Posted: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 12:29 am

Artist brainstorms ideas for Gregg with students

Young Lee, Associate Features Editor

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As the Gregg Museum prepares to move to its new location at the old chancellor’s house on Hillsborough Street, museum administrators explore ways to take full advantage of the new opportunities such a location presents.

Last week, San Francisco-based artist Peter Richards came to visit N.C. State and the Gregg Museum’s new location to share his experiences and ideas for the use of the museum’s new location at the request of museum director Roger Manley. During his week-long stay, Richards taught students about sculptures he worked on, brainstormed possibilities for the new site, toured the North Carolina Art Museum and presented some of his thoughts to students and staff. 

“The intent was to give [students] a sense of how somebody like me works and how I respond to certain situations and the kinds of questions that I ask,” said Richards. “And so I was trying to get them to raise their own questions and make their own observations.”

Manley said he felt that Richards would be a great artist to explore the new site and share ideas with students because of the thoughtful way he approaches problems.

“I met him several years ago when the city of Charlotte was creating a new arts center called the McColl Center,” Manley said. “Instead of just showing up and saying, ‘I know what to do, and I will tell you how to accomplish it,’ he is the kind of person who takes his time to listen to everyone, study a situation and gradually see a creative solution. I wish more people approached things that way.”

During his conversations with students, Richards said he thought about ways artistic installations worked with the sites they were constructed for and how each installation can complement the story of the location.

“I’m interested in making places too and not just sculptures,” Richards said. “I can go to my studio and I can make a big sculpture, and I can ship it and plop it right in the middle of the field and there’d be a sculpture. But then, what would it be about? Would it be about the land that it’s sitting on or would it be about my studio and what I was thinking about while I was in my studio?”

Richards was able to share his ideas with more than 50 students and faculty over the course of his stay. As everything is still in planning stages, it isn’t yet confirmed that Richards will be a part of the construction of a sculpture for the new museum site. 

Fundraising for the museum’s landscaping projects is ongoing. According to Manley, museum administrators need to raise another $1.9 million to meet its goal of $7.9 million to fund the creation of sculptures and landscaping of the new location. Manley said the construction will take a year and a half and will begin as soon as the museum receives enough money.

Zoe Starling, curator of education resources at the Gregg Museum, said she was excited about what Richards shared concerning the possibilities of the new museum site.

“We’re going to be in a place where we can be a gateway to the downtown arts scene because we are on Hillsborough [Street],” Starling said. “Having art on the ground is only going to make the university more visible and more accessible to students in the community.”

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The McDonald House was built in the early 1900s by one of the founders of the Oregon Nursery Co. The Hillsboro Parks Recreation Commission recommended the city buy the house from the Hillsboro Elks (Doug Beghtel/For the Argus)

HILLSBORO — A historic Hillsboro residence is one step closer to becoming a public asset after the city earned preliminary approval to buy the McDonald House on Tuesday.

The 101-year-old Craftsman-style home is surrounded by 41 acres of jointly-owned Hillsboro and Metro property destined to become a nature park. More than a year after buying the property surrounding the home, a stately 8,494-square-foot residence built by Oregon Nursery Co. co-founder Malcolm McDonald in 1912, the city is close to a deal.

Tuesday’s meeting was the culmination of nearly two years of hoping and several months of negotiations. The former Orenco Woods golf course was earmarked for residential development in 2007, but that deal fell through.

Hillsboro and Metro bought the land in Dec. 2011. Early on, Hillsboro knew it wanted to buy the McDonald House, but had to create a separate 0.79 acre parcel around the house prior to proceeding with negotiations.

Wayne Gross, Parks Recreation Department director, called the house a “terrific venue for the public.”

The Hillsboro Parks Recreation Commission approved a $575,000 purchase agreement with the current owners, the Hillsboro Elks Lodge No. 1862, at its meeting on Tuesday.

Parks system development funds will fund the purchase. The Hillsboro City Council will vote on the deal, likely sometime next month. If all goes according to plan, the property would transfer in 3-4 months, according to parks officials.The $575,000 sales price is less than an appraisal of the property from 2011 of $625,000, according to a staff report.

The home is in remarkably good condition on the main floor, according to Gross, and with its four brick chimneys, red bricks and shingled sidings, the building is both physically prominent and historically significant.

McDonald and Archibald McGill bought Salem-based Oregon Nursery Co. in 1892 and moved it to Orenco in 1909. McDonald was mayor of Orenco, according to city documents, and the home is a “testimonial to the early, thriving Oregon Nursery Company town.”

