Historic Preservation

Wheeler Harrington House, Concord MA

I was 7 years old in 1997 when my mother and I left NY and moved to Concord, MA. We were making a new start in the town of my mother’s ancestors. Being there felt like home, and through this connection began my appreciation for Historic Preservation. The many well preserved houses with plaques marking their original inhabitant and construction date, invited onlookers to share in the history of the structure. I would walk around town comparing the styles of houses by decade, thinking of my ancestors who had walked these same paths, their purpose and intentions made tangible in the landscape. From the dark cramped attic of a Greek Revival home on Main Street, we made a new start as my ancestors had. This is exactly the undertaking that I wish to pursue at Boston University, to make a new start with a Masters in Preservation Studies, and to fulfill a fascination that I have carried with me from my first years in Concord.

In high school, I sought out as many courses in architecture, and specifically drafting, as I could. I wanted to be able to perfectly communicate my own ideas but also the proportions and motifs of historic architecture. This yen started with a drafting course at the high school, and later lead me to courses at Boston Architectural Center and Pratt. Though I received very good grades in these high school pre-college architecture programs, I settled on applying to a degree in set design from Purchase College, as I knew I could easily get in, and I did.
 



Felix in the Purchase College Design Tech Studio, 2008

It was the idea of designing sets for a specific time period that interested me most. I received high praises for my drafting skills and my abilities to compile meaningful design sources and research. What I did not conceive of at the time was the fact that those sets I would be designing are disposable and destined for the landfill. This is one of the reasons why Preservation Studies appeals to me now. The act of preservation seeks to keep intact what already exists and to only add missing items that will help to clarify the story of a building, it’s a sustainable practice that keeps buildings out of landfills and repurposes the structures for many useful years to come. I want to be a part of meaningful research that resurrects a building from the past, both from documentation and field study investigation techniques.
 

Felix working on the Club Monaco installation at Grand Central Terminal

I have had the opportunity to employ research and detailed draftings in my work over the past few years, most notably on a fashion show in Grand Central Terminal for Club Monaco. My boss did not specify that I should use existing motifs from Grand Central, he asked me to simply “make it look Victorian”, but I couldn’t help myself from researching the rich vocabulary of neoclassical motifs in the Beaux-Arts building. The project consisted of a handful of kiosks, one of my kiosks was decorated with painted motifs and one was decorated with cotton rope. For the painted kiosk, I drafted a motif from a cast iron transom grill found above some of the platform entrances. I then transferred a full scale drafting of the motif and transferred the design to the kiosk using traditional scenic painting techniques. For the rope kiosk, I researched linear and twisting motifs that lent themselves to being constructed out of rope. The primary motif that I drew from is seen in the iron grille of the windows overlooking the main concourse. Working on this project helped me to understand a need I have to work with people who understand the importance of being specific within the design parameters of a particular style of architecture. It is at Boston University that I seek likeminded individuals within Preservation Studies to learn from and work with and put to greater use my knowledge and skills.

Finished Club Monaco kiosk at Grand Central Terminal

 

Art and Illness

 

Art was a great source of comfort for Felix throughout his illness. He had an immense depth to his emotions, yet he was fiercely introverted. As one of his friends and colleagues said, “Felix lived and breathed art. There was no separation between the two.” It only made sense that he would turn to art even more during his battle with terminal cancer.

Felix had just started a job as an art director with Anthropologie, and was being trained as an art director for one of the high volume Manhattan stores when he was diagnosed in December of 2017. He had been working frantically on his designs for the upcoming spring window even with a large pleural effusion around his left lung that had completely collapsed it leaving him constantly short of breath and coughing. He didn’t cry when he was given his Mesothelioma diagnosis but he did cry when he had to quit his job to undergo aggressive treatment.

A few months later, after 3 surgeries and 5 weeks of radiation, as he started aggressive chemotherapy and an experimental drug therapy, Felix took on a job making headpieces for a production of Peter Pan at Bard College. He didn’t let on that he was sick to the production team so they wouldn’t worry about him creating them while he had dangerously low white blood cell counts requiring daily Neulasta injections and was going through rigorous legal depositions and hauling headpiece supplies back and forth on the subway. His pieces were a huge success, especially the disco ball headpiece for Tinkerbell which was often called “the star of the show.” For Felix it was more than just an individual job, it was a return to a little piece of his former life and love.

Felix also created art to deal with his complicated emotions during this time. He created a Love collage as a type of vision board of his hopes for the future. His sunset on the beach painting was made to express the joy and solace he found there. And the self portrait of his battered body shows his inner conflict between his struggle to live and the heartache over the destruction of his once vibrant and beautiful body in this dark, ominous painting.

Finding Felix: About the Exhibit

 

 

Felix Brow-Westbrook was a 28 year old artist and designer living and working in NYC when he was unexpectedly diagnosed with Biphasic Pleural Mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure almost never seen in people in their twenties. Felix died just under a year after his diagnosis. This exhibit explores his life as an artist and seeks to discover more about Felix the person through the lens of Felix the artist.

Felix was always an artistic person. Spending much of his early childhood on the campus of Purchase College, he was often surrounded by art and other artists, not to mention the many artists in his family including his mother, a dancer, and his father, a photographer.

As he grew up, it became obvious that he was different from other kids, with his creativity and “old soul” being part of his endearing charm. People that knew him as a child still fondly recall his wise demeanor that was beyond his years.

The name of the exhibit, “Finding Felix,” comes from an essay written by Matt Williams, his mentor at Spoleto Festival USA. Part of “finding Felix” was trying to gather up the work he left behind, as much of it was created for temporary uses. Not only that, but Felix’s art was so much a part of him that it echoed throughout his life in every aspect, he was constantly creating. With that, came the challenge of finding all that could possibly be found and using it to convey Felix.

The first image pictured is the first photograph Felix ever took at 5 years old. It shows the unique way he looked at the world, through a lens of his own. The exhibit then follows his career, with his days at Spoleto Festival USA and his window designs, his house painting which is a symbol of his own being, and the work he created while he was ill. It ends with pieces created by others in his honor.