Glendale design board approves Linden Avenue addition with conditions to reduce ‘monumental’ entry

Glendale Design Review Board members voted 5–0 on Nov. 13 to approve a residential addition at 1326 Linden Avenue, but attached a set of design conditions intended to reduce the new front entry’s visual weight and fill in missing technical details.

Polina, the city case planner, said the site (PDR005640) is an 8,220-square-foot lot in an R‑1 zoning district with an existing one-story, 1,252-square-foot house. Staff described the proposal as a modest enlargement — a 47-square-foot enclosed front entry, a 669-square-foot rear addition and a 488-square-foot basement — and recommended approval “with conditions,” citing several omissions in the submitted plans and the need to “restudy and reduce the proportions of the entryway” to better integrate with the existing house.

“The project includes a gable roof design with a hip roof entry that is compatible with the overall project,” Polina said during her presentation, while also noting missing details the board required on the site plan: trash-enclosure and mechanical-equipment locations, protected street trees, downspouts, exterior lighting and an accurate window schedule.

Architect Hamlet Sudeikian told the board the applicant had lowered the entry roof and intended materials that include precast concrete veneer, dove-gray stucco and flat clay tile. “Besides everything else, it’s the entry — the main issue that the reason we’re here to discuss,” Sudeikian said.

Board members concentrated their recommendations on making the front entry feel less monumental. Board member Simonian argued the white, monochrome palette and the prominent central entry needed texture and contrast: “All white — dove white stucco with the white precast — that front door has too much of a contemporary, modern feel for this kind of modest addition,” Simonian said, urging stone or a darker precast color carried into the planters and base to create a building “base” and reduce perceived mass.

The conditions the board adopted require the applicant to: - Revise the site plan to show trash, mechanical equipment and the location of protected street trees; - Restudy and reduce the scale/proportions of the front entry so it better integrates with the house; - Provide a corrected window schedule that shows the accurate number of replaced and new windows and specify frame types; and - Provide revised elevations and details that include entry-door, downspout and exterior-lighting locations.

Polina told the board staff received no written public comments for or against the project. The motion to approve the project with the revised conditions passed unanimously (motion by Board Member Helajian; second by Board Member Simonian). The case will return to staff to confirm the revised drawings meet the conditions.

The board’s action completes the design-review decision; any appeal must be filed within 15 calendar days of the decision.