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“I hope you burn in HELL,” yelled an angry audience member in the middle of last Thursday’s meeting of the Madison Planning and Zoning Commission. (See video below.)
The Madison Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the special zoning exclusion application by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, with certain conditions. Through three meeting days of deliberations, none of the committee addressed or even mentioned the concerns of Madison residents and others about an ex-Nazi agent design on the property.
The application drew immediate controversy starting in April 2024 over its highlighting a modernized barn on the property, 6 Opening Hill Road, by controversial architect and ex-Nazi agent, Philip Johnson. The barn is part of a project to transform a dilapidated residence on a 6-acre plot into a kind of cultural center in a residential neighborhood. The property is a former residence of art collectors Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine.
The proposed non-residential usage of the site also drew considerable concern and extensive statewide media reporting.
The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation funds arts, learning disabilities, and environmental programming, and it also is a key funder of a scheme called Sustainable CT. This scheme, tied into most Connecticut city and town administrations since 2018, advocates for environmental sustainability. With a certification awards scheme, its top criteria is "inclusive and equitable community impacts" with a DEI slant.
On the organization’s About Page, “Sustainable CT strives to be inclusive, innovative, and collaborative. We are committed to equity”. The promotion continues, “Sustainable CT empowers municipalities to create high collective impact for current and future residents.”
In the months-long process, the meeting last Thursday followed a phase for the public to voice support or opposition, and then an applicant response. The next stage was deliberations, and last Thursday was the third meeting of this stage. It extended over a month period. The audience members were not allowed to speak, but according to Madison PZC, the process is public.
The unidentified, angry audience member spoke out after the audience laughed out loud at Commission Chair Carol Snow’s response to a colleague.
“In a way, it might be better that it’s in an RU-1, which has larger lot sizes, more tree buffers, that will help reduce the noise,” she contemplated. “We hope the neighborhood won’t even be aware of what’s going on…”
The audience burst out in laughter.
Chair Snow retorted, “You’re going to be asked to leave, if there are outbursts like that again“. Snow continued. “I’m sorry. We are trying to work through this for your benefit.”
“Oh YEAH,” an audience member sarcastically replied. Then an annoyed Ms. Snow announced they’d be taking a break.
Snow is employed as an art museum conservator at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven.
In an earlier letter to the editor to Patch (Madison) published on September 18, Madison residents Ed and Joanne Arrandale expressed concern about Snow’s role. “[She] confirmed her clear bias in favor of the Tremaine Foundation,” they wrote. “[She used] every opportunity she could to push their agenda forward without any reservations or concerns for the safety of the neighborhood and the Madison community.”
Shortly after the break announcement, the angry audience member blasted the Commission for scheduling the meeting on Rosh Hashanah, the holiest Jewish holiday of the year. “Would you do this on Christmas Day?” He asked angrily. “Do you have no respect for the Jews?”
"I hope you burn in HELL!" He yelled.
He was asked to leave. Then he replied, “Good. Call the cops.”
“Your behavior is unacceptable— to tell a Chair to burn in hell,” scolded the Madison Town Planner, Erin Mannix.
He then left shortly afterwards.
In his outburst, the angry audience member did not specifically mention the controversial, ex-Nazi design. However, this outburst occurred with the Nazi cloud over the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation’s application, Madison resident outrage, and media reporting about the controversial ex-Nazi agent design.
Philip Johnson was an admitted Nazi supporter that frequented Germany in the Nazi era. His secretary alleged that Johnson aspired to become the American Hitler.
At Hitler rallies, historian Marc Wortman wrote in Vanity Fair. “[Johnson, who was gay,] could not separate the energy of the orchestrated frenzy from the day’s sexual charge, either, feeling thrilled at the sight of ‘all those blond boys in black leather’ marching past an ebullient führer”.
The application drew over 100 angry letters by residents with practical concerns about the special exclusion zoning request, proposed activity on the site, and various impacts.
Opponents included Ilisa Rossum Ring, a former member of the Planning and Zoning Committee. She wrote, “On its face, this request does NOT [in bold] fit the character of the neighborhood… The vast majority of our citizens reject the glorification of the accomplishments of Architect Philip Johnson, a noted and outspoken Nazi!”
Ring continued, “This does not reflect the Madison I know… This should not be Madison’s legacy.”
V. Mitch McEwen, an Assistant Professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture, also sent in a letter. In it, McEwen referred to the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Sarah Whiting, and the decision to remove Johnson’s name from Harvard University property.
McEwen wrote, “As far as the Tremaine site, it is important to note the SS repurposed barns in Poland. Auschwitz was built on a stolen farm. Barns and farmhouses were repurposed for death chambers.”
McEwen continued, “Johnson had the humor of a sociopath.”
(See a sample of the hundreds of articles mentioning Philip Johnson’s support for Nazism, internationally.)
Letters of support for the project, referring to Philip Johnson specifically, included those by Garry S. Leonard, architect, former Chair of Madison’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and serving on the Board of Preservation Connecticut; Hilary Lewis, former Chief Curator and Creative Director at The Glass House designed by Philip Johnson in New Canaan; and Liz Waytkus, Executive Director, Docomomo US, an organization supporting the preservation of sites of the Modern era.
Further, in the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation’s application pack, a letter forwarded by foundation director Michelle Knapik from Jenny Scofield, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, cc.d to Jonathan Kinney, State Historical Preservation Officer, was included.
Scofield wrote, “The State Historical Preservation Officer considers the [Tremaine property] eligible for National Register listing for its associations with the Modern Movement in architecture and design.”
While the cultural battle in Madison between the “anti-Nazis” and the the "oh, he reformed himself" “Nazi apologists” passed a milestone, it is unclear what the next steps are. Both the opposing residents group and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation might appeal the commission’s decision, the latter regarding the set conditions. (To learn more about the conditions, and read responses by the foundation’s director Michelle Knapik, see the CT Insider article published last Saturday. If you are a subscriber, see “Madison Approves Venue Over Neighbor Objections, Link to Nazi Past” in the CT Examiner.)
See previous CT Centinal reporting on the zoning controversy: Ex-Nazi Agent Design Slammed by Madison Residents in Zoning Battle (July 25, 2024); In Madison, Brittany BLASTS Hilary About Ex-Nazi Agent Design In Zoning Battle (August 13, 2024). Click here to learn more about Emily Hall Tremaine (1908-87), who led her own protest, reported nationally, against an alleged American Nazi supporter, her second husband, Adolph B. Spreckels, Jr., and his associates in September 1940 shortly before Nazi Germany started bombing Britain.
