Maclay Architects redesign Putney General Store

This is a more personal post, but I promise it’s relevant to NESEA!

In 2008, the 200 year old Putney General Store caught fire and was severely damaged. The Putney Historical Society and town rallied to purchase the property and start to rebuild. In 2009, an arsonist set fire and obliterated the store completely. The Putney Historical Society and town again set about to rebuild. Maclay Architects, Bill Maclay’s (you may remember him from our recent Net Zero Event at Mitsubishi) architectural firm is one of the companies working on the general store’s resurrection. [hide-this-part morelink="Read more..."]

The Putney General Store was so important to me in my childhood. I was in Dummerston, VT nearly every summer growing up and continue to visit every winter with my family. These visits to Dummerston always involved a trip to the Putney General Store for sandwiches, Matchbox cars, and penny candy.

I was devastated when I found out about the 2008 fire, but relieved to know that there were efforts to rebuild. When I checked in to see its progress a year later  in 2009, I was devastated again to learn that it had been incinerated in an intentional fire.

Flash forward to just a month or so ago when I was learning more about Bill Maclay’s firm in preparation for the Net Zero event at Mitsubishi. I was browsing their website to see their current projects. I knew they had done a project for the Putney School (on the cover of the Fall 2011 Northeast Sun), but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were part of the team working to rebuild the General Store. They have designed it to be a high performance, energy efficient multi-use building (retail and business). (You can read about the project at the Maclay Architects website)

I stopped in Putney last weekend on a whim and saw the (nearly) finished product. It looks almost exactly like the store we lost. While I know the interior won’t have the old, worn labyrinthine aisles and that 200 year old musty barn smell, I take comfort in knowing that it has been improved upon and respected by all those who worked to rebuild it. When I saw the architects’ rendering, I was struck by how well they kept its historical integrity, and in person, how well the rendering translated to the real building. While it looks shiny and new, it doesn’t look out of place or out of sync.

[/hide-this-part] Its grand reopening is this weekend, Saturday Dec. 10th. (Information about the reopening is available here).

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate Maclay Architects on reviving such an important structure and institution in Putney, while undoubtedly incorporating updates and design elements that will make it more resilient in an uncertain energy future.

NESEA members, your work has a significant impact on so many levels. I think that this is an aspect of the ‘whole system’ that we talk about. The built environment occupies more than just physical space. Beyond (or underlying) the building system, the environmental/ecological systems, there are the socio-cultural systems. This project touches on all of them – as I imagine the work all of you do does in one way or another.

Thank you for doing what you do.