Princeton HPC backs Witherspoon Street redevelopment with conditions; raises concerns about upper‑level massing

The Princeton Historic Preservation Commission on a unanimous roll call vote authorized staff to prepare an advisory report recommending approval of Witherspoon and Lee LLC’s application for a major site plan and C and D variances at 254 Witherspoon Street.

The commission praised the project’s historic research and community benefits — including a proposed neighborhood laundromat — but repeatedly asked the applicant to reduce the visual prominence of a new upper‑level studio element and to resolve several technical details before the zoning board hearing.

Commission staff member Elizabeth Satterfield summarized the application and historic findings and noted the New Jersey State Office of Historic Preservation had issued an opinion of eligibility that expanded the district’s boundaries. The proposal would add a two‑story addition connected to the existing 1920 colonial‑revival house by a recessed glass “hyphen,” provide space for three tenants (the applicant’s architecture office, a future mercantile tenant and a laundromat in the basement), and include sustainability features such as solar panels, a green roof and geothermal heat exchange. Joshua Zinder, the applicant and managing partner of Joshua Zinder Architecture and Design, told the commission he lives three blocks away and stressed the…