When What You See Is Not What You Get

Gossips has posted more than once about deceptiveness of renderings. In 2011, the topic was the rendering for 102 and 104 Union Street, which made the proposed buildings appear to be the same height as the building next door at 106 Union Street. They ended up being significantly taller.

In 2017, the topic was the rendering for the ramp in the PARC linear park, which ended up not resembling the rendering at all.

Then there's another example of the rendering not accurately representing the finished product: the new Stewart's.

In this case, what departs from what appeared in the rendering are the porticoes. In the rendering, they are not objectionable, but in reality they are. Gossips would describe them as "clunky." Others have called them "cheap, ugly, and aggressive" and likened them to "lumpy blocks of Styrofoam."

Thinking that maybe the rendering was inaccurate, given that renderings in the past has been deceptive, Gossips went back to the elevation drawings that Stewart's had provided. There, too, as in the rendering, the roofs of the porticoes are thinner, with better molding detail, and look less like "lumpy blocks of Styrofoam."

Although the porticoes are not what was approved by the Planning Board, they are exactly the same as the porticoes found on the new Stewart's in Troy.

Walter Chatham, chair of the Planning Board, told Gossips on Friday that he had met with Chuck Marshall, real estate representative for Stewart's, and the construction manager for the project to discuss the issue of the porticoes. Chatham reports that Marshall agreed that what was built is not what was approved and has agreed to "build like the picture." He asked that the soft opening of the new store be allowed to happen, after which the work to correct the design would be staggered between the two porticoes. The plan is subject to approval from Stewart's headquarters.
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