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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.hpc.19980211Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 Chairperson Suzannah Reid called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. with Roger Moyer, Maw Hirsch, Melanie Roschko, Susan Dodington, Gilbert Sanchez, Heidi Friedland and Jeffrey Halferty present. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Amy Guthrie reported on the CPI conference attended by Gilbert Sanchez, Maw Hirsch and herself. Ms. Guthrie said this was a technical workshop. She has some handout to be passed on to the Commission. Amy Guthrie passed out the latest draft of Ordinance #30, which will be addressed by P & Z. There will be a brown bag meeting with staff and P & Z to go over suggested changes. Amy Guthrie told the Commission she met with the chief building inspector, Stephen Kanipe, about 303 E. Main. The owner of that building had a deadline of April 1 to change the 14 items violated in the building permit to the city's satisfaction. MOTION: Mary moved to approve the minutes of Nov. 12, 1997 and Dec. 17, 1997; second by Susan. All in favor, motion carried. 414 NORTH FIRST Amy Guthrie, community development department, reminded the Commission this is the end of a long process about this property. This is a historic landmark and part of the west end neighborhood. This is the former Paepcke house. Ms. Guthrie said people have been invited to this meeting specifically for this presentation. The memorandum outlines most of the issues that have been dealt with. Ms. Guthrie recommended approval of the project as submitted with conditions that deal with relocation of the garage onto the site. The garage is currently partially on city right- of-way. Other conditions are landscaping and the west wall, which will be discussed by HPC. Ms. Guthrie said she is recommending a reconstruction of this building as the house is significant mostly for its association with the Paepcke family and not because of its architecture. The structure has evolved from a one-stow building into a two- stow building and is not consistent in detailing or style. There are serious structural Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 issues. Ms. Guthrie told the Commission staff has asked the applicant to retain more of the quality of the Paepcke ownership of the site rather than the physical preservation of the building. Ms. Guthrie pointed out the aspects that should be preserved are the west street facing facade of the house; the retention of the carriage house, which is historic from the 1800' s; keeping the main entrance of the house on the north side of the building; keeping a garden wall along North First street; maintaining the gardens as part of the property; maintaining an overall sense of the mystery and privacy of the property from the street. Ms. Guthrie noted one item that has changed since conceptual review is oval stair tower which has been removed. Some materials have changed. Ms. Guthrie said these are positive changes to the design. Michael Ememan, architect was sworn in by chief deputy city clerk Kathy Strickland. Ememan said the staff has forwarded progress on this project to P & Z and Council, both of whom were invited to this public hearing. Ememan said he was originally retained by the current owners to do a historical analysis on this property. A booklet was compiled on this analysis. This analysis explains how the building became what it is today on the site. The building was completed in 1888. The house was a one-story bungalow with a small attic space. The person who had this house built (Leister family) left by the turn of the century with the repeal of the Sherman Silver Act. This house became the property of the Brown family in 1908. It was used as a summer house by the Browns. The property used to be 21 acres and is now 1.5 acres. There were lots splits in order to give land to the Given Institute and to ACES, leaving 66,000 square feet. The Browns added the second story. Ememan said at that time there were hip roofs that skirted out and large sleeping porches on the east side of the house. There are 2 real estate brochures from 1951 when the property was sold by the Browns. At that time, the house had 11 bedrooms and was used by extended family. There was another house on the property, the Potter house, which has been moved to the southwest comer of Triangle Park. This house was on the property when it was sold by the Browns. The Paepckes acquired this property in 1952 and began their own renovations. The first of these was the removal of the sleeping porches and the hip roofs. The carriage house was also changed, as evidenced by the real estate photographs. There was a shingle roof, which became a metal roof. The porches on the east side 2 Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 of the house were changed. Erneman said the house has gone through a very evolutionary process over its 110 year history. Erneman said they would like to continue this evolution. When the owners first began thinking about redoing the house, they had no preconceptions about what to do with this property. The applicants met with HPC to see what ideas would be acceptable. One idea was to take it back to its original small form and build out into the garden. This was not acceptable. Ememan reminded the Commission there were field trips looking at the structure, filing out the National survey on preservation. The general conclusion was that the house had very few distinguishing architectural qualities and to preserve it for architecture was not warranted. To preserve the essence of the property and the essence of the Paepcke legacy became the issue. Ememan said some recommendations from this process were to maintain a north facing entry. The entry on the north side faced the street when Lake avenue when by the lake and by this property. Another issue is the history of this property being very private. The idea of maintaining the mass of the house as an obscuring device so that the mystery prevailed is one that everyone favored. Erneman said the essence of the property is not the house but "the property" and preservation of the gardens and open space made a lot of sense. The large window in the dining room should be preserved. Other openings in the westerly wall can be changed. Ememan said the applicants have agreed to retaining the shape and volume of the roof. There are severe structural problems with the roof. It is rated at 25 pound per square foot snow load holding capacity. The current code is 3.5 times that so the roof had to be rebuilt. The carriage house is pretty much intact and the applicants have agreed to retain it in its present form with a small addition on the east side off the narrowed alley to gain access into the basement. The applicant has agreed to keep the west elevation intact. After these agreements, the applicants and HPC had 4 work sessions prior to conceptual review. There have also been sessions since conceptual to deal with technical issues. The design was presented to HPC at conceptual. One of HPC's comments was about the oval glass stair. This has been removed and becomes rectilinear. Another concern was for the pyramid skylight, which has been removed. There was a vaulted