Architectural Review Board

10 March 2025 To: Kate S. Schwartz ksschwartz@fredericksburgva.gov cc: Planning@fredericksburgva.gov The Historic Fredericksburg Foundation has reviewed the upcoming agenda and related COA documents for the March 10, 2025, meeting of the Architectural Review Board and submits the following comments on select projects. Public Hearing: 10.A.ii COA 2501-0093 – 314 William Street HFFI is pleased to see the modifications made to the latest version of the design of this second-story addition to 314 William Street. While HFFI appreciates the conditions outlined in staff’s recommendation, we had hoped the applicant would have provided information about their plans to manage water at the new and existing roof as this data was specifically requested by staff in the applicants’ February 10th meeting’s COA. The alterations required to meet the proposed conditions of approval will likely impact the building’s façade, however discretely they might be made, yet they also play an important role in the physical function of the building’s drainage system. How will rainwater runoff be collected and directed from the new north-sloping roof? Creating a new drainage system will be an added expense and introduces new materials at the façade. If rainwater is re-directed to the north and away from the new addition, then new openings, scuppers, and downspouts will be required at the façade. How will these features be accommodated? What parameters are in place exactly to guide their design? Just a few questions that come to mind. Again, HFFI would like to thank the applicant for making modest alterations to ensure the compatibility of their design and the ARB for their leadership in navigating this robust and fairly challenging project through the City’s review process. 10.B.i COA 2501-0097 – 1407 Caroline Street HFFI appreciates the relative sensitivity of the proposed new infill at 1407 Caroline Street. It is generally in keeping with the standards and guidelines for the district, yet the simplicity of the architectural drawings and site plan make it difficult to assess the spatial and visual compatibility of this new infill with neighboring resources and surrounding context. Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. | 1200 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 The drawings contain few numbers to quantify the widths and heights of its general form and some prominent architectural features. Where measurements are included, they are somewhat confusing. One example is the 18’ - 1 5/8” figure denoting the building’s height to the midpoint of the roof that seemingly starts at a point above its brick foundation. The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear. Perhaps the brick foundation is actually below the height of the sidewalk, but then the porch foundation is higher than the main massing foundation? What are the general dimensions of the porch? Those figures are not provided. Without measurements to quantify visually prominent features of the façade and roof, the ARB and members of the public are left to guess about how this new construction relates to its context and neighboring historic resources. How can the overall size, height, and proportions of proposed new infill be adequately assessed without knowledge of some basic benchmarks like the width and height of neighboring buildings and their prominent features? HFFI appreciates the compilation of photographs depicting neighboring historic properties within the 1400 block of Caroline provided in this COA. Digital drafting technologies have expanded the capabilities of depicting scaled renderings of proposed construction in context with the surrounding landscape. With a wide array of software available to model proposed construction in context of the existing environment is an invaluable tool to illustrate compatibility. Using the limited documentation submitted for this project, I created a couple of overlays using the site plan, local GIS, and Google Earth to visualize the placement, scale, and massing of the proposed design in context of the 1400 block (Figure 1 and 2). Given the above average site of the parcel, HFFI believes that the scale, height, and massing of this project is generally in keeping with design guidelines; however, a few modest changes would significantly its compatibility with neighboring resources. We agree with staff’s recommendation that the southern extension of the house be further set back from the west wall of the main massing and public sidewalk, perhaps another 5-10 feet further east from its current location to minimize the visual impact of what is already a longer-than-average façade. The largeness of the building’s massing would be mitigated by an increased setback of its southern section. Further, if the approval of height, scale, and massing is generally inclusive of the roof form and shape, HFFI requests that additional information, including measurements, provide details on the size, placement, and scale of the roof and its features in context. If the total roof height is roughly 16’ and the first floor is a bit more than 10’ tall, than is this one- story-house is about the same height as its two-story neighbors? How do the dormers relate to neighboring second stories? How do the dormers relate to the first-floor fenestration? Might these features be better aligned and scaled to suit the size of the roof and still respect the fenestration below? The accentuated front-gable at the façade’s south end is another roof feature that could be tweaked to greater compliance with historic patterns in the district. A paired or tripartite window, or perhaps even a brick chimney would be more compatible with the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. | 1200 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 district and could add further architectural interest. Measurements of the building footprint using Google suggest that its square-footage is slightly larger than the figure included in this application—just over 2,800 square feet, rather than the 2,144 square footage noted in the COA. This another reason to add figures and measurements in architectural drawings submitted for review to make clear to the ARB and members of the public the scale and massing of a proposed project. 10.B.iii. COA 2502-0099 – 922 Caroline Street HFFI wants to thank the property owners and their team of design professionals for conducting a thorough physical and archival analysis of this building’s history and historic fabric, and using the information gleaned from that work to produce a sensitive plan for its rehabilitation. The work described in this COA is not only in keeping with local guidelines, but also state and federal preservation guidelines as well. As proposed, the rehabilitation plan is compatible with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for rehabilitation and we are pleased to hear that the applicant’s plans to pursue state and federal historic tax credits to offset the cost of this valuable and important preservation work. Folks at HFFI are here to assist and support anyone interested in using historic tax credits to protect, preserve, and revitalize historic properties in the Fredericksburg area. Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. | 1200 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Figure 1: Proposed site plan for new construction at 1407 Caroline Street over recent satellite imagery (Google Earth). Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. | 1200 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Figure 2: Proposed site plan for new construction at 1407 Caroline Street over FredGIS basemap showing parcel boundaries, address points, and building footprints (FredGIS 2025). Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. | 1200 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401