 All right, all set. All right, great. Welcome everybody to the Amherst Design Review Board meeting of January 29th, 2024. My name is Erica Zecas and it's the chair of the Amherst Design Review Board. I'm calling this meeting to order at 5.02 p.m. The meeting is being recorded and will be made available via the town of Amherst YouTube channel and minutes are being taken. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and extended again by chapter two of the acts of 2023. This meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. A hyperlink to the hearing will be posted on the town's online calendar. Board members, I will take a roll call and when I call your name, unmute yourself and answer affirmatively. Catherine Porter. Here. Lizzie Schnarr. Here. Cara and Winter. Here. Oh, here. Pat Oth. Present. And Erica Zecas, present. We're also joined by Rob Wachela and Chris Brestrup from the town. Board members, if technical issues arise, we may need to pause temporarily to fix the problem and then continue the meeting. If the discussion needs to pause, it will be noted in the minutes. Please use the raise hand function to ask a question or make a comment. I will see your request and call on you to speak. After speaking, remember to unmute yourself. The general public comment item is reserved for public comment regarding items that are not on tonight's agenda. Please be aware that the board will not respond to comments during the general public comment period. Public comment could also be heard at other times during the meeting when determined appropriate. Please indicate that you wish to make a comment by clicking the raise hand button when public comment is solicited. If you join the meeting, the Zoom meeting using a telephone, please indicate that you wish to make a comment by pressing star nine on your phone. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name and address and put yourself back into mute when finished speaking. Residents can express their views for up to three minutes or at the discretion of the design review board chair. If a speaker does not comply with these guidelines or exceeds their allotted time, their participation will be disconnected from the meeting. Tonight's agenda includes two projects, DRB FY 2024-10, William Nurse from Astor and Pine Market and 2024-11 South Pleasant Street, LLC. We'll have a general public comment period before that approval of the last meeting minutes and other business. So I believe the agenda has a general public comment period coming next. Rob, is there anybody in the audience tonight would like to speak? Yeah, so just a reminder to folks in attendance, if you wanted to make a general public comment before the design review board, you can do so by using the raise hand function or by pressing star nine on your phone if you're calling in. I guess we'll give people maybe 10, 15 seconds to do that. I'm not seeing any hands up. So I guess we can assume that we do not have any general public comment for the board tonight. All right, we'll go slow on the next part in case anybody has a last minute change of parts. All right then. Well, so then is somebody in the audience as a representative for Aster and Pine? So we do have Bill Nurse, who I'm going to promote to panelists. And I'm assuming he'll let us know if there's other people on his team who'll be joining us as well. Sure. Very hi. Hi. Hi. Greetings and welcome. Erica Zico's chair of the DRB with the rest of the panelists. If you wouldn't mind, introduce yourselves. And I'm happy to share my screen on your behalf with the materials that you submitted or you could share your screen. You've let us know what you'd like to do. We'd like you to share the screen. All right, I'll do that. And while I'm getting that started, why don't you introduce yourselves and walk us through your presentation? So yeah, good evening everybody. My name is Bill and this is my wife, Mallory. Hello. My wife and I came to Amherst and we're ready to serve the community with this new vibrant store that's boutique wine, craft beer, local produce and unique locally sourced as well as globally inspired ingredients. And my wife is a interior designer and she actually works at the street at Cuneville Architects and now she'll be presenting the design for the exterior. Hello, Mallory. Nice to see you all. As you can see, we're in our shop tonight just for a little inspiration. We're getting ready to open in February so we're very excited. So just to talk briefly about the design, we want our facade to reflect our brand. So as you can see the rendering and visual aids here show that. To start with the existing facade, right now there's this fabric awning that was previously for the VG salon that was previously here. And we are proposing to remove that fabric awning and there is a wood awning that's existing behind it that you can't even see. So that kind of reveals the existing wood awning and you can see that in the rendering above that image. So we're proposing to paint the entire awning and the facade in a color that reflects our brand. And we think that by removing the awning, it will really engage patrons as they pass by and allow for more merchandising opportunities given this is now a retail environment versus a salon that it was before. And so we're also trying to be mindful of the continuity in the existing facade. So to our left and right, there are those fabric awnings but we think the wood awning really reflects that geometry and provides that continuity which is nice from the street view. And so in addition to painting the brick and the wood awning that exists there, we're also proposing to add a window logo in the center window as you can see in the elevation to the right of the rendering. We're just highlighting that as a circle right there. So it will be as you see it below, Aster and Pine Market. And we just have a little inspiration image to the right that kind of illustrates how we plan to paint the lettering for Aster and Pine Market above. So above the, yeah, thank you. So above the windows, we're proposing to have our name hand-painted above there. And we think with the light creamy white color, it will really pop with the dark facade. For lighting, I wanted to just touch on that. A lot of the, we noticed that a lot of the adjacent storefronts utilize interior lighting to provide that glow at night. And again, activate some of the merchandising at the window. And so we plan to do a similar thing by lighting from the interior. Does anyone have any questions? I have to figure out how to unmute myself every time it's supposed to be every month. Thank you for that presentation. Yes, anybody from the board have any questions or comments? Let me know by flagging your hand or raising a digital hand and I'll call on you. Lindsay. Hello. Well, this is a really beautiful proposal and exciting to see this coming to town. So thank you for putting it together. And I think my, my obvious only question is just in terms of the lettering, is it the font that's shown in the rendering and elevation or the font that's shown in that pull out view down below? It will be the font that showed in the view down below. So that's our brand font. And so that will reflect that. So it's a little bit of a Sam Serif, the modern twist. Okay. Great. And I'm not opposed to the painting on of the lettering, but I do feel, I guess I'm curious about that choice, mainly because it doesn't offer the same kind of like reveal that you get or like the shadowing that you get from an applied lettering. Yeah. No, I agree. Metal lettering is often something that is a nice touch. So we actually came to the decision to paint it based on a local vendor. I don't know if you're familiar with hired hands painting. He's done a lot of great work around town and we just love her work. So we've had a meeting with her and she's providing us a proposal. And she actually does a little bit of a shadow line behind the lighter lettering that gives it that pop. But we love the hand-painted look and we don't want it to look to commercialized or anything. So we think adding the hand painting versus a metal letter or something applied would just give it that sort of like friendly or feel, if that makes sense. Do you intend to do the shadow line? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I think that sounds great. I'm glad to hear that. And yeah, I'll open it up to other people. I think it looks beautiful. Yeah, I'll just briefly build on what Lindsey was gonna say because my only comment did also concern the lettering and I noticed that the perspectival view had chose a bit of a shadow as though it's projecting from the face. And I actually think that that's an excellent feature. It's gonna help it to pop because the example that you showed with the white on the darker gray has a greater contrast than the cream on the green. Rob? I forgot how to lower my hand. So I guess one question I have is a non-bore member. In terms of the lettering above the window, is there gonna be a way that's gonna be visible I guess in the evening hours or like in your like 5 p.m. in the wintertime hours? So is there like a streetlight nearby that might adequately light the air or something like that? There is a streetlight actually right in front. And so it does provide that glow. And then we're just hoping that the light versus against the dark will also provide that contrast that will be visible even in the evening hours. But there's a lot of light on the sidewalk actually. Okay, that was my only question I guess. Great, thanks Rob. Anybody else or Catherine or Karen? One way and Karen, go ahead. Yeah, I think it's really exciting and looks so elegant. I just wanna tell you how enthusiastic we are to have you come. Thank you, we're really excited to be here. So, yes, well