Allendale ship to be dismantled soon as plaza changes hands

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A Pittsfield and Berkshire County landmark loathed by many and liked by some will be dismantled on Sept. 16 before the eyes of the artist who created it. The Sea Bee, the large ship that has been rising out of the parking lot of the Allendale Shopping Center in Coltsville since 1990, will see its end that day with its creator, Dustin Shuler, present, said Daniel M. O’Connell, the commissioner of cultural affairs for Pittsfield. The fate of the 32-foot, 12-ton sculpture was determined by the Lamar Companies, an entity of which purchased the 47-year-old shopping center in July for $5.6 million. In addition the Lamar Cos. had the rest of the artwork at Allendale — save Having a Ball, a sculpture that sends golf balls through a series of metal hoops, loops and jumps — removed prior to the sale because they didn’t want them, said Cory Boss, the executive vice president of the companies. The Morristown, N.J., company, which specializes in reviving distressed shopping centers, plans to renovate Allendale either this fall or next spring, he said. Boss said he had “no comment” to an inquiry as to why his company wanted the artwork removed from the plaza. He said he has revealed those reasons in the past. The 10 artworks from Allendale were donated by its former owner, Allendale Shopping Center Associates LLC, to the Butler Institute of Art in Youngstown, Ohio, O’Connell said. O’Connell, who said part of his job is to save public art, wanted to do just that and keep the artworks and the ship at Allendale in the city, saying that many locals grew up with those pieces. He said he didn’t have enough time to save the smaller artworks and the two parties he asked about the ship, the city and Berkshire Community College, didn’t want it. Moving the ship to a new location would cost $10,000 for a new foundation and the cost of the use of a flatbed, O’Connell estimated. O’Connell said the city and BCC didn’t want the ship because it’s controversial and a “really political” issue. Many local people, he said, think The Sea Bee is a sinking ship and represents the city’s economic woes and the decay of the community. Regarding the city, O’Connell said he asked Mark Amuso, the director of the city’s Department of Community Development, who said he would ask Mayor Sara Hathaway. Hathaway e-mailed Amuso, revealing that she didn’t want to keep the ship in Pittsfield. Amuso, who said the decision has nothing to do with the potential cost of moving the ship, said he likes the sculpture, putting him “in a clear minority.” “People don’t want the ship,” Amuso said. “People perceive the ship as Pittsfield sinking, and they just don’t like it.” The dean of academic affairs at BCC, whom O’Connell asked about The Sea Bee, also didn’t want the ship. Efforts to reach the dean for comment were not successful. Although it is a landmark, it appears that most locals don’t like the ship because they perceive it as having negative connotations. They think the ship is sinking, whereas Shuler, its creator, said in an interview last Thursday it is rising out of the parking lot. Shuler and the ship The Sea Bee, he said, represents a moment in time when the bow, lighter than the rest of the ship, keeps rising and rising, reaches its apex and hangs there momentarily, and then slips down into the abyss. The Sea Bee, which is at a 75-degree angle, is still rising and has not yet reached its 90-degree apex, Shuler said. Unlike some ships, The Sea Bee is a ship that goes down by the stern, which is the rear of the ship. Shuler said the ship’s passengers, floating in the ocean and facing death, are often mesmerized by that romantic and tragic moment. Historically some have been moved to write about it, he said. The sculpture, Shuler said, reflects the romantic tragedy, which he said is along the lines of Romeo and Juliet. It is totally out of context, though, said the Inglewood, Calif., resident, adding that he had originally wanted to put it in the desert or in a park with rolling grassy knolls. “It’s something I felt I wanted to see,” said Shuler, who said he was influenced early on in life by the maritime stories of his father, a former Merchant Marine. “[The Sea Bee] was not a whim,” said Shuler, who said he had the concept for a shipwreck on dry land for five to 10 years. He said he studies shipwrecks and his body of work pays homage to shipwrecks. What does he think about his sculpture being dismantled? “It’s a shame,” said the disappointed sculptor, who said he wished the city could’ve moved the ship to a park. He said he envisioned kids in a park saying “I’ll race you to the ship.” O’Connell and Shuler said The Sea Bee, which Shuler considers to be a major piece in his career, is worth more than $100,000. “It’s worth “four parking spaces” to the new owners, Shuler wryly added. The Sea Bee incorporates the bow of a 40-year-old hulk, which had been