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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.hpc.20071114ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 435 W. Main St. Substantial Amendment, public hearing ................................................. 3 604 W. Main Street -Major Development -Conceptual, Public Hearing ........................ 5 420 E. Hopkins .................................................................................................................. 11 Work session -Ordinance #48 - no minutes .................................................................... 14 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 Chairperson, Michael Hoffman called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Commissioners in attendance: Brian McNellis, Sarah Broughton, Nora Berko, Alison Agley, Ann Mullins and Jay Maytin. Staff present: Amy Guthrie, Historic Preservation Officer Kathy Strickland, Chief Deputy City Clerk Jim True, Special Counsel MOTION: Alison moved to approve the minutes of October 24`h, 2007 as amended; second by Jay. All in favor, motion carried. Public Comments Marilyn Marks submitted a letter, Exhibit I. Marilyn said she has been working on the Ordinance #30 saga. On Monday Ord. #30 did not get approved and staff was asked to draft some new language. Maybe it is a good time for council to involve the HPC in the process. HPC's input has been over looked and needed desperately. At the meeting the mayor said he did not feel he had a sense of what the community wanted in terms of historic preservation. It seems there should be a worksession with HPC and the public. We are here to ask you to support the idea of being involved in a work session with council. We ask that HPC take a quick tour to have an overview of the properties. It will help the nature of the dialogue for people to have seen things in context. Chip Freeman said he sat in the council chambers for six hours Monday and the only positive thing was Judge DeVilbiss saying Marilyn Marks took him on a tour and the judge said that house should never be designated historic. I thanked the judge because something positive came out of this. Jim True also answered my questions. I feel HPC should have some kind of guidelines which you are entitled. Jeny Blumberg said with HPC's background and with citizens input maybe council can come up with better criteria. Amy said Ord. #48 was continued to Nov. 26`h and they directed staff to take out most of the substantive changes. They want it boiled down to amending ordinance #30 and address the specific properties not everything 30 years old. We are not going to process any landmark designation applications for a six month period if the owner is not the applicant. A task force is to be 2 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 formed in December and possibly we will do a key pad session. We need to figure out what the priorities are and what the values are and talk about code amendments. MOTION.• Michael moved to add the discussion of Ordinance #48 to the end of the agenda; second by Brian. All in favor, motion carried. Disclosure: Jay will recuse himself on 435 W. Main - he is a member of the Aspen Jewish congregation. ISIS Amy said there is a desire for the tenants to have a seating area in the setback portion of the building in the pedestrian amenity space. The tenants would like a more defined area that identifies their front door and creates seating. A photograph was submitted to the HPC. The board felt that seating is appropriate but the design presented might not be the right solution. 435 W. Main St. Substantial Amendment, public hearing Jay recused himself. Amy said one of the issues debated is the possible use of more stone on the building. The applicant has indicated that they will not apply more stone to the building. The applicant is proposing to reduce the size through combining circulation areas and minimizing other spaces to be more efficient. The project is being reduced by 2,500 square feet so it is almost 10,000 square feet under what is allowed on the site. It has also provided additional space between the furthest east historic cabin and the auditorium. Staff had some concerns about the elevated patio next to the cottages but HPC had suggestions how that would be softened. The other issue is the stone itself which has been presented tonight. Arthur Chabon, architect said the stone preferred is the Comanche stone from Pueblo, Colo. The stone in the photograph has been scaled down somewhat so it will actually will be larger pieces. In particular they did not want a red stone synagogue. The stone will be monolithic. The terrace wall by the auditorium would be pulled back in line with the social hall and the plantings would take place level with the street. Arthur also presented a ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 board indicating the cement siding baton material. All the other timbers would be wood. Nora inquired as to what she should visually see when walking down the street. Arthur said they have a building of civic stature but at the same time it relates to that portion of Main Street. Chairperson, Michael Hoffman opened the public hearing. There were no public comments. The public