it's such a great location and your sense of style just is all over it. So I just, I'm gonna agree with everything positive that can be said about it. And yeah, I think Amherst needs it and deserves it and you deserve a chance to really make a good impression there. So that's my comment. Thank you so much. Excellent, thank you. And I thought, Pat, now you have your hand and then Karen yours is up as well so you could go after. Yes, I do. I just wanna echo the other comments. I had the same question about the lettering and the lighting, but I think that's been answered so that it will be prominent in its own way. But I'm delighted to have a business like this in the heart of Amherst. It's wonderful. Yeah, it's fantastic. Thank you Pat and Lindsay. Now I was just tuning into the painting of the brick and it looks like in the bottom left image of the existing facade that the neighboring business, is that Xana? Yeah. Yeah. So is that painted white brick? Yeah. Yeah. And is it coplanar with the that is unpainted or is there like a bend in the planes? Yeah, so it actually like converges at that spot. There's a slight fold. There's a slight fold. Slight fold, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I just, I guess my only, you know, just word of warning, not warning, but like, you know, just to be really diligent about trying to get that as clean as possible because I think that the paint against the paint on an uneven surface like brick could be tricky. So I'm sure you'll be careful with that. And then at the other corner, it's the paint stops at that corner. Is that right? Yeah. Erica. So we did think about, you know, when thinking through the design, we thought about maybe trying to turn the corner with the paint, but there is this art piece that's anti-brick and we didn't want to just serve it. We don't really know, you know, the origins of it. And then also botanica's awning butts up right against it. Logistics of removing that to paint, you know, so that was our thought process through ending the paint at that corner. Erica, could you just scroll up to see that proposed corner? I mean, I think that looks really nice. So I have no issues. I just, you know, I just want to make sure it's as clean as possible. I think that's a really wise piece of advice, Lindsay, you know. For sure. We have a wonderful painter that actually Brad Forbes painting. He did the whole interior here and he already provided a quote for the exterior. So we did a trial run. So we got to see his work inside. Although he'll be clean outside. Yeah, it's very meticulous, yeah. Excellent. Excellent. And then Pat, you've got your hand up again. Oh, I'm sorry, I don't. Why? It's like the muting, I forget. Don't worry at all. We've heard from everybody, so I'm wondering if there is no additional comment. Although I do have one thing, one question has just come up for me and that's regarding any additional signage like your hours say on the door or if you treat that as like a temporary kind of sign. I really like what you're doing with the vinyl application on the, or sorry, the painted application on the window, but wondering if there would be any additional signage. Yeah, so perhaps the number, the street number above the door, just for clarity to make sure people know what number we are. But other than that, it would just be like a temporary, if we did do hours on the door, which we don't know, we will, would be temporary. And just to speak to the vinyl versus painted on the window, to start, we're gonna do vinyl because they can't paint if it's too cold out. So just for the right amount of vinyl and then just so that we have some visibility and then when they're ready to paint, they'll do pan painted for the logo. And then just to clarify so that we don't have to make you come back again, the number, if you do a street number on the door, you'll stay in the same font. Yeah, same font, color, it will be small, but enough to see packages and things. Okay, great. So can we entertain a motion to approve this project? I move that we approve the petition for Aster and Pine Market. Thank you, is there a second? I second. Thank you, Peth. All those in favor, please let us know. I see a unanimous vote. Thank you very much for being here. I wish you lots of luck in your opening days and... Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing you all in the shop. Yeah, we'll be there. Everybody have a great evening. You as well, take care. Thank you so much. Okay, let me stop my share. How do I do that? Should be at the bottom. Yeah, there you go. All these screens are overlapping. Your hand is still up. Do you want to pop that down? We can get ready for the next... All right, so the next project is the South Pleasant Street. So any representatives in the audience for South Pleasant Street, make yourself known. So I do have a Jonathan Salvon who I'm going to promote to panelists. And I'm assuming they'll tell me who else they need to promote after the fact. Yeah, I'm unmuted and I'm on. Rob, there should be, I think, I suspect Barry Roberts is in the audience somewhere, possibly Tom Reedy and John Kuhn. I'm sending them all panelists' links as we speak. You brought a whole party. Well, why not have fun? I'm going to apologize. I have a bit of a cold. And so if I get squeaky at some point, you'll have to forgive me. All right. So while everybody's coming on board, good evening, Mr. Kuhn. Oh, John, you need to unmute. Good evening. While everyone's coming on board, I just want to let everyone know because this is such a comprehensive project, we're going to move through the, what is it, nine DRB guidelines, which is kind of part of our mandate. And so we're going to ask you all to make your presentation as you would like to do, but then we're going to do our review with kind of item by item through the guidelines. It'll take us through things like height and proportion. Fair warning in advance that there's a lot of redundancy in these, we'll do our best to not make it excruciating. And also, I just want to remind everybody that the DRB's purview, our mandate is to review of the exterior expression of the building and its materiality, facade design, proportions, et cetera, including landscape and pedestrian features as well. And so we might be interested in what's going on inside the building, especially as it relates to how that's expressed on the exterior, but it's not really part of our review. So you could walk us through that, like what's happening in terms of floor plan design and things like that, but you don't really have to accept as it affects what's going on on the exterior, which is everything of course, but hopefully that makes some sense. Great. All right, and you have, I think the ability to share your screen unless you want me to do the driving for you. I would be perfectly happy to do the driving. Super. And John and I are going to both give this presentation. He's going to do the first piece and I'll pick it up part way through. I just like to check quickly with Barry to make sure that he doesn't have an opening remark. He is an integral part of the team working with the current owners as the developer. Oh, I don't hear him chiming in. So I think John, if you want to get going. All right, well, good evening. I'm assuming everyone can see the screen by the way and an image of... Yep, looks great, John. Okay. John, do you want to start with this one or the next one? I'd actually go back to the previous one. Is that up now? No, the one you just had up for the aerial. Oh, okay, yep. Yeah, I think this is a good place to start. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. This has been an exciting project to work on and it's exciting to actually finally present it in a public domain. I think all projects like this have a story and the story often informs the design and that's certainly the case here. What I'd like to do is just give a brief history and a little bit about how this project got off the ground and then I'll turn it back over to Jonathan to dig into more of the details of the design. This is a great aerial slide because it really shows that part of downtown Amherst. That section of buildings there is known as Merchants Row. Most of those buildings were built in the 1870s and 1880s and most if not all of them were designed by the same architect William Fennell Pratt. He was a well-known architect in Northampton. He designed the Northampton City Hall, the Dickinson Houses, the Hills Houses and many other structures in this area. The Hastings building as we call it was built in 1879 and in 1914, Asa J Hastings started a stationary store. It was not in that location at the time. It was a little further down South Pleasant Street but in 1937 it was moved into that location. The Hastings bought the building and ran it as a stationary store for many years. Asa's son, Don Hastings and his wife, Phyllis, ran it through the 70s and 80s. They lived on North Prospect Street and I used to see them walking to work during that period of time. Their son, David, took over the store in the 80s and David married Mary Brohl and they were gonna pick up the store as Don and Phyllis retired. Unfortunately, David had a tragic accident passed away in 1997. Sharon Povinelli, who's one of the other owners of the building and was owner of Hastings started working there in 1988 after getting out of UMass and so she and she wasn't really planning to stay in the retail business but she ended up doing so and she and Mary became partners and ran Hastings for many years. As you all know, in June of 2022, they had to close down just because I think it was a very difficult decision for them but the retail business, especially in the stationary line was there's just a lot of competition and it was difficult to keep it open. So they have been since that time trying to figure out what to do both with the retail space but also with the building as a whole and they approached me back in the spring. Barry, they had actually talked to Barry and I think Barry said, why don't you talk to John Keown and so I met with Mary and Sharon and we walked through the building. I'll pause there just for a minute because I wanna mention a couple other things while we're on this slide since they're pertinent to the project. 