HDC holds proposal for 16 Wall Street after public testimony about family purchase and requests rotation/ siting alternatives

Bonnie and Oliver Carr told the HDC they and family members purchased 16 Wall Street to preserve a house with decades of family history on the site and to prevent demolition. Commissioners welcomed the preservation intent but held the current design, asking the applicants and designer to return with alternatives that better respect Wall Street setbacks and reduce the house’s visual bulk.

The applicant’s agent explained revised siting that shifted the house slightly south and rotated it a small amount to increase the offset from Wall Street. Preservation staff suggested the strongest solution would be rotating the house to better align with East Lincoln and to reduce the perceived proximity to Wall Street; the applicant said that the house form and internal program make a wholesale rotation infeasible without removing major living spaces.

Commissioners requested further iterations showing reduced massing and a better hierarchical proportion among volumes (wider main mass, smaller flanking masses), and asked for clearer drawings showing how the house will relate to the newly subdivided neighboring lot (which now sits directly west). Commissioners also asked the applicants to provide dimensions, eave/ridge relationships and to consider stepping down volumes to reduce the continuous long façade that reads from Wall Street. The commission held the item pending those revisions and a clearer site plan.