hearing portion of the agenda item was closed. Michael identified the issues: Wall materials -stone Cement board siding Change in the east patio Arthur said if they can work it into the budget not to have the cement (hardy plank siding) they will. Amy pointed out that 7`~' and Main has the cement siding on their building so it has been used in the past. Stone: Alison said she did a site visit and is fine with the color of the stone. Nora said she can't get past guideline 12.17 which says use building materials that are simple and modest. The corner building is larger than the sanctuary. Ann pointed out that the snap cut stone is the one to use but she feels it is an inappropriate material for Main Street. There are no other buildings that are entirely made of the type of stone submitted on Main Street. Sarah said in terms of our guidelines we don't want to see any more stone. The Comanche stone represented is the most appropriate. This is an institutional building and the stone is appropriate. You can't compare it to residential buildings. She commended the applicant and the scale is great. The only issue is that we as a board and the applicant do not want a half sunken element on the sanctuary and we need to be cognizant of that. Brian said he feels more comfortable with the Comanche stone after seeing the photograph. 4 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 Hardy plank: Sarah and Alison had no objection. Brian said he will not object but would prefer something else if the budget allows. East patio wall: Ann said the trade off having ADA access from the building vs. something out of context, the ADA access is preferable. The wall will be pulled back and have plantings in front of it. Michael said the updated landscape plan should be a condition of approval. Arthur explained that the wall of the patio off the social hall will be flush with the base of the social hall wall and the planting bed will be in front of that wall on the Main Street side. MOTION: Sarah moved to approve Resolution #40 for 435 W. Main Street an amendment to the major development. The amendments are as follows: The Comanche stone sample and mockup are approved. The cement board siding is approved. The east patio front wall will be aligned with the north wall of the meeting hall. Plantings will be in front of the east patio wall. An updated landscape plan will be approved by staff and monitor. The remaining condition 4-7 of the memo. All conditions of the major development final) approval not inconsistent with those conditions set forth herein shall remain in full force and effect. Motion was second by Alison. Roll call.• Nora, no; Alison, yes; Brian, yes; Sarah, yes; Michael, yes. Motion carried 4-I. Ann abstained. 604 W. Main Street -Major Development -Conceptual, Public Hearing Amy indicated that there is an historic miner's cottage on the site and a carriage type structure, which is the art barn and an 19th Century shed that straddles the property line between this lot and the one to the west. All those are to be preserved. The art bam will be preserved in its existing location. The house is proposed to be moved into the front corner of the lot and the building straddling the lot will be moved to 612 W. Main the neighboring property so that it sits properly on one lot. On the remainder of the site is a 5 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 new commercial structure with an affordable housing deed restricted unit proposed on the alley. There are two other shed type buildings on the alley that are proposed to be demolished. Staff is comfortable with the Main Street facade. With regard to the commercial building the facade on Scn Street has not been quite successfully achieved. One proposal is that the building has a flat roof and the benefit of that is that it keeps the height low and allows it to read clearly and it is set back slightly from the facade of the historic buildings. The second alternative puts a gabled roof on the commercial building. That is staff's preference but it is not successful yet because it doesn't extend far enough back into the building to read as a true gable. This is the only area of concern. Between the art barn and the commercial wing there is currently a parking space. Staff recommends that the parking space be eliminated. The applicant is suggesting that they make use of that space. Without a clear resolution of the commercial building we are not ready to recommend conceptual approval. Alan Richmond represented the applicant Neil Karbank. David Brown, project architect. Alan said they reviewed the memo and are pleased that staff is in support of most if not all the changes that we have made to the project. We have tried to give a response to all of the directions that we received on Oct. l Oc'' from the HPC. Alan stated what he thought was right about this project and deserving of HPC support. There are three historic structures on this house, the Wylie house, the art barn and the shed. The applicant is totally committed to restoring all three of the structures. The second point is regarding the overall mass and scale. The proposed floor area and the height of the project are below what is allowed in the zone district. The floor area is about .85 to 1 and the mixed use allows 1.1. The height doesn't even approach the 28 height limit in the mixed use zone district. The flat roof elements are all in the 20 to 22 feet height range. The pitched roof is a little less than 25 feet to the 1/3 point along the gable. With respect to open space, the pedestrian amenity the proposal is at 35% and the code allows 25%. All the street trees remain undisturbed. With respect to uses on this property they are uses that support community needs. There could have been a free market unit in the project because it is an allowed use. It is purposely not part of this proposal. 