45 South Pleasant is the Brown building, right? Yeah, you see the cursor there. Somewhere under the bones there is an old historic building as well but it's been renovated so many times over the years that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything historic about that structure. It was also retail for many years. It was a bookstore that started, a Jeffrey Amherst bookstore started about the same times as when Hastings moved into 55 and most recent owners of that were Joy and Howard Gerstin and they closed in 2009. So that main space in that building, the retail space on the first floor has been vacant for 15 years. So that building has come into play in this project as well. Behind the building, you can see the three-story L and that structure was added to the main building sometime in the late 19th century. It's three stories as well but it does not, the three stories don't connect to the three stories in the front section. So it's kind of a very separate building. And the last thing I want to mention just from this aerial is to the left is 79 South Pleasant Street which is the old Baptist church and it was a project Ken Riddle did some years ago. And I just pointed out because it's an historic building with a very modern building to the rear with completely different materials and a different palette. And I think it's successful in that it, the contrast of the old and the new really accentuates the existing building in a very positive way. And I think that's something we tried to do with the Hastings building. So in the spring, Mary and Sharon invited me over to take a look at the building and we walked around and their thought was they wanted to rent the first floor to retail possibly two stores since they're at one point had been two storefronts. But the primary thing they wanted to talk about was how to turn the back L into some apartments. And I looked at that and it's a, there hasn't been much work in that building and over that section of the building in over a hundred years. It's in bad shape, low floor to floor heights. To renovate that, you might get two, maybe three residential units out of that. And given today's codes, especially energy codes, it was just gonna be a very expensive project and probably wouldn't pay for itself. But as I started to look at the project and at the parcel, and I think if you go to the right side of the site plan, the town GIS maps that are to the right, you'll see that the parcel for Hastings is a fairly large parcels, 180 something feet deep and 85 feet wide. And you can see 45, the small rectangle there that's kind of tucked up against the other building. So I'm looking at this, what made the most sense for them as this building is their legacy. It's a family heirloom. And they really wanna do something that is going to be beneficial to the town, but also allows them to maintain this building. What made sense is to build a structure behind it. It's a perfect place for more density. The main thing, the main plus here is that it's actually behind Merchant's Row. It sits back behind all the buildings. So a taller building, like a five-story building will not have as much of a presence on the main street as all the other buildings that have the five-story buildings that have been built recently. So I think if we go maybe to the next slide, okay. So this is the parcel. And as you can see that white area is just pavement. That's about 85 by 100 feet or so. When you take down the existing three-story L, you have a very clean place to build surrounded by other structures. And the other existing building to be demolished there on the right, that's 44. After talking about this and starting to do some sketches of how a five-story building might be added on here, Barry's wisely said, well, maybe we should find out what's going on with the brown building next door. And eventually they made an offer on the building that was accepted and bought the building. A demolition delay was applied for back in October, November. Six-month delay was put on the project until the latter part of April this year. The trick with a project like this is that the existing building has fairly high floor-to-floor heights, 13 feet or so. And the maximum height for a building unless you're looking for a special permit and we are not looking for any special permits. This is only beside plan review from the planning board. The maximum height is 55 feet. So 11 feet or so per floor is not gonna line up well with two floors at 13 feet. So part of the trick was to make this one building, yet at the same time mesh it together in a way that the staggered floor lines wouldn't matter. Maybe go to the next slide, Jonathan. So in a simplistic way, what you'll see here is the building on the right is three stories. The existing building could be renovated from top to bottom. The first floor will be, as you probably know already, will be a bookstore for Amherst College. It'll be housing residential on the upper floors. And the new building would be five stories, 55 feet high and that gray area between them is really the area where circulation, elevator, stair, hallways, that's where we can make the difference between the floor heights. There would be a two-sided elevator that will allow for those staggered floor plates. The first floor, as you'll see, is just gonna be, originally we looked at it in parking, but you just don't get many parking spaces under there and a building of this sort, residential building with just retail on the first floor of the existing requires other things other than parking. We needed mechanical space and garbage pickup and bike racks and those kinds of things. So the first floor is really allocated to those uses and then there'll be four floors of apartments. So that is basically the kind of the concept that was developed. I did some sketches and brought it up to a certain point and then handed it over to Jonathan and then they have been developing the design and I think I'll turn it back over to him and let him, and it looks like Barry might have his hand up there. Yeah, Barry does have his hand up. So we will pause and let Barry speak. I just wanted to make a slight correction, John, you have set the street numbers wrong. The building, the small brown building to come down is 55. Yes, right. And Hastings store was 45 and the Hastings building is 45. That's right. I just wanted to correct that. We move one more slide ahead. I'm just kind of building a little bit on what John was saying. Again, here in the brighter tone are those two kind of main blocks, but now we're kind of looking at it as it will be carved out at the ground floor level and this more tan tone, that again, that's going to be that building core that'll have the back and front elevator and stairs from a site plan perspective. As John noted earlier, this is all a kind of paved surface now. There's really no green scape at all with the exception of a little tiny bit of a planter that extends along the west side of the building that sets in a wood timber retaining wall. That's scheduled to be left as is. And in place of the 55 building, the existing 55 building, we're proposing a new kind of entry plaza that would be about 39 feet wide between the Hastings building and the Adjoining building and about just shy of 60 feet deep. That would include an accessible ramp that will take us or accessible path that will take us into the main floor level. This also will serve as the second way out for the retail space. And then proceeding further back, we're kind of expressing an arcade. The upper portions of the building, the residential portions of the building will extend out to this line if my folks can see my cursor. But there'll be an open arcade that will provide access back to some accessible parking places and eventually storage for bicycles, trash, second means of egress. But as John noted earlier, the first floor is our accessory uses to the residential uses. There won't be any residential space units on this first floor level. Jonathan, if I could just interject one thing. When the Brown building came into play, the first thought was, well, maybe we'll just extend the existing building out there and build more apartments. But as we looked at that, it really didn't make much sense. It didn't add that much space. It would be expensive space to add. And we really liked the idea of keeping the pall part of the building to the rear of the site and creating kind of a new vehicular and pedestrian entrance there. So even though the Brown building takes space there now, we felt removing it entirely made for a more appropriate project. Just to touch on a couple other items, it kind of from a site plan perspective, there is an existing easement that runs along the southern side of the lot. It's about 11 feet wide. This will be kept open as it is required. The green lines represent kind of a 10 foot setback while we could have gone closer to the property lines. This really was a good kind of balancing point between being able to have nice glazing and having enough kind of space to work in. So it worked. I'm gonna move to our next slide. So these are existing and new views sort of standing on the opposite side of the sidewalk on the corner by where the farmer's market has been in past years before they moved