place mats for prisoners at Greenhaven, crocheted hats for the homeless in the winter, worked with children from the various schools, and made teddy bears for rescue workers from the fire department," said Oscarlece.

"They do a lot of great community activities and projects with kids," said Graham. "With the arts and crafts money the Recreation Department gave them, we made $1,500 dollars that we donated to a local Wappingers Falls family whose husband passed away on 9/11." "Club 60 keeps people from sitting around. It makes them get out, do activities, make friends, see people, and watch out for each other," said Oscarlece. "It's a needed thing and there should be more opportunities like it."

"It's a good organization to give seniors some outlets to get out of the house and socialize," said Graham. "We have about nine bus trips a year and see some sights that they possibly may not be able to see otherwise since some seniors may not drive."

In order to become a member of Club 60, one must be a resident of the Town of Poughkeepsie and at least 50 years of age.

"PHS Student Wins Award in Essay Contest" (The Poughkeepsie Beat; May 10, 2002)

PHS Student Wins Award in Essay Contest
By A. Dakota Kim for The Poughkeepsie Beat

On April 19, Emily O'Neill, a student at Poughkeepsie High School, was honored as the recipient of the Women Sustaining the American Spirit Award. The award was sponsored by The Ninth Judicial District Committee to Promote Gender Fairness in the Courts and the Bar Association, and was given to those who wrote the best essays for Women's History Month. "Women's History Month is a time to acknowledge all the women who came before us and to celebrate the trailblazers who fought for equality and changed the world," said O'Neill.

Each essay writer was told to describe how the events of Sept. 11 have heightened his or her awareness of women's issues in the U.S. and abroad. O'Neill chose to write about the history of feminism in America and the plight of women in Afghanistan.

"Because of the sacrifices and struggles of women who came before us, women in the United States can be...anything they want to be," wrote O'Neill in her essay. "But even with all the progress we have made...there is still much to do to achieve gender equality."

"We need to lobby on behalf of the women in Afghanistan and fight to make sure they can have a sense of identity and are able to earn a living. They also need to be allowed to participate in governmental politics so that they can really stand up and speak out," said O'Neill.

O'Neill's essay was selected by a panel of judges for first prize in the freshman/sophomore category. The pool of 90 essays were submitted by students from 20 different schools in the Dutchess, Rockham, Putnam, and Westchester counties.

At the breakfast honoring the winners, O'Neill and others read their essays in front of members of the Committee to Promote Gender Fairness in the Courts, judges from the Ninth Judicial District, and Bar Association members.

"The essays are very insightful. Emily's was very well-written and thoughtful," said Judge Terry Ruderman, chair of the committee. "We hope that we've encouraged the students to think about some issues they might not always think about."

"The Committee to Promote Gender Fairness is really important," said O'Neill. "The committee fights for equality, addresses concerns and problems, and raises aspirations and opportunities for women."

Last summer, O'Neill attended the Girls' Leadership Workshop at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, where for nine days she participated in a series of workshops, many of which were focused on women's issues and history.

"The program enhanced my self-awareness and I learned a lot about oppression against women," said O'Neill. "It was really the place where I learned who I was. Eleanor Roosevelt is a true inspiration to young women and the program is wonderful."

O'Neill said she intends to go into journalism and is inspired by Gloria Steinem as a journalist and the founder of Ms. Magazine.

"She has been such a great leader in the late 20th century women's movement."

The New York State Committee to Promote Gender Fairness in the Courts was founded in 1986 as a method of examining how women are treated in all aspects of the judicial system, as judges, attorneys, and clients. The committee was created after a statewide task force revealed a need for improvement of gender equality within the courts. The Ninth Judicial District's committee is an offshoot of the state committee.