Lost In New Haven Cleared To Grow

By David Sepulveda, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — “There’s happiness on Hamilton Street” is how Lost in New Haven Founder Robert S. Greenberg described his reaction to winning support from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) earlier this month to expand his nonprofit museum to an adjacent building just east of Wooster Square.

The approval represents another step in a decades-old dream of Greenberg and his supporters to create a world-class museum complex that is for and about New Haven and its fascinating history stretching back to the Indigenous tribes like the Quinnipiacs and to the town’s founding in 1638.

Starting with his early, artifact driven-collections of New Haven history and to what he has sometimes referred to as a “cabinet of curiosities,” Greenberg’s collection has swelled to over 50,000 items and artifacts, that collectively, help bring New Haven history to life. The collections are now displayed at their Lost in New Haven “forever home” at 80 Hamilton St., after earlier museum iterations were displayed in temporary spaces while Greenberg pressed to create a permanent home.

Today, Lost in New Haven is “part art museum, part time machine,” as the multi-faceted musician IONNE (Dr. Maurice Lajuane Harris) declared while inviting Instagram followers to Lost in New Haven to attend his unique, electronic soundscapes event he called an “excital” — that is, an exhibition-recital.

Lost in New Haven is open to general admission on Mondays and Thursdays at a price of $10 per person during construction. Schools can plan field trips to the museum on any weekday. On Saturdays, Lost offers guided tours for $25 per person.

The museum space has already become an active events venue as Greenberg works to curate creative events and bring what he said is the “New York City vibe” to New Haven. Those that witnessed the performances of Ionne and musicians Trevor Babb and Dylan Rowland and enjoyed designer Tea Montgomery’s Pathos pop-up fashion installation, know that Greenberg has already succeeded.

Greenberg has always been careful about using the term “museum” to describe what he and his team are building. His preferred description is summed up on the Lost in New Haven website: “It’s a cultural hub where today, yesterday, and tomorrow gather on common ground and speak to each other.” That description rings of poetry, but it also suggests that the museum is a work in progress; that it is poised to build a more complete picture of the city’s history inclusive of voices whose stories have not always been emphasized. In this era of historical revisionism, whitewashing and even erasure, Greenberg recognizes the importance and obligation of preserving the record. “Museums,” he said, “are tangible evidence of who we are as a society.”

The recent BZA decision granted variances and a special exception needed for Lost in New Haven to expand into 60 Hamilton St., a property adjacent to the current museum structure. A low-slung building at the corner of Chapel and Hamilton Streets (former home of Joseph Merritt Printing), bordering city’s Wooster Square and Mill River District, now painted in the modernist, black exterior of the main Lost in New Haven structure, will grow in size and scope, doubling the Lost in New Haven footprint. The building was purchased by long time community builder and Lost in New Haven board president Roslyn Meyer with the intention of donating it to the museum.

“This has been a team effort, including the [Lost in New Haven] board of directors and Laura Clarke, [Site Projects New Haven founder], who has been the lynchpin,” Meyer said.

Gray Organschi Architecture (GOA) schematics for the proposed addition show an overbuild of one additional story over the existing structure with a rooftop patio deck. The 4,800 square-foot first floor will house a resource library, flex spaces, a scanning and digital lab, visible storage and exhibit space. New construction of the second floor, at 5,700 square feet, will feature a spacious gallery and event space, conference room, offices, a catering kitchen, “open collaboration” spaces, rotating exhibit space, and art management and flex space. The 1,600 square-foot roof top will add functional space and include a roof-top green space sculpture garden and patio area.

The confirmation letter from the BZA considered a use variance to permit a museum in the Light Industry zone where museums are not permitted. Specifically, variances are permitting “a side yard of 2 ft 5 in where 9 ft 3 in is required, and the enlargement of a side yard nonconformity from 3 ft 7 in to 6 ft 7 in, and a Special Exception to permit four off-street parking spaces where 45 parking spaces are required.” The welcomed words of “Permission is hereby granted,” set the stage for the proposed museum campus expansion.