out to the actual green space of the common. So down here in the lower right, you can see the existing 55 South Pleasant structure and the existing 45 building here. And then in our new, you can see that five-story form of the new piece at the back. And this tower expression is really the expression of that connecting space where we'll have our elevator and stair that kind of moderates between the two forms, the larger portion at the back and the existing piece at the front. We're not planning to make any major changes to the existing exterior of the 45 South Pleasant building. We are proposing to extend the color around the corner to make it look more finished, especially when this brown building comes down, there's likely to be scarring in the brick. And while we'll do a good job of trying to piece in new brick or make that scarring less apparent, I think that the yellow will be a nice way with painting that, taking that color around the corner be a nice way of kind of blending that form and turning it around the corner. The folks who will be running the bookstore at some point will come back for their signage. We don't know what their signage back, it should look like. So we're not presenting any new signage tonight. We do know that they intend to paint the, as we can see down here in that lower right picture, the kind of reddish color of the storefront is now paint that a dark gray. When they come back to present the signs, they may have a swatch for that. So I've done my best to kind of show the design intent, but I don't have that color swatch with us. The existing lighting along the front will remain. We are proposing, and you'll see a detail of this a little further in, some new historic signage, kind of remembering the AJ Hastings store. Focusing now back on that kind of front entry plaza, on the right is the pathway that would take you up a slope path to the main entrance. And then towards the left, marked off by these bollards, is that pathway to the arcade that'll take you back to those parking spaces and some of the first floor amenity spaces that need access to the exterior. We're proposing a new sign here at the front. While we won't see it in this view, when we come to some other views, you'll see that obviously we're gonna need a new transformer for this project. That transformer is placed in the front, but we're screen that with plantings. John Chyman, if I miss anything. Nope, I will. On the next sheet, we'll have some examples of what the proposed materials are. So I'll call them out here and then we can look at them on the next sheet. We are proposing a brick base for the residential block at the back. That will stretch all the way back around to the west and north sides. Above that, we're proposing a vertical metal siding, which is, as John noted, one of the materials that's on the 79 South Pleasant project at the back, on the newer building. And here, proposing two colors, two tones, a kind of reddish tone that hopefully will pick up the warmth of the brick that surrounds the site in the adjacent buildings and then a gray tone and then an accent in a dark gray at the spandrel panels. So this next sheet, hopefully that's come on your screens, shows two views from the south. The upper one is really the one you experience because there's still portions of the adjacent building that will tend to block your view from most angles. So we're behind, if you'll bear with me just for a moment, I'm gonna go back several pages just to orient to a little bit. That next view you're seeing is kind of taken back here behind this adjacent building. So from the south, you will see the full, or excuse me, five-story form. We've grouped the windows together so that we're not looking at just a series of kind of anonymous punched openings, but some nice groupings that I think give the building a really nice elegant but simple character. Again, here's some examples of those siding materials while it will be oriented vertically as proposed here. This is the style of the metal panel that will be the basis of the kind of main block of the building and then this style of metal panel is at the spandrel. So you have a vertical material here on the base of the building and a horizontal accent at the spandrels. The colors proposed are shown here in the upper right. This is great. Excuse me, my voice is beginning to crack. The main body is proposed as a chromium gray. These are colors from a company called Moran Metals, which is out of Connecticut. And then that accent at the tower is in this redwood color. And again, these spandrels are this dark, what they call a blue gray. To me, it just looks like a pretty neutral gray. Looking at this more flat on view, one of the things we can begin to see is kind of a side view of what this entry plaza will look like. Here you can see the transformer and the screen plantings that we're proposing to make that discreet from the street. Move on to the next page. So there's two more views. This would be the top one here. This is the view from the west, from the parking lot to the west of the Emmer Cinema, where you'll see the building form setting behind it. Again, this is that kind of flat on view, which is really hard to see with the trees and the adjacent building. And then lastly, we have a view down the alleyway between the Bank of America building and the Emmer Cinema. And this is the view you would see in that space. And then this is the full form of the facade, most of which would sit behind the Emmer Cinema building. And lastly, to focus on that entry plaza in a little bit more detail, in the upper left, you can see a slightly elevated view, again, with that walkway, a covered walkway that takes you back to the entry. Some ballards to separate the travel lane, the car vehicle lane from the pedestrian zone. We're also proposing a material change from asphalt to concrete to highlight that difference. This is a view taken in the opposite direction. So if you were standing back here, if you can see my cursor, looking back towards the street, back towards the common, this is the view you would see. There's a small set of stairs that connects these two pathways. So we're proposing a new kind of pylon masonry and granite building sign for the 55 building, which would be here in the site plan. Again, this is the transformer in its pad, building entry is here, a bike rack, bench, some seasonal or perennial flowering plantings at the front and some ornamental grasses, which have nice three-season color and form at the back, providing most of the screening at the transformer. Here's a detailed look at that historical kind of marker sign for the A.J. Hastings piece and then our signage for the building signage. John, did I miss anything as I was- No, I think- I'll go through there. I think the big story here is that we're trying to do our best to respect the existing building and push it to the forefront and keep a five-story structure to the rear and respectful of the existing building and creating a nice zone between the two buildings as an entry point. Well, thank you for that presentation and thanks for starting us off with a little history lesson. It's nice to hear about the long storied past of these buildings and kind of giving us some insight into the kind of positive Amherst focused intentions of the team here. I think I want to pause and just noticing how many people are in the audience and I'd like to pause to solicit general public comment one word for nine before we get started on our review because once we do, we won't take a break for hearing from the public. So, good. So just a reminder, if you want to be heard for public comment, please use your raise hand function or if you're calling in, you can use press star nine. Not seeing any hands. Okay, great. Well, we'll just march on forward. So thank you so much. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read aloud the design review board standard and then ask for members of the DRB to let me know if they have any thoughts or comments on that standard and we'll just kind of go around and solicit feedback. So the first standard is height. The height of any proposed alteration shall be compatible with the style and character of the building structure or site being altered and that of the surroundings. So my sense is that it's appropriate for the zoning and the downtown context. And I really appreciate that the five story portion of the building is pushed to the back of the block step back from the streetscape because I think it really retains the integrity of the historic facades. Is there anybody else who wants to weigh in on this particular item? Yeah, I would agree. We have another building some plates that may be behind Judy's that was at the time people were like all in a tizzy, it was a little higher but you know, it really, that building and others in the back, they blend in. And I personally don't think that this is gonna really cause any distraction to the downtown. The height of the elevator shaft. Oh, I have a little bit of a concern about. But to be honest, looking at that little dumb brown building, it's like, we lived with that forever. Nobody said anything. And now that it's gone, there is going to be some reaction to this. I think people are gonna say, what are you doing? But in terms of the apartment building in the back, I think it makes perfect sense that it can, they are, it's a little taller than the frontage. And in my perspective, my own personal opinion, it's okay. I'm a little concerned about the elevator shaft, but it will be back behind the walkway. So I guess that's all I can say on that. All right, thanks Catherine for sharing that. And I saw Lindsay, you had your hand in IRL and then Pat, you can go after Lindsay, how's that sound? Thank you. Yeah, I didn't use the