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Rooftop electronic murals approved for 1651 Washington with vegetative screening and illumination limits
Summary
The Historic Preservation Board approved two artistically framed rooftop projections at 1651 Washington, subject to vegetative screening, irrigation and drainage controls, dimming limits and staff conditions to ensure the projections are not visible from the street and comply with local light-pollution standards.
The board approved a certificate of appropriateness Dec. 16 for installation of two non-commercial electronic murals on the rooftop of 1651 Washington, subject to conditions spelled out in the staff report.
Applicant representative Paul Savage presented renderings and explained the murals are artistically driven, slow-moving projections intended for rooftop patrons and not for street-level viewing. Per code, the applicant will install vegetative planters around the rooftop perimeter (species and planters sized so the screening reaches at least six feet) to ensure the projections are not visible from the right-of-way and to meet dimming limits (250 nits maximum; turn-off or dimming after midnight to 7 a.m. as required).
Board members asked technical questions about irrigation and drainage; the landscape architect (Keel Semler) testified the planters will use drip irrigation tied into the existing rooftop irrigation and drainage; runoff will be routed to the roof drainage system. The project team emphasized the projections are shielded and limited in height so they cannot be seen from most public vantage points.
MDPL (Roger Goldblatt) supported the project conditioned on compliance with local light-pollution regulations and dark-sky standards. The board approved the certificate with staff conditions and noted the need for Commission review if the murals exceed 100 square feet or otherwise trigger that threshold.
The applicant agreed to staff conditions and to maintain irrigation and plantings; staff will monitor compliance with illumination limits and visibility restrictions.
