Preservation Plan
Preserving the past and guiding the future
Starting in 2019, with a Historic Site Management Grant from Preserve New Jersey Historic Preservation Fund, the James Rose Center retained Mills+ Schnoering Architects, LLC with the goal of designing a program of restoration and rehabilitation that will allow the building and landscape to be preserved, while upgrading their functionality to meet existing and future requirements. The resulting and exhaustive 290 page plan clearly sets the future for the Center’s preservation, rejuvenation and exciting future.
Preserve
Any work on the residence must carefully consider the original details and intention of James Rose, while working to properly operate as a Center open to the general public. Today, parts of the building require urgent attention to abate current structural and functional challenges. The unique design of the residence makes it especially susceptible to water infiltration and damage. Multiple evolutions of the residence create unique challenges at their joinery, and the landscape must be carefully respected, while considering any immediate threats to the structure.
The careful balance between intent, design, and future preservation are uniquely complicated at the James Rose Center - but a welcome challenge in which James Rose continues to ask us to evaluate our own way of living.
Rehabilitate
Beyond preserving the Center for the future, we want to increase its functions for events, programing and ecological landscape studies. This requires reevaluation of the existing gardens and spaces, allowing us to improve the Center (in careful consideration of Rose’s philosophies, will brining systems and structural elements into the 21st century.
What we need…
Our preservation plan is both ambitious, and necessary. Without immediate preservation and steps towards bringing the Center’s core structural and mechanical elements to modern standards, the future of the James Rose Center is uncertain. you can read the full preservation plan below, and use the support link to learn how you can take action or donate to insure the future of this historic site.