appropriate hand, but thank you, and this is just a very exciting project. And I'm so happy to see that Hastings is being given some new life and that the legacy will go on. Just a general comment about the massing of the larger five-story building to the back. I actually think that the elevator shaft being taller works to the advantage of reducing the scale of the five-story addition on the back because it pops up. So it makes it feel like the larger portion of the five-story building actually sits a little lower. So I feel like that actually creates a nice counterpoint to give the relief of the larger mass to the back that we wouldn't necessarily get without that taller shaft. So I think in terms of the use of setting the massing back and having that shaft pop up and then bringing the scale of the five-story down a bit works really well with the site. Thanks Lindsay, go ahead, Pat. I'm gonna echo some of what Catherine said and some of what Lindsay said. I think preserving the Hastings building and keeping the streetscape familiar is a wonderful effort with that. And the fact that we know that we need more housing in Amherst, the use of that space for a building that really had no stated purpose anymore seems to meet some of the growing needs of Amherst and it's tasteful as it's incorporated with the Hastings building. So I applaud the plan and look forward to seeing it. That's great, thank you. Shall we move on then? Our next item is proportions. The proportions and relationships of height to width between windows, doors, signs, and other architectural elements should be compatible with the architectural style and character of the building or structure in that of the surroundings. My sense here is that the building really, I think what Lindsay said, it kind of negotiates the height change artfully with that circulation spine and the tower. That's hard to call it a tower but that vertical element there. I think that I have two thoughts and one is that that vertical volume does feel, it doesn't feel too tall but it almost feels too independent and I don't know if this is a proportions comment or not but it's in part due to materiality. I think because it's not one or the other or a negotiation of the two it's something completely different in terms of its materials and I wonder if you had considered like continuing the brick base around or the color of the panels to integrate it a little not entirely perhaps, but a little bit more. We certainly have done a number of color studies over the last month or so. For us this, we felt this was kind of a balance. It's a little, it doesn't show in this view particularly well because of the way the shadows are but the intent is for this red material to actually continue under the arcade and that wall that's set back, kind of the back wall of the arcade would have more of that, the reddish tone in it. It's always a little hard to, colors are a tough thing and certainly it is hard to get them to render perfectly the same on screens as they are in real life but the intent with this red color is to have something that's in, we're not gonna be able to match all the bricks in downtown but to have something that's in that same color family and so I think our hope is that it will, it will not seem like all that separate a piece. To answer one question that you asked Erica, we did consider actually the very first thing we thought about was that the tower should be brick that the base should wrap around and then become the tower but as we looked at it more, it felt like maybe introducing the metal siding in a color that kind of replicates the brick to some extent, it'll be different but might be a better solution, so that's the way we went. Yeah, my suspicion is that it's very much about the rendering quality and that the texture and the shadows and all of that in real life is gonna make it feel much better integrated but I think because you're also negotiating the different height levels, there's just something there at the base that I wanna have it feel more integrated and acknowledging that at the corner perhaps with some kind of a detail could be interesting. I'll see the floor, I see that Karen has her hand up and then we'll go to Rob. Yeah, I like that it's separate, I think it breaks it up a little bit. You are complimenting it but it is completely new and it is modern from the windows and the siding and I like that. I think it's gonna add interest and break it up and I think it's very attractive, though it is very separate. Thanks, Karen. Go ahead, Rob. So I kind of wanted to echo your comment, Erica, about it feeling a little bit independent and I think maybe just from the renderings, I guess the red looks a little bit too dark compared to the brick and so I guess maybe when they actually put the metal siding on there, maybe it won't be as dark as contrasted from the brick. So maybe if it was closer in color but still slightly different, it wouldn't feel as independent but I guess it's hard to kind of judge that now because the renderings versus what we see in real life. Yeah. Lindsay? Thank you. So I'm gonna first touch on the proportion question and then tie into the material point that Erica made. So in terms of proportion, I really appreciate that the width of the windows, the punched opening windows of the historic Hastings building is preserved but that it works with this kind of more modern, larger scale openings that happen throughout the addition and the use of the spandrel to connect the floors and so I think it works really well that the proportion of the windows are relating to the punched openings of the Hastings building but they're still much, much larger areas so that feels like a nice thoughtful feature. Is there a convention that there's some redundancy and overlap between all of our different topics so it's hard to talk about one in isolation of the other but I do think that there's some thoughts around materiality that are relevant to the discussion of what happens with the feeling of that corner and I'm gonna just hold on that because I think maybe we'll come back to it when we talk about materials. I think proportionately it looks like it's consistent with the historic in a nice, modern way. Karen? Oh, sorry, I forget to lower it. Okay, no problem, we all do it. Okay, so let's, oh, sorry, Pat, go ahead and then we'll move on to the next one. Oh, you're muted though. Sorry, as I continue to look at the rendering, I think the illusion, the way the windows are placed in the building give a sense of three stories as opposed to five and that is more consistent with what we see in the streetscape and so I think that illusion works to the advantage of proportion. All right, let's step forward to item three, which is relation of structures and spaces. The relation of a structure to the open space between it and adjoining structures should be compatible with such relations in the surroundings and so here is a place to comment on the scale of the public plaza in front of the building, which I think is just worth deeply appreciating on a busy street and it also really opens up the alley and access to the back of the block and laughing dog and things like that, so I think it's proportionally, relationally appropriate. Does anybody else have thoughts on this particular item? Lindsay, feel free? Yeah, I love the plaza. I think that's a really great use of that space and rather than trying to fill that in, would really feel like it was competing with the existing building in a way and so I think that the use of that area to be landscape and ramp and arcade really works well and I think this is partly just due to the rendering but I do feel like there's a question around the, the way to bring light and visibility into the arcade. So just thinking about it as a space that really does need to be opened up in some capacity right now, it feels very much like it's in shadow and I know that's partly just the rendering but I also wonder if it might be that way if there isn't some intention around how to light it and bring either daylight or both daylight and artificial light in. There's a thought there, I don't know if, I think that area just needs a little bit of attention in terms of light, but I love it as an open space. I think in reality, it would be a lot lighter than what's shown in the rendering that it's always red a little bit dark and at night, it's gonna be, the ceiling gives us an opportunity to really light the entry in a nice way and draw people into the front door. Both of these arcade spaces would have, soft mounted lights, both the accents, the architecture of the pieces themselves but also make this a relatively bright and inviting space. Yeah, and it may also be the plantings don't wanna get too tall so that you can still see through, which obviously is just a modeling graphic thing right now but it is something to think about in terms of the landscaping, that keeping that sight line open as much as possible with whatever the height of the planting that low wall is so important piece. All right, shall we move on then to the next? Promised some overlap, shape, the shape of the roof, windows, doors and other design elements should be compatible with the architectural style and character of the building site and that of its surroundings. And I think other people have alluded to this already it's kind of the shape of the new apertures on the side of the Hastings block and then the scale, like how you transition the scale of the individual openings to the grouped openings on the back I think is wholly appropriate here as is the shape of the building form. So, are there any other comments on shape? I see Rob, go ahead Rob. I also wanna state that I like how they kept to the flat roof style they'd see on that block and corner so I guess