Greenberg said that parking requirements to accommodate Lost in New Haven growth will be met through a combination of on-site and off-street parking and through the cooperation of adjacent businesses and neighbors that have agreed to parking accommodation arrangements.

One of Lost in New Haven’s neighbors is the non-denominational, multi-ethnic, Church on the Rock at 95 Hamilton St. In a brief interview, lead Pastor Jason Goubourn discussed the work and mission of the church, parking issues, and the church’s cooperative relationship with its Lost in New Haven neighbor. Noting that parking has always been a challenge, the pastor said the church has a mutual agreement with Lost in New Haven that permits use of one another’s parking lots during certain hours.

In an interesting coincidence, perhaps serendipity, Pastor Goubourn noted one of the Church’s outreach programs titled “The Ninth Square Prayer Project,” begun around 2020. The program’s philosophical underpinnings are based on the religious and spiritual symbolism of New Haven’s original nine-squares grid that comprised the nation’s first planned city. Most prominent on Lost in New Haven’s building exterior signage, and all branding products, is the nine-squares-grid logo that also references the original city plan by New Haven founders. The graphic homage was designed by Greenberg, a Rhode Island school of Design (RISD) graduate.

Within the context of a light industrial zone and assorted Hamilton Street businesses, “Lost in New Haven brings a different kind of energy to the block” Pastor Goubourn said, adding, “I think it’s really cool that people have an opportunity to learn more about history in such a neat, cool and well done way.”

Learning is, in fact, at the center of Lost in New Haven’s planning and mission. The expansion project envisioned at 60 Hamilton St. will “enable the museum to realize its full potential as an educational resource, cultural hub and tourist attraction,” according to a Lost in New Haven document.

To quote from that document, specific goals include:

• Preserving and exhibiting artifacts that represent New Haven’s multifaceted history.
• Creating accessible, interactive exhibitions that encourage exploration and dialogue.
• Partnering with schools, universities, and community organizations to offer educational programs, tours, and access to the collection for curricular use.
• Catalyzing civic engagement and local pride by reconnecting residents to their shared heritage.
• Accelerating the economic revitalization of its neighborhood, city, region, and state through increased tourism and development of surrounding properties.”

Lost in New Haven Curriculum Director and Sound School Arts Instructor Steff Smelser has built on the proof-of-concept established by Greenberg of engaging students in museum environs. Her role as curriculum director will be to create museum tours that align with student and teacher curriculum content. Smelser said she loves weaving in S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) subject areas when designing museum tours in collaboration with teachers.

In a WTNH TV feature called What’s Right With Schools, reporter Laura Hutchinson, co-anchor of the Good Morning Connecticut Show, shadowed Smelser and her Sound School art student group as they examined artifacts in the museum space, sketching preliminary drawings of selected items that were later finished at school; some turned into linoleum block prints. The project also included the interdisciplinary components of writing and speaking about the items that inspired student creations, according to Smelser.

Whether for K-12 or higher education classes, the wide variety of museum collections and assets are accessible for educational immersion allowing visitors and students to get lost in all things New Haven.

On Jan. 21, in a public Zoom meeting by City Plan Commission, site plans and engineering questions for the Expansion Project at 60 Hamilton Street were revisited and questions answered to the satisfaction of commissioners. Some offered praise for the building design with one commenting that he especially liked the building’s “cantilevered edges” — referring to the addition over-hang extending beyond the border of the existing structure below. “The site plan is approved,” were the commission’s last words before congratulations were given, and the next agenda item taken up.

In a classic case of flying the proverbial “plane” while building it, Greenberg, his creative team and the Lost in New Haven board of directors are girding for the considerable challenges of expansion as they create what promises to be one of New Haven’s most engaging campuses of learning.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.