Design Review Board

Staff Comments for the DESIGN REVIEW BOARD June 12, 2014 1117 Savannah Highway - Starbucks Staff Comments: 1. Staff is still concerned about the building turning its back to the street corner. The concept of adding the patio at the street corner was a nice attempt but is not successful since there is no building access to it. Ideally the building floor plan should be flipped and the floor plan adjusted to allow for this to happen. The building should be designed to fit the site. 2. The patios and walkways should be constructed of a specialty pavement and not just poured concrete. This would also apply to crosswalk through the rear parking lot. 3. Add trees to the patio areas in order to make them useable in the summer months. 4. Eliminate the use of Maples as they do not perform in this area within and adjacent to parking lot surfaces. 5. Staff recommends the applicants change the hedge material along Farmfield Avenue to a faster growing species. A good choice would be a Ligustrum. 6. The electrical meter and utility boxes should be screened with either vegetation or a screen panel. 7. Staff feels the green screen panels on the previous submittal were of a better design than what is currently being proposed. Also, they should be carried around to the West elevation. Eliminate the drive through signs from the building. This may be accomplished with typical site directional signage. Reduce the size of the Starbucks Medallion signs to a comfortable scale. All signage is to be submitted under a sign permit application at a later date. Staff Recommendation: “Deferral” with the items re-studied as mentioned. 1535 Savannah Highway Staff Comments: 1. Site: a. The new building is surrounded by concrete and needs to be softened with additional landscaping. b. In lieu of a combination of piers and screen walls, staff feels that the Savannah Highway frontage should have a continuous screen wall to ground the street edge in absence of buildings. c. The screen wall is also needed to soften the service bay doors facing the street. d. The material and form of the screen walls and piers should also better relate to the architecture of the front building. A monolithic form may be more appropriate than what is represented. e. Is the car display pad at the street intersection raised? If not the screen wall appears too low and should be raised to cover the underside of the displayed vehicle. All of the walls should be of a sufficient height as not to be completely obscured by landscaping. f. Are the concrete bands running through the plaza raised curbs? If so, they should be made flush with the specialty pavement. g. The specialty pavement should be expanded to include the service entry drive. h. As a way of softening the front plaza, introduce a grid of palmettos in tree wells with a spacing which will allow displaying of cars between them. This was done at the Mini Dealership with success. i. The style of the sliding gate is inappropriate and utilitarian looking.  j. Increase the size of the planting around the steel bollards so they will be obscured at time of planting. k. Double the number of Live Oaks at the rear of the existing building for additional screening. 2. New Building: a. Although relocated, the “Hyundai” sign on the building seems over- scaled and should be eliminated. b. The main entry seems under scaled and should be restudied. The freestanding element at the entry could be widened raised in height. The Hyundai sign could possibly be incorporated into this element. On the front elevations the element is shown as a neutral color but on the side elevation it’s shown as blue. c. The blue band at the service bay should continue across the rear of the building and terminate at the inside corner. Also, it appears to be in an awkward location and should either be raised or lowered. d. The service door are depicted differently on the elevations and wall section. 3. Existing Building: a. The covered entry at the collision center could be simplified, similar to the front of the entry element of the front building. The previous version using one color blue began to accomplish this. This is an opportunity to help unify the two buildings. b. A few additional tree islands would help to further soften the building and help it recede. The concrete islands at each side of the service bay doors could be planted with trees along with those at the drop-off. Staff Recommendation: “Conceptual approval” for re-study of items noted. 1540 Meeting Street Staff Comments: 1. This building received Conceptual approval on June 12, 2008 with the condition that the corner tower become a functional circulation element and the tower be brought forward of the main building. Its approval is still valid under the Vested Rights Act. 2. The site plan and landscape plan conflict with the floor plan. All drawing should reflect the actual proposed design. The site and landscape plans do not show the tower or access to it. 3. The entrance to the tower could be better emphasized with the use of specialty pavement. 