B.4 - 809 E. 9th Street - Staff Report — original pdf

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H ISTORIC LANDMARK COMMISSION APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS B.4 - 1 JU LY 27, 2020 C14H-2011-0002 ROU TON-ALVAREZ-LOPEZ HOUSE 809 E. 9TH STREET Construct a mid-rise residential tower adjacent to the house. PR OPOSAL PR OJECT SPECIFICATIONS The applicant proposes the construction of a mid-rise residential tower to provide affordable housing for seniors at the rear of the historic house. The proposed residential tower will be 9 stories (just over 112 feet) tall, with a slanted roof. The building will have stucco, glazed brick, and siding as its principal materials. There will be 6’-8” between the back wall of the house and the closest wall of the proposed building. The house will be used as a community room for the proposed new affordable housing project. STA NDARDS FOR REVIEW The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation are used to evaluate projects on historic landmarks. The following standards apply to the proposed project: 1) A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships. Evaluation: This project does not really affect the physical structure or the use of the existing house. It had a residential use historically, and is now being proposed as a community room for the adjacent residential project. 2) The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided. Evaluation: The house will not be affected by the construction of the adjacent building. No work is proposed for the historic house. The new building is over 6 feet from the back of the historic house; there will be an effect on the spatial relationships which currently exist on this property, but the general context of the neighborhood has changed dramatically over the past few years with the construction of adjacent apartment buildings. 3) Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken. Evaluation: No work is proposed for the historic house. 4) Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved. Evaluation: N/A 5) Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved. Evaluation: N/A B.4 - 2 6) Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence. Evaluation: N/A 7) Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used. Evaluation: N/A 8) Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken. Evaluation: N/A 9) New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment. Evaluation: The proposed new tower is 6’-8” from the back of the historic house; the existing open yard on the back of the house will be eliminated. 10) New additions and adjacent or related construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired. Evaluation: The building could be removed in the future without damage to the historic house if necessary. The project meets many of the applicable standards. C OMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS The Committee expressed concerns about the scale of the proposed new building and suggested pulling back the ground floor or providing some sort of transition zone to i ncrease the distance between the old and the new. The Committee also suggested removing the horizontal siding from the first two floors of the new building as it competed with the horizontal siding of the historic house. STA FF RECOMMENDATION Approve as proposed with the recommendation to consider the Committee’s recommendation regarding the siding. The proposed new building is very close to the historic house, and increasing the sense of separation between the two will be beneficial to retaining more of the integrity and historic context of the house. Vegetation or a planting of small tree s between the two might present a greater visual separation between the buildings. B.4 - 3 Current setting of the house from 9th Street Current view of the house from the IH-35 northbound service road. B.4 - 4