The Elks purchased the Orenco Woods Golf Course in 1969, according to Troy Ceballos, a liaison between the Elk’s Board of Directors and the city.

He said the Elks worked with the city over the past couple years on an agreement. “That’s a historic piece of property that needs more attention than the Elks can provide,” he said.

Hillsboro’s ideas of uses for the facility, formerly home to the nonprofit Saint Child, were a natural fit, Ceballos said.

City officials have big dreams: Arts classes, spoken word poetry readings, group retreats and wedding receptions and other events at the old home. The fence encircling the property will likely be torn down to connect the property with the future parkland.

Landscaping and other maintenance work is necessary, Gross said. “We will probably end up spending a couple hundred thousand before all is said and done,” he told the commission about total repairs to the property.

Planning for the park is moving forward as well, with an open house scheduled for Apr. 24 from 6 – 8 p.m. at Orenco Elementary School, 22550 N.W. Birch Street.

Other items on the commission’s agenda:

– For the second consecutive year, the city is seeking $500,000 through the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s Local Government Grant Program. The city hopes to use that money to offset the purchase price for the future Orenco Woods Park. Hillsboro and Metro roughly split the $4.5 million price tag in Dec. 2011.

-Food carts will now be allowed at two Hillsboro parks in certain instances. Shute and Rood Bridge Parks were approved for limited food cart service. Restrictions: only on weekdays, no alcohol without prior approval, and all guests must have a bracelet or other identifier. A $25 fee will also be applied.

– Hillsboro artist Tim Gabriel will design a $5,000 art piece to adorn a gate at the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve. The blacksmith will install the art sometime this fall. It is funded out of the Cultural Arts budget and by the Jackson Bottom Board of Directors.

— Andrew Theen
Follow @HlsboroReporter

A roundabout with a garden in the middle, a tree-lined street and a pedestrian pathway could be coming to the town of Appomattox.

These were some ideas from the ongoing Old Courthouse Road corridor study presented at Tuesday night’s Appomattox Town Council meeting.

The study began in January and looks at ways to enhance the 1.1-mile stretch of road, spanning from its intersection with Confederate Boulevard (Business U.S. 460) to the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park.

The study’s goal is to see what can be done to make the road more of an entranceway to the park.

It likely will be used to develop a plan to present to the Virginia Department of Transportation to help get some of the tasks completed. Town Manager Bill Gillespie cautioned council it could take about 15 years to complete the project in phases, but they were doable.

Several meetings have been held on the corridor to get input from stakeholders. One more meeting remains. The study is expected to be completed by the end of April.

Council members Steve Conner and Mary Spiggle, who attended the stakeholder meetings, said the roundabout idea was well received.

The roundabout could be built with the space the Virginia Department of Transportation already has without using private property, Conner said.

“I think there’s less possibility for wrecks,” Spiggle said. “That place right there is a wreck magnet.”

Gillespie said it would offer something different for the town, with possibly a garden inside.

“That would certainly be a unique thing to see in Appomattox,” he said. “I think if you were looking to try to develop the corridor, you could get rid of some of the lights and clean that whole intersection up.”

The roundabout also would open the land around it to development as people could pull off into parking areas to visit businesses, Gillespie said.

Some businesses could be geared toward the added pedestrian traffic that would develop with the pathway, he said.

Added green space, like trees and parks along the corridor, would enhance the appearance and break it up, he said.

“It could totally change the character of that whole area,” Gillespie said.

The trees in the median would help separate the corridor and encourage people to drive slower, he said.

Spiggle is excited about the plan.

“It’s a wonderful vision,” she said. “I hope we can do it.”

In other business, Gillespie clarified the purpose of the study to see if Appomattox could support tourism-related attractions, like stores, restaurants and hotels.

The focus of the project is more job-related for businesses supporting tourism, rather than tourism itself, he said.

“It’s no different then investing in an industry park,” Gillespie said. “You’ve just acknowledged that tourism is your industry.”

He compared the study to a résumé, listing the assets and qualifications of Appomattox, in hopes of attracting developers.

In order to attract businesses, a credible market study, like this, is needed to show there is a market in the area, Gillespie said.

“This gives us feasibility and general numbers for national developers who deal with national chains,” Conner said. “They’re not going to take our word that it’s a great place — they want facts from an independent source.”

The clarification was presented because council members had received phone calls from residents confused about the study and its projected $50,000 price tag.

It would be completed in three tasks, advancing to the next level if something viable was discovered. If it is deemed the study is not going anywhere, council would not pay for the next task to be completed, and the study would end, Gillespie said.