in terms of shape and integrating the outside buildings and surrounding structures they did a really nice job with that. Thanks. Okay, next stop is landscape. Any proposed landscape development or alteration should be compatible with the character and appearance of the surrounding area landscape and streetscape elements including topography, plant things, paving patterns should provide continuity and definition to the street, pedestrian areas and surrounding landscape. Lindsay, you already alluded to a landscape comment. Do you wanna pick this one up and start us off? I mean, I think it's just a great place to bring landscape in and we've got a lot of hardscape in that area. So there's just so much opportunity to really bring in some life and I love the way you're doing that. I think as I noted before just thinking about scale and making sure that it's not inhibiting sight lines and visibility of the entrance. Yeah, stop. Thanks. I guess the only other comment would be like with the transformer. If that wants to be hidden just thinking about plantings that might offer some year round coverage. That's probably already on your radar. Yeah, I wanna- Putting the transformer in other locations but it really had to be up front. Yeah. I wanna second something that Lindsay kind of leaned into earlier. I am a little bit concerned about the I think it's you labeled it as a dogwood something tall in the front. I think the visibility, the ability to see through as deeply as possible is gonna be a nice quality and an advantage for anybody who's like coming in or out in the evening say. So yeah, I think that I would stick with low plantings or if you did have something taller to kind of move it closer to the transformer rather than having it right up at the front but that's- I guess I was seeing it is an opportunity to kind of introduce certainly it's gonna have to be a dwarf variety one way or the other but to provide sort of a little bit of a streak tree but certainly we'd be open to other plantings we're not fixed on this in any way. Maybe we could just mark it down as something that's worth further study. What I think you wanna avoid is having the canopy I guess if it's a door or having the canopy at eye level you want it above the bed which is not really how oh maybe it's sort of shown that way in the render but I see Chris- Joe Blank everybody. I just wondered if you are able to do anything with the way the transformer looks I noticed that some electrical boxes around town have been painted by artists and is there anything that you can do from the beginning to make it less sort of monolithic? Just a question. I suspect we'd be open to some sort of art project there to help it blend in. I mean, ultimately transformer boxes or transformer boxes they're large boxes you're never gonna completely hide them and I think we have an opportunity there's enough space for screening here that it will go away it'll visually disappear over time. I think Eversource probably is in control of that if they would allow us to paint it we'd probably consider that I think that would be very interesting to do something there but that's something we can look into. This building does have a nice graffiti history so. This is true. All right any other comments on the landscape or should we move forward to scale? The scale of a structure or landscape alteration should be compatible with its architectural or landscape design style and character of that of the surroundings. The scale of ground level elements such as building entryways, windows, porches, plazas, parks, pedestrian furniture plantings and other street and site elements should be determined by and directed towards the use, comprehension and enjoyment of pedestrians. I have no comments because anybody else wants to jump in on this one. Karen go ahead. I'm wondering is this a place where there could is there room for chairs or any sort of places for people that want to sit outside and read a newspaper and would be invited to this area? Or is this is it too small for that? Certainly we're already suggesting a bench here. The because of the way the grades kind of work on this site, you know, a portion of these kind of container walls retaining walls, I'm not really retaining walls, but you know, they could be sitting walls as well. I think that would be lovely. Yeah, that's a really nice point. Feels like a place where you might want to stop for a while. Yeah, of course, there's the newly renovated north common right across the street, too. It's true, too. In case I glossed over it earlier, there's also going to be a place for a bike rack and there simply aren't enough of those in downtown. I'm sure that will get heavily used. Thanks. All right, we'll move on to directional expression. Building facades and other architectural and landscape design elements shall be compatible with those of others in the surrounding area with regard to the dominant vertical or horizontal expression or direction related to the use and historical cultural character as appropriate. So we, again, the overlap here when we were talking before about proportions of that tower, I think that the stair block does read as, to me, I think very vertical, which I actually think it's not the verticality that I have an issue with, it's just how it modulates between the two volumes. So I think that the expression here of the building, and we haven't talked much about the design of the new addition on the back, but I think that it does a really nice job of claiming its contemporary space and feeling like it's relating to the directionality and proportionality of the historic buildings as well. My two cents there. Lindsay, go ahead. Yeah, I think we've touched on most of this. I wonder about the height of the arcade roof and if there's, if this is, could you go on elevation, Erica, please? Or Jonathan? Yeah, so I think what I'm picking up on a little bit is the datum of the transition between the metal on the addition to the back and the brick below, and then around the front where the band of signage is on the historic facade. It feels like both of those are raised up a bit higher. And so it's partly that I think the roofline is reading a little bit narrow for the band at the front. And I don't think it needs to be that thick by any means, but it's just, it's feeling both kind of thin and low. I really love how the columns come down and you have this kind of like, kind of like touching into the existing building while we open on the other side. But I guess I'm just kind of questioning where that datum is with respect to the others, both the one in the back and the front. Did you guys have thoughts on that? If I'm sure I'm hearing you correctly, Lindsay, you're wondering, is this the right height basically for this piece to relate to the front? I certainly, I personally wouldn't want it any higher. Could you pick up this line, that kind of transition between the sign band and the storefront glazing? Perhaps I, going back, I was just trying to do this in my head, but sorry to do that. My concern, we could certainly look at bringing it down some, I, you know, that's a conventional, call it seven foot door. And so we're at something like nine foot to the underside. So I wouldn't want it to be too much lower, at least from the experience kind of being under it. I don't know, John, what's your thought? Well, in the very early, probably one of the earliest schemes, the, that black line that separates the brick and the taller section of the rear, that line there, was actually brought all the way around and that became the canopy itself. And we looked at it and it felt like it was too high. It just fortunately felt high. And also carrying that line around kind of truncated the stair tower. So when we disconnected them and lowered the arcade, and we had the, we took the stair tower all the way through, so there's no horizontal line wrapping through there. And we thought that helped kind of separate the five story piece from the front. Yeah, there was one that's kind of like the down to it. It looks high here, but as Jonathan was saying, the grate is sloping up a couple of feet there to the front door. So by the time you get to the door, it's not that tall. We can still study it a little bit and move it around. Yeah, that's an interesting part. I mean, I wonder if without that piece wrapping around, and I do like that you removed that, you know, letting the tower have its own mass. I guess I just, yeah, I would be curious to see if it, if it did align with that transition on the back, on the addition, if it can be aligned with that transition between the metal and the brick on the back, how would that feel then relating to the historic facade? It just, it feels like both of those are almost at the same level, and then this is just like a little bit lower. What do other people think? Just wear up an ear. I know this is the thing I've been wrestling with, like throughout is that how to negotiate the two, those two really strong horizontal data in the back, at the above the brick arcade and then in the front. And I can see why you have landed with the, just insert something vertical and then let that, and then the spandrel panel be the thing that gives them kind of breaks apart and they both kind of exist in their own space. Yeah, yeah, I'm still wrestling with it a little bit. And I think that I'm not quite sure what it is, but maybe there's, you know, even the introducing a spandrel below that lowest window. Let me see if I can see. Another thing that we might consider here is that the front facade has a lot of detail on it. And you see those sort of horizontal tan bands there. Those are actually a different, they're not brick, they're stone. And they got painted when they painted the front of the building, but one