New Projects Before the HPC

On Friday morning, the Historic Preservation Commission accepted applications for certificates of appropriateness for four buildings--three on Warren Street and one on Union Street. Before they got around to considering the proposals, however, the HPC accepted correspondence, dated October 4,  from Galvan Partners' attorney Mark Greenberg, withdrawing the current application for a certificate of appropriateness to move 68 South Second Street--the Robert Taylor House--to 21 Union Street.

The first proposal was presented by the new owners of 445-447 Warren Street, who plan to restore the facade of the building, making in-kind repairs to the cornices and box gutters and in-kind shingle replacements on the building's oriel. They will also be removing the TV antennas from the roof. Rick Rector, new chair of the HPC, congratulated the owners for "doing a building historically right."

The next application was for the facade of 255 Warren Street, the building that was formerly the Savoia Bar. The pseudo split timber English pub look is going in favor of a storefront more in keeping with the character of the buildings around it. The plan is for a shop on the ground floor and a single apartment on the second floor. The HPC judged the drawings presented with the application to be inadequate and requested an elevation drawing with a key that indicates the materials to be used and a plan that shows door swings and the depth of setbacks. The additional documentation is needed to help the HPC envision what is being proposed and to help code enforcement determine if the work, as it is being done, conforms to the project approved by the HPC. Producing the requested drawings by the HPC's next meeting on October 26 is a condition for the project being granted a certificate of appropriateness at that time.

Tom Swope has been a frequent applicant to the HPC as the factotum for Galvan Partners, but on Friday, he was there presenting a proposal for his own building: 307 Warren Street. Swope is seeking a certificate of appropriateness to cover the leaded glass frieze above the display windows in the storefront--which HPC member Scott Baldinger called "the nicest part of the building"--with wood. Swope's reason for wanting to do this is structural. Because of alterations made to the building in the past (Swope explained that a fire which destroyed the building where the municipal parking lot now is also burned off the third floor of this building), the frieze is experiencing unintended stress. According to Swope, this stress recently caused one pane of glass to explode outward, scattering broken glass onto the sidewalk in front of the building. Swope told the HPC that the frieze cannot be removed to be repaired and installing the wood will protect the frieze and assume the load-bearing function that now falls to the frieze.

The fourth application was for new wood storm windows for 322 Union Street.

The HPC will vote on granting certificates of appropriateness to these projects on Friday, October 26, at 10 a.m.