roof over the master bedroom, which has also been deleted. The overall architecture has been calmed down since the conceptual presentation. A metal roof will be retained. Shingles will be fabricated from the metal that are similar to those up there. These will be less reflective than what is currently on the 3 Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 roof. The applicants have been concerned about the number of materials in the house. The design team has tried to clean this up some. One thing is to change the shingles in the pediment to square-edge shingles. This continues the more horizontally directed linear surfaces on the house. There is a band of stucco on the house that will be replaced with wood siding. The proportional break ups of the building masses will be kept with trim boards, but the materials will be changed. Ememan said for technical reasons, it has become impossible to keep the rubble wall under a portion of the house. The applicants will replace this with a concrete wall and restucco the wall so it is consistent with what is seen today. The roof will be to the height that exists today and exactly the same pitch. The chimneys will be encased in the pre-cast pieces, currently these are pale gray brick. These elements will continue to have a masonry appearance. An outstanding issue is the westerly facade. The applicants have addressed this as a technology issue. It was agreed in a work session that this facade could be removed and rebuilt, taking the existing siding and skin off the building and trim, cleaning the trim and replacing it. The applicants felt this may be alarming to residents and are exploring other methods for this facade. Ememan told the Commission they have had asbestos tests done. There is a layer of building paper directly behind the siding on the west wall. If this paper is with asbestos, the wall will have to come down in order to remove this building paper. Ememan said the applicants feel this wall should come down regardless of asbestos or not. Ms. Guthrie noted she would like the applicants to continue to look at maintaining the west wall. Ememan said currently snow does not stay on the roof; it slides off the metal roof and does not create a load on the roof. The applicants are going to put in an insulated roof. Heat through the house will no longer cause the snow to melt off the roof. There will also be internal gutters on two edges of the roof and putting snow retention devices to hold the snow so that it does not slide off onto persons. This will create a much larger load on the roof, so the applicants have to increase the holding capacity because of the building code and because they do not want the roof to fall in. The north facing entrance is a difficult condition because it is the cold side of the house. The flat entrance is a way to protect people entering the house. Erneman noted in alpine structures, the entry is always on the gable end of the house rather than on the eave end. This entry has evolved over time and this is an attempt to solve its problems. 4 Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 Erneman noted they have retained a famous landscape architect from Vermont as part of the design team. The landscape drawings include his ideas. They are retaining the wall along the westerly property line and will build a new wall along the south property line. This will help retain the privacy and estate nature. Erneman presented the drawings as part of this presentation. Moyer asked if any trim or siding on the west end of the house has been removed. Ememan said they are cutting holes through the plaster and have removed some trim for asbestos testing. Erneman said the elevation drawings show what the materials will be and where they will be located. The pre-cast goes on the new structure, not old structure. Ms. Reid asked for any public comments. There were none. Moyer said he would approve the project as submitted, agreeing with items 1, 2, 3 in staff memo, delete the 4th, that the west wall should just be taken out, and #4 should be reworded that the west wall should be rebuilt with details retained to the existing scale and would include the original dining room window opening. Moyer said the siding and trim on the west wall are not historic. Moyer said when he worked on the project years ago and removed some of this trim, there were no square nails. Sanchez said he likes this refined proposal and supports staff' s recommendations and Moyer's comments. Mary Hirsch said HPC is preserving the historic and cultural landscape of this property and making it better. Ms. Hirsch said with work from the HPC and the property owners and design team, the community can be part of this and it will be exciting to watch the progress of the project. Susan Dodington said this project will be well done. She was concerned about the west wall but understands the safety issues. Ms. Dodington said there should be pictures or an explanation of what is going on with the property on the property for passers by. Heidi Friedland said she approves of moving forward with this project. Jeffrey Halferty said the applicants and design team have done a good job preserving this site and it will be a great project. MOTION: Moyer moved to grant final approval to 414 North First street with the following conditions: 1. The garage must be demonstrated to be capable of withstanding the physical impacts of the relocation and re-siding. A structural report shall be submitted by a Historic Preservation Commission February 11, 1998 licensed engineer demonstrating the soundness of the structure proposed for relocation prior to application for building permit. 2. A relocation plan shall be submitted, including posting a bond or other financial security, as approved by the HPC, to insure the safe relocation preservation and repair (~required) of the garage, site preparation and infrastructure connections. The receiving site shall be prepared in advance of the physical relocation. The bond shall be in the amount of S$O, 000. 3. All planting or other elements' proposed within the City right-of-way along First Street must be approved by the City Parks' Department, staff and monitor. 4. The details' of the west wall will be retained with the existing scale and to include the original dining window opening as it exists'. Motion seconded by Ms'. Hirsch. All in favor, motion carried. Ememan told the Commission their objective is to get the house back under roof before next year's snow season as the weather could cause a lot of damage to what they are trying to preserve. 114 NEALE AVE. CONCEPTUAL - TABLE MOTION: Roger moved to continue the public hearing and table conceptual until March 25, 1998; second by Mary. All in favor, motion carried. 214 E. BLEEKER ST. - EXTENSION OF CONCEPTUAL MOTION: Roger moved to extend conceptual approval of 214 E. Bleeker to April 8, 1997; second by Mary. All in favor, motion carried. 930 KING STREET - CONCEPTUAL - TABLE MOTION: Roger moved to continue the public hearing and table conceptual until Feb. 25, 1998; second byMelanie. All in favor, motion carried. MOTION: Suzannah moved to adjourn.; second by Gilbert. All in favor, motion carried. 6 Historic Preservation Commission February 11~ 1998 Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. 7