LEWISTON — “Lewiston Transforms: Adaptive Reuse of Architectural Landmarks” will be the topic of the next Museum L/A’s “Voices” lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 24.
Architecture as a cultural artifact is both sculptural and utilitarian. Buildings have a purpose. What happens when a building outlives its function? Should a building be kept for the sake of historic preservation? How much of the building must remain to retain its symbolic and cultural significance?
Mark Lee of Harriman Associates and Steve Myers of Platz Associates will explore these and other issues confronting the architectural legacy of Lewiston’s many historic structures at the lecture.
Lee and Myers will discuss their approaches to an adaptive reuse of the Bates Mill No. 5 Weave Shed. They will present an analysis of the present day site, theoretical and practical architectural approaches, and conceptual models and renderings of proposed reuses of the mill.
Guests will find out how Lewiston got its urban plan with its street and traffic patterns, canals and districts, pedestrian zones and landmarks. Also discussed will be ways to use the old landmark buildings to create new landmarks and adapt the city for a new age.
A native of Auburn, Lee is an associate of the architecture and engineering firm Harriman. With more than 13 years of experience in the design and engineering of buildings and infrastructure, Lee focuses on college and university planning and design. He is a member of the City of Lewiston Historic Preservation Review Board, whose role is to preserve and promote the character of historically significant structures. Lee is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Council of Facilities Planners International and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He holds a master of architecture from the Boston Architectural College and bachelor of science degrees in civil and architectural engineering from Drexel University.
Myers is development coordinator at Platz Associates of Auburn. Having grown up in suburban Houston, where everything was new, Myers’ interest in the older built environment was piqued when he attended college at Brown University in Providence, R.I. He believes that it is the older, everyday buildings that define a community’s unique identity. Myers considers himself lucky to have been working for the last 20 years at Platz Associates, where so many projects have involved the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of older buildings.
There is no fee to attend and reservations are not required. For more information, contact the Museum at 333-3881. Museum L-A is located at 35 Canal Street, in the Bates Mill Complex at the corner of Canal and Chestnut streets.

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