Bellows Falls TLR Site

TLR Complex / Bellows Falls Historical Society Site Strategic Planning Study
Bellows Falls, Vermont

Michael Singer Studio conducted an extensive strategic planning study and community visioning process for the Town of Rockingham and the Bellows Falls Historical Society. The study focused on the four remaining buildings of the TLR Complex / Bellows Falls Historical Society Site and the immediate surrounding land, which are the birthplace of modern day technology for paper production. The study, while focused on a specific site, expanded its view to consider adjacent areas and their interconnectedness to the site and community and includes elements such as connections to the nearby hydroelectric power station and dam, the town’s wastewater treatment facility, the Connecticut River Byway, and the adjacent main commercial area located about 50 feet higher in elevation.

Michael Singer Studio defined four degrees of site redevelopment, all of which include adaptive reuse of the existing historic mill structures. They provide a different mix of uses and activities and can be implemented in phases such that they are not mutually exclusive:

• No Build: community gardens and supporting activities in the adjacent structures
• Low Build: agriculture center with gardens, year round greenhouses, and office, storage, and other support activities in the existing structures
• Medium Build: redevelopment of an adjacent property into a much needed multi-age mixed-income housing resource, featuring a public pedestrian connection to the riverfront site
• High Build: a large footprint building connecting the riverfront site and the downtown, and housing parking capacity and a mix of uses. Additionally, the open areas support year round agricultural production in greenhouses

The full report is available here.

The project was facilitated through the Center for Creative Solutions at the Marlboro College Graduate Center and supported by Windham Regional Commission. Funding was made available by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Windham Foundation, Preservation Trust of Vermont, Town of Rockingham, TransCanada, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, and the Bellows Falls Historical Society.

Artist / Designer: Michael Singer
Singer Studio Project Team: Jonathan Fogelson, Charlie Cannon
of LOCAL Architecture Research Design, Jason Bregman,
Sybil Idelkope, and Isaac Lawrence