or two or, somehow we could turn the corner with some of that paint and either run it back and in other words, try to mesh the front with the side a little bit more and integrate the canopy a little bit more in doing that. One thing that might be helpful at this point, if you all don't mind my pausing, kind of sharing this, I do have an image that wasn't part of the formal packet, but that kind of shows the, a sense of what it would look like kind of coming up the street. We've been very focused on this one view and part of me wonders, you know, whoops, that's not what I wanted to pull up. That's just a brief. All right, I think that's great. And then, Jonathan, while you're pulling that up, I wonder, Patricia, would you like to make your comment? And do you need the visual to do it? So you're muted though. Sorry about that. I had the same reaction that there was something that wasn't syncing for me with the residential building lines and the roof in the portico. And then looking at the front of Hastings, there's that band, that band, and the roof to the side kind of hits in the middle of that. Is there a happy medium to bring it to be to the top of that band and have some continuity there? It's just a thought, but there was something about the lack of vertical continuity that I couldn't quite put my fingers on. I think those are good points and something for us to look at. Yeah. Yeah. Lizzie, go ahead. I was just, John, are you saying that where those Gooseneck life fixtures are mounted, there's like a gray painted stone. And so wrapping, perhaps wrapping that band around might create a connection with the top of the canopy. That's a nice idea. So anyway, just a thought to discuss, but in terms of that item, that was my only piece. I really love the perspective though that you get from this angle of seeing those tapered beam underneath the canopy. I think what this shows, and we could have done many others, that you really don't see this building except when you get down to that opening. But for most of the areas along South Prospect Street or South Pleasant Street and North Pleasant Street, you're not gonna see the structure. Yeah, your focus will be on the historic building and the insertion of that blaza into that space. All right, so Chris and then Karen, and then we'll see if we can move on to our last two points. I had a question about the painting of the cornice of the existing building. Were you planning to paint that a darker color than what is there now? It looked like it- No, we're trying to do our best for the purposes of a rendering match what's there. At this time, there's no proposal to change any of the colors. Thank you. Other than, as I said earlier, painting the red part of the store front, a dark gray. And where did Karen go? No, okay, withdraw her hand. All right, great. So the next one's a bit of a catch-all and I'm gonna actually combine this one and number nine. So I'm gonna read eight and nine together. So eight, it's architectural insight detail. Architectural insight details, including signs, lighting, pedestrian furniture, planting, paving along with materials, colors, textures and grade shall be treated. This should be compatible with the original architectural and landscape design style of the structure or site and to preserve and enhance the character of the surrounding area. In the downtown business districts, these details should blend with their surroundings to create a diverse, functional and unified streetscape. And then number nine is about signs. The design of signs should reflect the scale and character of the structure and site and its surroundings. Signs should simplify and clearly identify individual establishments, buildings, locations and places while remaining subordinate to the architecture and larger landscape. So like I said, it's a bit of a catch-all and I know this is a place where, like you've mentioned before, Jonathan in your presentation, we're not seeing all of the signage but we can comment on what you have suggested. And we're also not seeing all of the lighting but there's a mention of light, the ballers will have a lighting component. Yeah, I can, you know, obviously we're fairly early in the design phase. We have not selected fixtures for the most part or at all to be more accurate. But the intent would be to have some lighting in the ballards and you know, how many do we need? And if they're lit, you know, that'll be figured out with kind of a photometric plan but we would also have a soft amount of lighting in the arcades. We've talked internally about having the sign letters be backlit so they glow in the evening. You know, obviously the back parts of the building, there'll be some very utilitarian lighting over the doorway so that we're getting the correct number of foot candles for exits and things like that. Should also mention, we haven't really talked about the area on the west and the north side of the building but you will be, you will have pedestrian access all around this building. If you go back to the southwest corner and turn right, you'll be walking along next to the Gillan building and you'll come to a stairway that goes up behind. Yeah, there's a stairway that goes behind the cinema up to the parking lot there. And then if you keep going around to the north, you're on the south side of the Hammer Cinema building and you go into that, the alleyway that runs all the way up to Amity Street. So those areas will be well lit as well and actually probably be a little more pedestrian friendly than they are now because the existing building is very close to the property line. Yeah, I appreciate that. And that's actually one of the comments that I noted down was what is gonna be the lighting conditions and those kind of narrower spaces on the west and north sides of the building. So I think it's important that it goes safe. I believe there's at least one exterior light already on the back of the cinema building but again, at exterior doorways and as appropriate along the back sides, we will have the lighting that meets both the town's requirements when it comes to downcast lighting and the code's requirement for a minimum number of foot gandals of the winning bay back to a public way. Are there any other comments or questions from the DRB members about anything in this kind of broad category of details, site elements? Lindsay? Do we have any other categories? No, that's it. I've lumped the last one, which is signage into this. Okay, so materials wasn't a separate one? No, it's kind of baked into others. I'll go ahead and state my comment, which was, I know that you're talking about colors earlier on, I would be really curious to see how it felt to bring the painted color of the Hastings building of that brick over to the base of the brick base of the addition. I feel like there might, I understand that it's referencing the context of the surrounding brick and I think that that's a nice integration as well. But because of how many different materials there are in this one area, this one building, it feels like bringing that painted brick to the base might help to unify. So I would just consider that as one color study and you've already done it and decided it's not worth considering. And then my other thought was on materials was just that perspective that you just had up where it showed the planting wall. It's like granite. Can you go back to whatever? Yeah, so the top right image, and this is I'm sure just like a rendering thing, but I do think it's an important design detail is how that granite wall, if it is granite or whatever it ends up being the planter wall, meets the foundation wall of the addition because it's showing as like concrete meets granite and it's kind of a funky transition there. So maybe just looking at what that, if there's a way to kind of bring a consistent material across. Good point. And the yellow study could easily be done. Well, looks great. Catherine, go ahead. Yeah, this is a catch-all. I'm concerned or my question is about the drive cars coming in and out. Has this always been the traditional cut through from South Pleasant Street back into the back of those buildings? And so my question really is more about will this development of these apartments create more activity of cars coming in and going out onto the sidewalk and then onto the street? Or will there be other ways in which cars can wind their way back in there? I see you have the ballards to mark where the lane for the cars is, but to me it's a question of safety and maybe there's an answer to that, it's my question. I'll observe that while there'll be more bodies back there, the number of parking spaces has actually been reduced from what it currently is. But I think it's a fair question and yeah, is the lighting, are the ballards enough to create a sense of safety as cars, however few they may be, are moving back into that space? So in some ways, I would say that I think it's gonna be safer than it is today. If we look down here at the existing condition, it's quite narrow, it's only 11 feet at that. And there are many scars on both the buildings on either side of this, where less than attentive drivers have met the buildings. So we're proposing in addition to the ballards, a curb as well. So there'll be a vertical transition and we'll have a visual reminder with the ballards. I can't categorically give you like a count of how many traffic ins and outs we expect, but there are two, just for the kind of clarity for folks, actually I think the best shot is really this one. There's really three drives or lanes, whatever we might wanna call them, that connected back into that larger backspace. It's a bit amorphous behind really, this collection of three or four buildings. Ours, part of this project is one, there's another here