6 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14.2007 The project does comply with the City's mitigation standards in terms of affordable housing and on-site parking. In terms of incentives the only incentive that we are asking for on the project is setback variances for the historic structures. The code authorizes the HPC to award incentives to projects like this where you have restoration of historic structures occurring. The code allows for FAR bonuses and we are not asking for that and you have free market and lot splits as incentives and we are not putting any of those on the table here. The only incentive is directly in support of historic preservation objectives for the site. We are bringing the Wylie house closer to the property line forward toward Main Street and closer to 5`h Street. What that does is make that building the most important resource on the property and more prominent and secondly it allows for greater separation of that building to the new building. The art barn will remain as is. David Brown said the changes from the last meeting are that we eliminated the three story elements and there is no longer a roof top deck. The board asked that we create additional space between the barn and new building on 5`h Street. There is now a ten foot separation where before the buildings were attached. We also have a ten foot separation between the employee housing unit and the historic barn. To create more landscape place we have taken the old historic building toward 5`h Street which creates the historic building more prominent to the comer. It also aligns it with the barn on 5`h Street. The new building on 5`h Street recedes from the historic buildings about five feet. The building can have a flat roof or a gabled roof. We prefer the flat roof. With the flat roof it has less impact on the two historic buildings. The building reads as a contemporary element. Looking from Main Street through to 5`h Street the new building is not visible. The employee dwelling unit is on the alley. There is parking with columns and the unit is above the columns. Nora inquired about the parking. David said the parking spaces would extend 18 '/2 feet inward. Nora said her concern was the radius from the alley. David said they are meeting the requirements of the City regarding parking. David said the alley is wide enough to make the turn into the spaces. Michael asked Amy to explain the issue of the facade of the new building on 5`h Street. Amy said it is the contrast of the flat roof and the close proximity to the two historic buildings. Amy said Sara Adams has suggested a gabled roof form. The success of the new construction on Main Street is that it 7 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14.2007 starts so far back as a one story. The two story element is not right in front of you like it is on 5~' Street. Chairperson, Michael Hoffinan opened the public hearing. There were no public comments. The public hearing portion of the agenda item was closed. Michael identified the topics or issues of concern by the board. 1. Fifth Street fapade of the new building whether it should have a flat or gabled roof. 2. The Main Street facade. 3. The parking space near the art barn. 4. The relocation of the building and variances. 5. The alley scape and turning radius. 6. Demolition of the two sheds. Main Street facade: Sarah said this is a totally exciting project and she commended the team for embracing it. The Main Street facade complies with our guidelines and it is very successful keeping the one story element on the new construction. The moving of the Wylie house works well with the overall project. Ann thanked Alan for going through the benefits of the project. The visuals presented are excellent as it helps us understand what is happening on the site. Ann also thanked the team for listening to HPC comments at the last meeting. As a suggestion maybe the eaves on the new construction could be deeper to add a shadow. At final maybe the fenestration on the Main Street facade of the new building could be addressed. Jay said he was very impressed and all the buildings compliment each other. The historic Wylie house is definitely the focal point. Michael pointed out that the applicant has done a fantastic job of working with the HPC and listening to their recommendations. Nora said she is concerned about the light at night with the amount of glass proposed. ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 Brian said he is very comfortable with the project and everything is falling into place. In terms of the variances he has no problems with what is being proposed. There is a great rhythm going on down Main Street. Fifth Street facade: Brian said after seeing the model with a gabled roof on the new commercial building on 5`h Street he would prefer a flat roof. Regarding the flat roofs maybe they could have slightly different elevations instead of being on one plane. Jay said he likes the gabled roof on 5`h Street. The only problem is when you look at it from Main Street there is a huge mass and possibly there is a way to break that up. Alison said she likes the flat roof and the inner play throughout the project with the gable and flat roofs. She would prefer that the parking spot remain. Alison pointed out that taking off the third level and the roof deck has improved this project immensely. In the court yard plan maybe some of the interior spaces could have double doors or something in order to have the courtyard as a functional place. The idea would be if you had a function you could have indoor/outdoor use since the roof deck is gone. She also said she agreed with Brian that a little difference in the flat roof heights would help make the project more interesting. Nora said she likes the flat roof because it underplays the street elevation and makes the Wylie house more prominent. She also has a concern with the amount of glass on the 5`h Street facade of the commercial building. Ann pointed out that there are strong forms on the site and putting a gable on the commercial building would compromise the site. She would support the flat roof. The shed gable stairway enclosure is an interesting transition to the bam. In referencing the parking space and after looking at the plan she would prefer the parking space disappear. Sarah said she is concerned with the flat roof because the building looks like an office building. More design development needs to occur with the volume and how it reads. She is not opposed to the flat roof. On the Main Street side the flat roof is in direct relationship to a gabled volume and it is very successful. The commercial building on 5`h Street should be the least 9 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 high. We are being asked to choose from the same spring point for both and that is not an accurate way to look at a gable vs. a flat roof. Michael said he agreed with Amy that the problem is that there is a two story facade right in your face on 5`h Street. The top floor needs to be stepped back. The one story volume needs to read well. David said one of the reasons we feel this works is the differentiation from Main Street which was brought up at the work session. By eliminating the gable on 5`h this building became the background building. David said the building is set back and the second floor is also set back. Neil Karbank said they could move the building back into the courtyard if that would work. Sarah said there needs to be further development of that facade. There are three different planes going on the building with a flat front facade. Sarah said the facade is in conflict with guideline 12.14 and 12.15. Ann said on Main Street it is very articulated because there is a front porch etc. On the 5`h Street facade of the commercial building it is very bland so that it makes the contrast greater. Jay said on Main Street the second building sets behind the front building. Amy said on the 5`h St. streetscape the historic buildings have very simple flat facades and there is an issue with the variety of setbacks on the wall and its height given how close it is to the street. Brian said he likes the flat roof. Alison said the flat roof is the successful way to go. If it needs developed further it is a mass and scale issue not a detail issue. Sarah said the issue is mass and scale of the building. Parking space: The majority of board members were in favor of keeping the parking space. Variances: 10 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14.2007 All members supported the variances, relocation and demolition. MOTION: Sarah moved to continue the application based on the S`" Street elevation and massing. Motion died for lack of a second. MOTION.• Brian moved to approve the application for 604 W. Main Street, major development, conceptual, relocation, demolition, commercial design review and variances with the added condition that the applicant look at possibly adding some variation to the flat roof heights to remain under the 25 foot height, motion second by Jay. Sarah said she feels the motion is a massing issue and we are telling the applicant to look at different heights and we would be giving them approval for that without seeing the drawings. Roll call vote: Jay, yes; Alison, no; Brian, yes; Sarah, no; Nora, no; Ann, no; Michael, no. Motion dies 5-2. MOTION: Sarah moved to continue the application for 604 W. Main and the public hearing until Dec. 12`"; second by Alison. All in favor, motion carried. 