My First Cover Story

In a magazine, I mean . . . is an article about the $224 million "Project for Progress" at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. It appears in the Spring issue of Dartmouth Medicine, which is the medical center's in-house publication. Here's the link:

dartmed.dartmouth.edu/spring06/html/healing_place.php

This project will never be the cover story in one of the architectural magazines, which of course raises the question of whether, by praising it as lavishly as I did, I have (for lack of a better word) prostituted myself. My answer, delivered emphatically, is NO! It would be easy enough to focus only on projects that attempt to break new ground -- to, as one of my designer friends puts it, "take me to a place I have never been before." But if that's the standard for architecture worth noticing and even praising, then we are by definition consigning ourselves almost entirely to buildings that are unworthy of us. Precisely because this project touches so many people in my community, and given that it is so much better than it could have been, it is absolutely praiseworthy.

shower towers at dartmouth

This remarkable complex -- Gerry and Bradley halls (by E.K. and M.K Hunter) at Dartmouth College, is slated to be razed this fall. Once the home of the college's math and psychology department, these early 1960s buildings were a bold departure from the neoclassical brick that is so ponderously dominant in beautiful downtown Hanover and its Ivy League patroon. They are already invisible, for all intents and purposes, having been eclipsed by the newly emerging Kemeny Hall (Moore Ruble Yudell) and of course the Berry Library (Venturi/Scott Brown).

I am working on an article that will pay tribute to these buildings, what they did, and what they failed to do. Your comments and reminiscences about them, either before or after the article, are welcome.

Team Rose 66

Dear Friends:


Our family received two really great pieces of news this week.

First we learned that, with the approval by the Governor and Council of the applicable contract, beginning on May 1, 2006 every child born in New Hampshire will be screened at birth for Cystic Fibrosis. This means that, after May 1, no New Hampshire family will ever endure what our family endured in the months after the birth of our daughter -- a failure-to-thrive baby, literally starving to death, because nobody knew she had a disease whose chief symptom can be corrected by readily available prescription medication. Jenny and I can claim to have played a small but significant role in making it happen. It may be the best thing I have ever done.

Second, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation announced that the expected survival age for people with CF has grown to 36.8 years. I am not easily impressed, particularly by statistics, but to me this is astonishing news. To put the data in perspective: In 1980, when Frank DeFord's little girl died of CF, the life expectancy was nearing 20 years. Had I been born with CF, I likely would not have survived long enough to learn to write. Just last year, the median life expectancy hit 35.1 years.

Does an increase of 1.7 years in median predicted life expectancy over a 12 month period mean that the little CF girl in our family is going to live forever because the life expectancy is growing faster than she's getting older? Okay, maybe not. But it is very compelling evidence that the quest to overcome this genetic disease is succeeding -- and it offers us good reason to believe that everyone in our family will be dancing in the streets on the day CF is officially relegated to the list of interesting medical footnotes.

We are eager to tell you this news because it is to you that we owe our thanks for these blessings. Among the recipients of this message are tons of people who have offered their tangible support to us, in connection with the recent formation of Team Rose 66 -- our modest little foray into the world of disease-conquering walk-a-thons. (In this case it is the national "Great Strides" event of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We'll be walking in Manchester NH on May 20. It's not too late to join us as walkers, or to offer a pledge of support. Visit www.cff.org/great_strides/dsp_donationPage.cfm?registeringwalkid=4323&idUser=117768 if it would be a source of pleasure to you.) And literally every person we know has offered us some kind of help since we found out we were a CF family four years ago. Keep it up -- and let us know when we can help you, as well as when you have good news to share.