2020.3.4 Ertl commentGood afternoon,
I come to you today as the president of Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities
(BDSC). I would like to add to the email that you received from our board
member, Sophia Stoller. One member of our board, Anton Relin, is here
this evening; others were not able to make it.
In principal, I think all of our board is in favor of landmarking – we wouldn’t
want the Teahouse to be torn down for housing or painted orange. On the
other hand, many of us don’t want it to be frozen in time either.
As you know, BDSC has been very active in supporting the Teahouse. As
the Initiation memo indicates, were it not for our organization, there would
be no Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. When Sophia Stoller and Mary Hey
created Boulder Dushanbe Sister Cities, they were not thinking of a
teahouse. I personally take credit for making the phone call to the
Dushanbe mayor’s office to try to get them not to send it. But they
persisted and shipped it anyway. Since the day it opened, the Teahouse
has been an iconic structure.
When people ask what our organization does, I reply that we organize
exchanges and educate Americans about Tajikistan, but most importantly,
we work with Lenny Martinelli and his managers, and the City, to make
sure that the Teahouse continues to be the welcoming, beautiful place that
it is.
The most intense recent example of this was 2018, when we worked to
invite Maruf Mirakhmatov, a grandson of the primary builder, to repaint the
north wall. We helped juggle the relationship between the City and CU to
get him here, and when he arrived here, board members and others spent
hundreds of hours making him welcome, opening our homes to him,
showing him Colorado, translating for him, and teaching him to ski. This
30-year-old Tajik artist is a very impressive young man, and had a profound
influence on those of us that were able to spend time with him.
So it came as a surprise when in February, we found out that a group
called Friends of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse had submitted an
application for landmark status, especially since I know three of them. That
application was submitted on the day of our Annual Meeting, January 8, but
no one bothered to tell us about it, including two of the applicants who were
at that meeting.
I understand that the proposal for a possible vestibule on the front of the
Teahouse, designed by a Tajik architect, was the impetus for urgently
placing it on the agenda of the Landmarks Board. Ironically, the vestibule,
which was proposed by Joe Castro of the City of Boulder, has been placed
on the back burner for the next several years. Members of the Board, while
encouraging something that would enhance the experience of dining at the
Teahouse, were generally tepid supporters of the idea.
Not knowing the implications of landmarking, I was pleased that Vern
Seieroe consented to meet with me, Sophia, and Sophia’s husband, Peter
to give us a short explanation of those implications. Vern was able to allay
some of our fears. I asked him if we could continue to work with Tajik
artists to maintain the building, which gives us the opportunity to educate
CU students and the Boulder community on the art and, to some extent,
the culture of Tajikistan. He assured us that we could do so with minimal
interference from the Landmarks Commission. I understand that if
proposed changes would alter the character of the Teahouse, then the
Board has the authority to forbid the changes. At the same time, I would
hope that compatible changes would be welcomed.
It is not clear to me what part of the Teahouse would be landmarked. I had
some concern that the entire 67,000 square foot parcel would be included,
but this evening that has been clarified.
I question the need to landmark the quarter acre or so that surrounds the
Teahouse. Specifically, there is a planter roughly eight feet from the front
door that is a safety hazard in the summer, as servers trip over it getting to
the patio, and, frankly, an eyesore in the winter – vase with a big rock on it.
Would landmarking require that that remain? On the other hand, I would
encourage the board to landmark the Tajik elements of the interior as well.
At the same time, the back area and the kitchen, I would think, should not
be preserved.
In light of recent developments, and an uncomfortable start to the process,
I would ask that the Commission slow down the landmarking process. In
general, if the Board wants to preserve the Teahouse in its present state,
no matter what is proposed, I would suggest that the City leave the
Teahouse to the people who have invested the most in it – the City of
Boulder, Teahouse management, and BDSC. Whether or not the
Teahouse is landmarked, BDSC looks forward to working more closely with
the Friends of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse to get their participation.
Thank you.