used as a fueler for the Boston fishing fleet, Shuler said. During three months of intensive labor in East Boston, Shuler said he cut the forward section of the boat off and rebuilt it to be like a fishing boat. Shuler said he was in Pittsfield for the installation of the sculpture in October 1990. He said he is and has been surprised that local residents think his sculpture is an insult to the city. The Pittsburgh area native, who knows that General Electric moved many of its operations out of Pittsfield, said “the bigger problem is the mindset of the area.” David Bermant Shuler was commissioned to create The Sea Bee by the late David W. Bermant, the former president of National Shopping Centers, the parent company of Allendale until the recent sale. Bermant, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying artworks for his properties around the country, also brought the other artworks to the shopping center. His wife, Susan, is the president of the David Bermant Foundation, which oversees the art collection, which comprises roughly 100 pieces. She couldn’t keep the art in Pittsfield because she didn’t know of anyone in the city that wanted it, she said, and her foundation made the decision to send the smaller pieces to the Butler Institute of Art. The pieces that were at Allendale — pieces that light up and are operated by computers and electricity — are difficult to maintain, said Bermant, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Butler Institute, one of the few technological art museums in the country, she said, has the resources to maintain the pieces. Bermant said her husband, who died in January 2000, thought it was important to have art at shopping centers, which he viewed as town centers, just as the ancient Greeks did. They had statues and drama at their agoras, marketplaces where they assembled. Bermant said she can’t imagine why Allendale’s new owners don’t want to keep the ship, which she said she sees as a landmark. If anything, the ship, she said, is “notoriety and publicity for the [shopping] center,” and people know where it is. She said she is pretty sure that The Sea Bee doesn’t detract people from shopping there. Her husband had a couple of Gallup Polls done that, she said, revealed that art increases shoppers and traffic at a shopping center. “Definitely art in centers did have a commercial value and benefit,” the surveys showed, she said. In lieu of this finding, there have been two or three recent instances where new owners of shopping centers remove all or some of the artwork brought by her husband, Bermant said. It happened at the Long Ridge Mall near Buffalo, N.Y., and at the Hamden (Conn.) Plaza. Other instances of this happened a while ago, she said. She said it is unclear why new owners of shopping plazas remove art brought by her husband. “There’s almost nobody that had the vision he had, and we run into this problem,” she said. “It’s not their cup of tea.” Why was Allendale sold to the Lamar Cos., and what are their plans? Six people owned the shopping center and operated it as Allendale Shopping Center Associates LLC. Joseph E. Bermant, who owned it along with his brother and four other people, said they decided to sell it because it was getting older, and they were getting older. “[We wanted] to do something else with our money,” said Bermant, one of David’s younger brothers. Asked whether he thought it would’ve been possible to keep the art in the city, he said he “didn’t give it a thought.” Cory Boss, the executive vice president of Lamar Cos., said drawings are currently being developed for “cosmetic, exterior renovations” to the façade of the retail complex. Once those are complete, Lamar Cos. will seek necessary permits from the city. With a “strong timeline” for the renovation, Boss said his company’s preference is to do the work this fall, which will also include minor drain work to the parking field. If the weather “holds out,” he said, the company will immediately begin the renovations. If the work can’t be finished before Thanksgiving, it will be put off until the spring. He said a decision will be made by the end of next week. The parking field, which is in “pretty good shape” now, Boss said, might receive an overlay in the spring, depending on how the winter affects it. Furthermore some roof replacement will occur over the next couple of year, he said, because the center’s roofs are over 30 years old and need to be fixed.
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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course. 
 
The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication. 
 
"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."
 
LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates. 
 
"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.
 
The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.
 
"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back. 
 
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