The Historic Resources Commission on July 17 referred a proposed new medical office at West Sixth Street — a roughly 3,000-square-foot building located in the context area of the Witter S. McCurdy House and Clinton Park — to the Architectural Review Committee for additional design work. The commission said it wants design changes that address the building's sense of entry, directional expression and mass while preserving compatibility with nearby historic properties.

Staff said the target site sits near the McCurdy House and the Old West Lawrence historic district and that the developer's current design orients the primary entry toward a parking lot, a layout staff described as more suburban than the surrounding historic context. "One of staff's concerns is the sense of entry and also the way that the building is facing into a parking lot, which is more of a suburban design that we don't typically see in historic context areas," Lynn Braddock Zollner, historic resources administrator, told commissioners.

Architect Fred Schneider said functional requirements for a modern medical office constrained the floor plan and influenced the facade and window design. "The floor plan was just a gimme. We could not change it much because of the way they work," Schneider said, adding that the design team increased the height of the entry area and wrapped a corner with stone to make the entry more visible. He also told the commission he is willing to take the project to the Architectural Review Committee for refinement.

Commissioners asked the applicant to explore alternative entry locations, including an entry more toward the corner or the east side, and to simplify materials and fenestration where possible. Commissioner Stan Hearnley (newly seated) and others pressed for options that might orient the entrance more toward the street or corner without compromising accessibility for patients. Schneider said the project team had considered multiple designs and that accessibility and proximity of handicap parking to the entry were major constraints.

Action: Commissioner Klein moved to refer the project to the Architectural Review Committee to identify possible design solutions to mitigate directional expression, improve sense of entry and modulate massing while achieving the applicant's program goals; the motion passed in a roll-call vote (Commissioner Buchanan: aye; Commissioner Klein: aye; Commissioner Hearnley: aye; Chair Joy Coleman: aye).

The referral means the design review committee will produce options for the commission and applicant to consider; no certificate of approval or final determination was made by the full commission at this meeting. The applicant and staff agreed to return with refined materials, simplified cladding options and sketches showing alternate entry configurations.

Provenance: Staff presentation and project description (Lynn Braddock Zollner) and architect comments (Fred Schneider) were given in the public hearing portion of the meeting; the motion to refer and roll-call vote appear later in the hearing record.