The Withherle Memorial Library commissioned Heather McCargo from Portland, Maine, an extensive landscape plan for the library's website. McCargo founded the Wild Seed Project in 2014 to teach people, appreciate and expand local plant species. She is neither a landscape architect nor a garden designer. She is an expert for local plants and a respected spokeswoman.
Unfortunately, the plan that she developed for our library is not appropriate to the website. Not everyone prefers the use of local plants, but this is really not the problem, although the website is really too compact to thrive and recognize its intended advantages.
The main problem is the extensive and expensive hardscaping planned.
When the library expanded the building after receiving a generous legacy from Deborah Pulliam, the contractors had to cut the roots of two elm trees to build the room below, which until recently held the used books for book sales. As a result, these trees died. (The trees had no Dutch ELM diseases; they were tested regularly.) Recently the library installed an oversized generator and four large fuel tanks. These equipment are located near a free -standing electric box and the only remaining electropoly in the city's community. So we start with a mess of unattractive devices.
The new plan proposes to add a granite wall, a brick path, a brick path, a terrace, a stone paving, pavement pavement and a bicycle repair station on a concrete cushion that are added to the above -mentioned equipment. Will not all of this conflict with the historical historical Beaux Arts Stone Building? In addition, the granite block wall along the street and school streets as well as along the neighboring property will create a visual and physical barrier instead of greeting visitors to the garden. The stone steps and the brick path cannot be accessible to everyone.
The proposed plantings also offer little the year -round structure, which is sad for a beautiful library, which is enjoyed by the city dwellers in all seasons. Our beautiful historical library is located on a well -preserved historical city, a rarity and part of what Castin really makes special. It is our duty to preserve the history and beauty in the center of our city so that everyone can enjoy.
The proposed plan was checked by the Castin Historic Preservation Commission. The project was unanimously rejected. Then the library brought the plan to the Castine Zoning appeals committee and paid a lawyer to formulate an argument to defend its plan, and the ZBA raised the CHPC decision. Of course, the Withherle library has a foundation of well over $ 8 million, the CHPC is not.
As a member of the appeal in this meeting with 1000 US dollars per square foot emphasized, this is an expensive plan.
As far as I can judge this, there is a lot of hard sharpness in this plan than any real offset of biodiversity. This lifelong reader, the lover of the chestnine and architecture and landscape enthusiast, finds the plan short -sighted and a promotion of the current confusion at Withherle.
In view of the generous financing that the library allows its proposed landscape plan, I asked the library authority to bury the unattractive power line in front of the two inputs of the library in the School Street. Maybe it would improve the situation to take a eyesore before just adding all of these hard side dishes? Unfortunately, an earlier librarian declined to do so if the library was free (when the lines were buried for the rest of the common borders), and now this will be the second time that the library is concerned with an expensive construction project with plenty of money and rejects this last section of the electrical lines to the basis of the common basis.
I understand that buried this line may not have a priority, but I'm just looking for paths to make the exterior of the library more attractive and no less attractive. Please climb on the common facial sheets of the beautiful library steps, which have been carefully restored in the renovation, and take a look at the mess that you see in front of you and imagine what could be.
We could have a much better landscape plan than proposed. Among the inhabitants of the box we are lucky enough to have landscape designers and master gardeners. Why not work with them to develop a more likeable, aesthetically appealing plan that respects the common and its history? When it comes to local plants, let us see how things fit with local plants. But we could have a better overall plan, there are simply too many difficult types and no system structure to protect some of the visually insulting devices and to arouse interest all year round. People in the chestnine deserve a better landscape plan for their beloved library.
