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Home My WebLink About9/16/2019 Item 2, Cooper Wilbanks, Megan From:A. Cooper <aia98368@gmail.com> Sent:Sunday, AM To:Scott, Shawna; Cohen, Rachel; Advisory Bodies Subject:609 Palm - Continued design review of two new structures Attachments:309_14_19...lettertoarc.pdf Dear Shawna and Rachel - Would you kindly forward the letter attached below to the ARC before their Monday, September 16th meeting? Thanks! - Allan From: Allan Cooper aia98368@gmail.com Professor Emeritus, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 1 Save Our Downtown ______________________________________________________________________________ Seeking to protect and promote the historical character, design, livability and economic success of downtown San Luis Obispo. To: San Luis Obispo Architectural Review Commission, Shawna Scott, Senior Planner and Rachel Cohen, Associate Planner Re: 609 Palm - Continued design review of two new structures  From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: September 14, 2019 Honorable Chair and Commissioners - You now have a color elevation of both buildings along Nipomo Street. As you can see, the two buildings remain in stark, uncompromising contrast with one another. Permit us to explain our concerns with both buildings and humbly suggest ways these two buildings could better relate to one another. We would also like to suggest ways these buildings might compatibly ﬁt into this important, historic neighborhood. Critique of the SLO Repertory Theater The SLO Repertory Theater is out of context with its surroundings. Why? Because the theater has ﬂat roofs and an unrelentingly busy, decorative terra cotta motif. It’s understandable why a parking garage would have a predominantly ﬂat roof. But with the exception of the false-fronted Soda Works building, all of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Old Mission have either gable or shed roofs. The Leitcher House at 667 Monterey and the houses at 679, 664 and 658 Monterey Street have gabled roofs and the SLO County Historical Museum has gabled roofs. The Children’s Museum has both gable and shed roofs. Even the more contemporary 667 Monterey Street (Monterey Place) project will have a few gabled roofs. Wouldn’t it, from a deferred maintenance point view, be important to ﬁgure out a way to get rain water off the theater roofs by introducing a shed roof here and there? We invite you to look below at a few contemporaneous examples of buildings with shed or gable roofs. Wouldn’t it be better if the Nipomo Street elevation had not only a bulkhead faced with stucco plaster and/or stone veneer but that the entire wall fronting onto Nipomo Street would be faced in plaster or stone veneer to provide a better transition to the parking garage? Wouldn’t it be better if the strange terra cotta, sesame-colored banding on the theater were eliminated altogether? Critique of the Palm/Nipomo Parking Garage The parking garage elevation along Nipomo Street is less plain than it was back on August 19th, but we question why this facade has not taken on the qualities of the North facade along Palm Street or the East facade facing the adjoining properties. It’s also puzzling why the tower facing Nipomo Street couldn’t be a replica of the Palm Street tower with its more traditional rustication, proportions and scale. The Nipomo Street facade should continue the decorative insert reliefs that can be found running along the top fascia of the North Facade. The Nipomo Street facade should, like the Palm Street facade, have a continuous ﬁrst ﬂoor belly band. This would succeed in emphasizing the horizontal and bringing down the scale of the building. And ﬁnally, the Nipomo Street facade, in order to tie in with the more rectilinear qualities of the theater, should dispense with its arches altogether. The continuance you gave this project on August 19th would have given you the opportunity to hear from the Cultural Heritage Committee at their next scheduled August 26th meeting. Unfortunately, this CHC meeting was canceled and rescheduled for September 23, 2019. But you should know that there are CHC members concerned about the preservation of the historical, circa 1939 bituminous adobe brick house located at 614 Monterey Street. Given the importance of these two projects relative to their location downtown and given the importance of maintaining open lines of communication with the Cultural Heritage Committee, we again urge you to continue this project with direction. Thank you!