420 E. Hopkins Amy said the fire department and the thrift store have programmatic needs. At the previous discussion it was determined that it was OK to have the thrift store pulled back from the street to retain a pocket park in the front. We are not talking about materials but that is the most significant change. The commercial design review standard address the requirements for height and anytime there is a building that is a couple of blocks width wide they want to see the height of the building going up and down, historically the way you had a sense of seeing modules. What is being proposed does not entirely meet that guideline. Another guideline says when you are next to an historic building you are not to be more than 28 feet tall. Does the HPC have any comments regarding the flat roof plane? Staff is basically in support of the project. Gilbert Sanchez, architect for Studio B 11 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14 2007 Joseph Spears, architect for Studio B Gilbert said we had previous approvals in order to go to the voters fora 14 million dollar bond election. The program was for the fire truck bays, museum, fire district room and community rooms and the thrift store. The lease is with the city for 40 years. Gilbert said one of the proposals for tonight is to have the ability to build on top of the building in the future as need be. It will be built structurallly to handle another story, about 7,500 square feet. What was approved was 22,583 square feet. The approved project was put on the shelf while the ABC station was built and we could restudy the elevations. We modulated the design to represent historical qualities of the original building. We added steel post and beams and glass doors. The second floor is a brick pattern with punched openings. The parapet rail on top is open and transparent. The basement will be used for the city IT team which is about 1,000 square feet. The total square footage will be 23,480 square feet. The new design will go to the co-op mid December. The building is set back so that the trucks maneuver in and out. Gilbert when over the changes in the design. The fire station sets back and the museum steps out somewhat 10 '/z feet. Daryl Grob, fire marshall said we are trying to provide a legacy and continued revolution of the fire department. In ten years we are going to let the department become what it must become in the future and that will describe the facility downtown and then we will design the addition. The fire department services 87 square miles and we are putting an ambulance in town. Gilbert said the Isis stair tower is 33 feet tall. The apparatus bay is 37.6 feet tall. The entry to the museum component is 39.6 feet. The thrift store is 24 feet. If an additional story is built it would be set back. Michael asked where the guidelines are being stretched in order to meet the public purpose part of this application. Amy said the biggest issue is the setbacks. The board determined that they had no issues with the setbacks. 12 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 Chairperson, Michael Hoffman opened the public hearing. There were no public comments. The public hearing portion of the agenda item was closed. Michael stated the issues of concern. Roof height and thrift store. Setback issue. Commercial design standards balance. Sarah said at the co-op there was a lot of passion to have the setbacks in their current location. The board concurred. Ann said the detail of the pavement to make it somewhat of a public park is appropriate. What is proposed for the Isis corner should be coordinated with the design of the fire station space. Jay inquired about the fire whistle and Gilbert said they intend to keep it. Roof height: Ann said having the top of the fire station being the same height is good. Possibly the height of the museum could be lower. It seems that there is too much distance between the thrift shop and the top of the museum. Overall the project is exciting. Nora also said she feels the height of the museum could be lowered. We need to take into consideration City Hall and going any higher would dwarf city hall. Jay clarified that he felt the east portion of the museum could go a little higher, like an elevator shaft. Commercial design standards: Brian said the design is great. There is a lot of brick and possibly the Thrift Store could be a different material in order to break it up a little. Gilbert said they will study varying the height of the museum etc. for final. MOTION: Ann moved to approve 604 W. Main, Conceptual development, relocation, demolition and variances. The project represents compliance 13 ASPEN HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14, 2007 with the applicable commercial design standard guidelines given the programmatic needs of the building. HPC accepts the project as proposed and all representations are conditions of approval. The approval is good for one year, motion second by Sarah. Brian wanted to make sure in the motion that Gilbert would have the opportunity to make changes on material and height at final. Amy clarified that once conceptual is approved the shape of the building is approved and HPC can't change their minds but the applicant can ask HPC to reconsider at final. Brian said Gilbert represented that he would study the height for final. Roll call vote: Nora, yes; Jay, yes; Alison, yes; Brian, yes; Sarah, yes; Ann, yes; Michael, yes. Motion carried 7-0. Work session -Ordinance #48 - no minutes MOTION: Michael moved to adjourn; second by Alison. All in favor, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. Kathleen J. Strickland, Chief Deputy Clerk 14