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SEPTEMBER 27, 2018 FREE
The cost of silence
Designing WW-P Architectural firm responsible for numerous district school buildings
Film explores ‘good men’ and rape on a college campus By sCOtt MORGAn
By DiCCOn HyAtt A building is a work of art without a signature. Occasionally, a structure designed by a big-name architect will gain recognition, but most of the humanmade landscape in which we live is created by people whose names have been lost to history. Trenton’s Ellarslie Museum is rescuing some of this forgotten history by dedicating an exhibit to one of those anonymous designers. The recently museum opened its exhibit on FVHD Architects, a Ewing-based firm that has built so many of the public buildings in Mercer County that not even the firm itself knows exactly how many of its creations are still standing. “Changing Face/Changing Place” is on view through January 13, 2019. Visitellarslie.org. Architecture historian Jennifer Leynes spent years combing through old newspaper archives and historical records to find hundreds of examples of FVHD’s work in recognition of its 100th anniversary. FVHD’s work includes the now-abandoned Mercer Hospital in Trenton, Waterfront Park, town halls throughout Mercer County, and, Leynes says, “more schools buildings in the surrounding area than you can count.” See FVHD, Page 7
Retired long-time Community Middle School Principal Art Downs was honored during a ceremony on Sept. 13. Pictured with Downs (center) are the people who helped organize the effort: Ellen Burgess (left), Faith Scibienski, Lynn Fisher, Colleen Pedersen, Donna Gil, Patrick Lepore and Sue Kluxen.
Honored for his service Plaque recognizes Art Downs for his 50 years with WW-P By MiCHele AlPeRin For Art Downs, his decades of work in the West WindsorPlainsboro School District were much more than just a job. The much-beloved founding principal of Community Middle School spoke at dedication plaque ceremony on Sept. 13 honoring his 23 years as principal of CMS and his 50 years in
the school district. The assembled crowd included former teachers, parents, students and staff, as well as Superintendent Dave Aderhold, school board vice president Michele Kaish and current CMS Principal Shaun Carter. “I called it my second home because of all the hours I spent here before, during, and after the school day,” he said in his speech during the ceremony. “It is remarkable to have a rewarding 50 year career that you really love…one that was filled with new adventures every day. I
think that the key to my longevity here was really loving what I was doing.” Downs is a Jersey boy, who grew up in Lincoln Park, near Wayne and Paterson. His mother stayed at home with her children, then became a telephone operator for 20 years before she retired. His father worked for Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical as a pattern maker and then as a supervisor and trouble shooter on aeronautical engines. After graduating from Boonton High School, Downs did not See DOWNS, Page 8
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“It’s not enough to be an ‘unproblematic’ good man when you have a voice to make a positive change.” Charles de Augustin stares directly into the camera and says those words on his crowdfunding page on Seed & Spark, making the case for his planned feature film, Good Men. That title is at once a real and ironic nod to those who say nothing, do nothing when someone around them does something inexcusable. Those who stay silent, de Augstin argues, contribute as much to a problem as the person who commits a grievous sin. In the case of this film, the sin is rape on a college campus, committed by a member of a fraternity. And the idea of being a “good” man gets examined through the dynamic of how such a crime affects otherwise good guys—guys who don’t catcall women, who don’t belittle them or think of them, as de Augustin puts it, “as currency” —when it’s one of their friends who commits it. Before going on, a few important points need to be made about how this film will play out. First, it is not an outsider’s attack on Greek life on a college campus and not a cartoon vision of what it is to be a “frat bro.” Second, the story does not depict the rape, not within its timeline, See DE AUGUSTIN, Page 12
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