ILPC supports staff comments on West State Street apartment project, urges stronger material choices for stair tower

Members of the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission reviewed and supported staff comments on the West State Street apartment project and recommended refinements to materials and detailing intended to better relate the building to adjacent historic resources.

Staff summarized the submission and noted the unusual schedule: the project needed timely input for the planning board review, so staff prepared comments for the commission’s consideration. The memo identified two nearby historic resources that could be affected: the former Elks Lodge (now used by the Cornell Daily Sun) and the Downtown West Historic District. Staff found the building’s massing and scale acceptable given generous setbacks and proposed street trees but suggested a more cohesive color palette and asked the project to reconsider using fiber cement panels on the wall intended for a mural.

"My recommendation was to use brick, to reflect the brick base of the building, and also, as a nod to the materiality in the historic district," staff said. The staff memo argued that a brick base on the east elevation that faces the historic district would better reflect adjacent materials and provide a durable substrate; staff also described fiber cement as a less compatible material in that location, though staff did not object to murals being installed on removable panels mounted to brick.

Representatives from the project team, including an architect from Holt Architects who identified himself as Bear, said the design team balanced context and project affordability and selected fiber cement in part because it is less costly and provides a more stable substrate for murals than painted brick. "Our goal, throughout all of this was to try to be a good neighbor, to the property and serve, the public as best as we can," Bear said, adding that the team would work on addressing the commission’s concerns.

Commissioners acknowledged cost constraints for an affordable housing project but moved to support staff’s memo as written and to forward the commission’s support to the planning board. The commission recorded its support and staff said it would notify the planning board that the ILPC members present supported the memo.

The memo and discussion focused on materiality at the building base, treatment of the stair tower where a mural is proposed, and the desirability of durable, context-appropriate materials along façades facing historic resources.