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Design Review Board presses architect for changes to 30 Caroline project, citing scale and impact on historic Sperry’s
Summary
The board asked the team for more alternatives after residents and preservation officials said the mixed‑use project still overwhelms the historic Sperry’s building; the applicant showed stepped‑back revisions but was asked to return with further options to reduce perceived ‘‘swallowing’’ of the historic façade.
The Design Review Board spent an extended portion of its April 9 meeting debating a revised design for a mixed‑use project proposed for the Caroline Street block that would abut and partially overbuild the historic Sperry’s building.
Olsen Associates Architect George Olsen presented a set of changes made since the project’s previous hearing: the development reduces mass immediately behind Sperry’s by stepping upper floors back, drops one full floor in one portion of the plan and adds terraces to some units. Olsen said the team also removed a one‑story section and obtained a zoning variance for frontage rules where an easement constrained the build‑to line.
But public commenters and multiple board members, citing more…
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