Dickensheets plays key role in SCAD preservation

 
Photo by Photo by Ben Dashwood


By: Monique Bos
Published: Friday, June 1, 2007

Any discussion of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s renovation of the historic Peters House in midtown Atlanta is sure to include the name of Bob Dickensheets, public service coordinator/preservation specialist, special projects, for the college. That’s because he is overseeing the project, which will take an estimated 18 months to two years to complete, at a cost of approximately $2.2 million.

The Peters House officially was donated to SCAD in March. The college is rehabilitating the building — a process that includes demolishing a 1973 addition that doesn’t match the original architecture, restoring and stabilizing the exterior and slate roof, reusing original materials wherever possible, and completely refurbishing the building — to serve as a cultural arts center. The building’s name also will revert back to Ivy Hall, which is what the original residents called it.

Dickensheets is well prepared for this task, having worked on numerous restoration projects for the college in both the United States and Europe. A historic preservation professor for years before he became the college’s preservation specialist, Dickensheets has helped rehabilitate many of the structures that now house SCAD academic and administrative departments.

His work on Smithfield Cottage, where the college’s Graduate Studies Center is located, garnered SCAD its first Mills B. Lane Excellence in Preservation Award from the Historic Savannah Foundation in 2004. Dickensheets also has worked extensively on Kiah Hall, home of the SCAD Museum of Art, and other Savannah buildings.

Prior to being named preservation specialist, Dicken­sheets served as the college’s European director of special projects. He oversaw renovations at SCAD-Lacoste in Provence, France, in 2002. He also worked on the restoration of a Horncastle, England, facility that will be used for a study-abroad center.

However, Dickensheets hasn’t limited his preservation expertise to SCAD buildings. He has participated in several college initiatives to assess and restore historic structures for various communities, often working alongside students and other faculty members.

In 2001, as a SCAD professor, he was involved with the restoration of the First African Baptist Church, located at Raccoon Bluff on Sapelo Island. SCAD received an Excellence in Restoration award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for restoration of the church.

In October 2005, Dickensheets led a group of historic preservation students who had traveled from Savannah to help clean and restore the exterior of the Wren’s Nest in Atlanta. Now a house museum, the building once served as the home of “Uncle Remus” series author Joel Chandler Harris.

In December 2005, Dickensheets traveled with a group of SCAD students, faculty and staff members to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to help clean up debris and provide building assessments in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They worked with local communities to repair and preserve buildings damaged by the storm.

Although Dickensheets hasn’t officially taught classes for several years, he has worked closely with students on preservation projects, providing them with guidance and hands-on experience. However, this spring he returned to the classroom with a special-topics course geared specifically to the Peters House. For the class, titled History of the Victorian Period: Interiors in Atlanta and the South, students are researching the era in which the house was constructed and designing rooms that reflect the taste and furnishings of that period. Their work may be incorporated into the final decoration and design of the house’s interior.

For more about the project, visit www.artofrestoration.org.