4. Revise the floor plans to reflect wall thicknesses and all door and window locations. 5. Eliminate the sidewalk connection from the building to the street. This is not the type of facility which will generate pedestrian traffic. 6. Provide information on both site and building light fixtures. 7. Provide details for the dumpster screen. 8. If allowed by TRC, in lieu of marking the loading zone with paint, specialty paving would be a better option. 9. The tower should become taller in order to improve its proportions. Also, the EIFS banding and metal panels should be eliminated allowing the tower to become all glass. Use spandrel between floors and at the parapet. The window configuration should become more uniform as it is on the first floor. Also, the cross bracing used on the remainder of the building could be repeated on the tower. 10. Above the secondary entrance, carry the glass up to the top of the parapet. Use spandrel between floors and at the parapet. This will create a hyphen in the building further breaking down its mass. 11. The flat canopies should be redesigned so that they have the visual weight for a building of this size. Perhaps their edges could become c-channel steel. 12. The steel x bracing does a good job at breaking down the scale of the building.  Staff feels that they should be extended to the top of the parapet with its vertical steel extending above and across the parapet wall. 13. Extend the steel x bracing down the two remaining bays on the southeast elevation, eliminating the steel ladder above the egress door. 14. A reconsideration of the metal panel system being used as the building’s skin should be further studied. Staff is not in favor of its stippled finish. 15. A material other than cmu should be considered for the base of the building. 16. On the southeast elevation, relocate the sprinkler closet door to the lobby. 17. What are the vertical elements on the northeast elevation? If they are windows breaking them at each floor into individual windows would be a better solution to prevent the ladder effect. 18. Provide a roof plan. 19. Show the locations of all mechanical and electrical equipment both on the ground, on the building elevations and on the rooftop. 20. As for the building’s color palette Staff feels that a dark gray siding would help bring down the scale of the building with the x bracing remaining red. If x bracing is used across the tower’s two glass facades, its color could reverse to the dark gray of the body of the building. MEMBERS PRESENT: BILL MARSHALL, MICHELLE SMYTH, JEFF JOHNSTON , KRISTEN KRAUSE, ERICA CHASE, PATRICK PERNELL, DAVID THOMPSON STAFF PRESENT: BILL TURNER CLERK: PEGGY JORDAN AGENDA DESIGN REVIEW BOARD JUNE 12, 2014 5:00 P.M. 75 CALHOUN STREET 1. 1117 Savannah Highway – TMS# 349-08-00-007 App. No. 146-12-1 Request Conceptual approval for new construction of a coffee shop as per documentation submitted. Owner: Ravenel Properties Applicant: Soo & Associates, Inc. Neighborhood: None MOTION: Conceptual approval – address staff comments 2 through 8, delete the bolders from the landscape, provide mature planting along Farm Field Avenue, confirm the height of the parapet wall and the height of the HVAC units, further study the west elevation for more architectural interest, look into combining order board and menu board under canopy, expand and better integrate corner patio into site and provide pedestrian connections from it to the streets. MADE BY: D.Thompson SECOND: E.Chase VOTE: FOR 7 AGAINST 0 2. 1535 Savannah Highway – TMS# 349-01-00-021, App. No. 146-12-2 027 and 057 Request Conceptual approval for new construction of an automobile dealership and renovations to an existing structure on the site for support services as per documentation submitted. Owner: Hendrick Automotive Group Applicant: Redline Design Group Neighborhood: None MOTION: Conceptual approval – address staff comments 1a, 1e through 1k, 2b through 2d and 3a through 3b; study staff comments 1b through 1d and 2a and 2b; provide paint banding on the plain cmu on the rear building similar to the rear of the front building; study south side of new building regarding materials. MADE BY: J.Johnston SECOND: D.Thompson VOTE: FOR 7 AGAINST 0 3. 1540 Meeting Street – TMS# 464-00-00-043 App. No. 146-12-3 Request Preliminary approval for new construction of a climate controlled self- storage facility as per documentation submitted. Owner: Unified Aircraft Services Applicant: Charleston Storage Spot, LLC Neighborhood: None MOTION: Deferral. MADE BY: D.Thompson SECOND: E.Chase VOTE: FOR 7 AGAINST 0 In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, people who need alternative formats, ASL (American Sign Language) Interpretation or other accommodation please contact Janet Schumacher at (843) 577-1389 or email to schumacherj@charleston-sc.gov three business days prior to the meeting.