Williams Hotel Project Percolating Through Town Boards

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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The Williamstown Conservation Commission last week reviewed a wetlands resource area delineation for land where Williams College wants to build a new hotel.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — More than a year after Williams College made public its internal discussions about building a small hotel on the bottom of Spring Street, the proposal is taking its first tentative steps in the permitting process.

Last Thursday, the Conservation Commission reviewed a vegetative wetlands delineation commissioned by the college from local engineering firm Guntlow & Associates.

On Tuesday evening, the Planning Board will hold a "community input session" to consider a possible expansion of the Village Business District to include the same parcel.

Currently the business district ends at Latham Street at the south end of Spring Street, according to a zoning map available on the town’s website.

In other business, the Planning Board will look at a development plan for the college's planned residence hall on Stetson Court, on land where Harper House now stands and from which Mather House will be moved on Wednesday morning.

The Con Comm decision did not concern any specific proposal for the site, per se. It merely laid the foundation for future proceedings before the panel.

The college likely would need to file a Notice of Intent and face a rigorous examination by the board of any proposed construction on site.

The delineation approved by the commission on Thursday would form the basis for those potential hearings.

The Con Comm last Thursday also decided to submit a request to the Community Preservation Committee for Community Preservation Act funds to support future improvements to land managed by the commission. The CPC will review applications this winter and make recommendations for funding to May's town meeting.


Tags: conservation commission,   motels, hotels,   Williams College,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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