Of Garage Doors Imagined and Real

There was an article in the Register-Star today about MOTO Coffee/Machine, the new collaborative venture that will bring together the popular coffee bar Swallow and a motorcycle shop at 357 Warren Street, in the space that had been the location of Sorted Creative. The article made this statement: "The new establishment at 357 Warren St., to be named Moto Coffee Machine, will sell motorcycle-related gear and coffee beneath garage door facades."

The thing about "garage door facades" inspired some concern. The building was on the agenda of the Historic Preservation Commission for "facade repair/renovation." Would a plan be presented to replace the plate glass windows in the building's storefront with something that mimicked a garage door?

At the HPC meeting, Antony Katz, the owner of the building and the creator of the motorcycle part of the new enterprise, presented the plans for the facade, which involve replacing the two panels of glass in the storefront and the glass in the transom with insulated glass and replacing the "poorly functioning door" with something that looks exactly like what is there now. What was meant by "garage door facades" remains a mystery.

An actual garage door, however, was part of the plan presented for 35 South Third Street, formerly Harmon's Auto Repair, which is being renovated for reuse as an art gallery cum coffee shop by day and wine bar by night.

The garage door currently on the east facade of the building will be replaced with a "new insulated unit" to simulate the original door. It will still function as a garage door, allowing it to be opened in warm weather. The windows on either side of the garage door will become doorways.

Additional changes to the building involve replacing the vinyl siding on the addition at the north end of the building with "cementitious horizontal siding," i.e., HardiPlank, installing a new standing seam metal roof, and inserting one over one, double hung windows on the north wall of the addition, where there is evidence windows once were.

In the case of both projects--357 Warren Street and 35 South Third Street--the five members of the HPC present (Rick Rector, David Voorhees, Peggy Polenberg, Phil Forman, and Miranda Barry), voting unanimously, determined that the applications were complete and authorized legal counsel to draft certificates of appropriateness.
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