between 79 and the adjacent building, and then a third one on the south side of the 79 building. You can kind of see down here that someone's marked up stop, assuming that the traffic flow is this direction. I don't know that any of that traffic flow is that formalized. But there are multiple points. This isn't the only place where people can kind of access that back zone. Right, a bit of a challenge. Just kind of looking through, this is the category that would capture also things like psych furniture and you've indicated bench, but we haven't. So I think that if you do come back with signage and things like that down the road, that you might wanna make a mental note that those are some other things that we'd like to see signage. The actual cuts on that sort of thing. I think Barry has his hand up. Yeah, I just see that, Barry, go ahead. Thank you. I just wanna point out that right now, the way the existing condition is, there is no possibility of separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and we are creating that, hopefully to have a safe passage for the pedestrians from the small, I believe a lot smaller amount of cars going in the back and then out hastings have deliveries to the rear and they ran their delivery service out there and there's quite a few parking spaces there. Now that will be eliminated. So I think we've made a good job of separating pedestrian vehicles. That's my only point, thank you. Appreciate that, thank you. All right, DRB, any additional comments? Karen, please. I'm really excited about this development. I think it's really going to do a lot to enliven that whole part of town bring pedestrians in talking to the younger generation. My daughter has always imagined that the whole place behind there is gonna be outdoor seating, no cars at all. And finally, Amherst will have a center where you can meet outside. So this is kind of a very exciting entry to that new development that we hope will eventually come. I love it, thanks. Great, all right. So we had a couple, if I'm remembering correctly and Rob, I wonder if you could help to sum up. We didn't have very many directives, although I do think that everybody would appreciate some color study or material study around the base of the stair tower, that point of entry. Am I wrong about that? There's quite a few things I took down there and I can go over them if you'd like to consider keeping them in the recommendations. But these aren't really directive in terms of they have to do it. It's more just a suggestion of a way you can move forward that might be more appealing. But the first one deals with the elevator shaft building about how to make it feel less independent from the surrounding buildings. That was one comment that you brought up. We have the finding ways to incorporate more outdoor lighting into the arcade area. It's possible they already done that, but that was just a suggestion that was brought up by Lindsay. You have the consider the year round coverage of plantings for the screening of the transformer. So using species that would provide coverage all year round. Consider having a consistent height of plantings to preserve the sight lines from the street of the entrance of the building because that one plant, the dogwood seemed too tall. So you couldn't see past it too well. Consider a mural on the transformer, if allowed. So I emphasis if allowed. So we're not gonna hold you to that, see what else. We have consider integrating more seating areas or natural seating features along some of that little planter stone wall which Karen brought up. And we have consider looking at the continuity of the pavilion bands. It connected to the painted gray area of the Hastings building. Consider that as an idea to preserve the continuity of that little trim banding there. I know Lindsay brought that one up. I don't know if you want me to keep that point. Yeah, Lindsay just, it's not on the screen at the moment. I think the word pavilion in there. Okay. I heard that one, I would just change that. I think to like the, it's really the, the fascia band. Yeah. The fascia band. The canopy fascia. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll put canopy slash fascia slash awning to make it less confusing. That's everybody's voice. There you go. Then we have the, Pat brought this up. The continuity of the roof line for the Hastings building. I don't know if there's much the architects could do there with that one, but seeing that from that side profile it was kind of cut up in segments in terms of heights. Yeah, right there. And I know the color is not going to be dark because you mentioned just for rendering sake it's a good way to differentiate that top cornice from the side of the Hastings building. But I guess there was a comment about maybe better integrating that to be more continuous because it looks kind of choppy. I don't know how the other board members feel about that. Yeah, I think that the stair tower is the subject of much conversation. There's really, we're not, there's no change to the original Hastings building roof lines. That's that. Okay, so I must have misheard that comment. So I'm going to scratch that one. All right. And then I have two more on the back. So we have consider a yellow brick for the addition to mimic the Hastings building. Did I capture that one correctly? Okay, so I'll make sure. And then we have consider using a material to blend the planter concrete where it meets that building foundation for better mix. What's the last comment that I had? I don't know if I'm missing anything. DRB members, do you feel that your comments are reflected in those notes? Okay, not hearing any thoughts. I see that Barry's got his hand up. Barry, do you want to jump in on anything there? His hand may have been up still up from before. Oh, he may have forgotten to take it down. Yeah. There. So with that list of recommendations, may I request a motion to approve this project with recommendations? I move to approve this project with recommendations. Thank you. A second. Second. Great. And then all those in favor, is there any discussion? My apologies. No. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Say aye. Aye. Okay. Okay, we have a unanimous approval. Thank you. Thank you. And Barry Roberts for buffing in. Just curious how many apartments are going to be in this building? The number is still in flux. Because we don't quite know yet what the ratio of unit types is going to be. So that'll kind of drive it. Barry and Gail in his office focus a lot on making sure they're matching the unit types to what the market bears. Yeah, right, right, right. The logic on the upper floors and the rears is maybe four per floor or something like that, one in each corner. Also is in flux based on market conditions. Sure, that's nice to hear. And do you happen to have a sense of what the, if your new volume is 55 feet, what the height of the block just to the south is the Brody block too? Oh, I do not know the height of the Brody block. I know that the Hastings building is about 46, or was it 46 or 42 I was looking at this morning. I think it's something like 42 feet to the cornice line here. And then it obviously kind of tapers away down towards the back. I think the mid-boy in the roof is more like 36 or 38 feet. I feel like the Brody block is a little bit taller, but that could simply be because the floor-to-floor is a taller, it all kind of stretches out. Well, four stories, three stories. I'm just curious. That's just a curiosity that I had. I don't need to keep everybody home with questions, but... It's the grade continues, the slope to the south there. So by the time you're down to where Veracruzana is, you're a good five feet or so down from where the Hastings entrance is. Well, thank you all very much for coming tonight, sharing your time. Thank you for your comments. Those were all very helpful and thoughtful. Appreciate it. Super. Looks great. Really exciting. Yeah. All right. So, folks, we'll move on. Just a couple more things to do. Thanks, y'all. And we, next on the agenda is approval of our December 18th meeting minutes. I know you all had a chance to review them in advance. I will share my screen. I did not. The slow scroll that we're so good at. So Karen didn't join us. No general comment. And then here's the first of the projects we reviewed the elementary school. So just make sure that your comments are reflected accurately there. The discussion is really the important part. If someone's all set, do you want to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes or make suggestion for changes? I move that we approve the minutes of December 18th. December 18th, okay. Thanks, Catherine. Second? I second. Discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Karen is abstaining. Great. Thank you very much. What's next? Other business. None that I'm aware of. Okay. I just want to say, I think this is three meetings in a row where we've had this substantial review because stuff is happening in Amherst. This is really exciting. Thank you all for your patience as we wade through these big projects. And two of those are town projects too. That's the better part. Can I? I just, I noticed that we keep kind of coming back to the redundancy factor of our design criteria. And I wonder if it's worth considering a revision at some point to clarify the guidelines and make them perhaps even a little more reflective of the current makeup of the downtown because a lot of it's like referencing sort of this consistency that really is not, like we're not trying to replicate historic facades anymore, you know, we're really trying to complement and create a certain kind of like fabric that feels cohesive but not consistent, you know. Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned it though. I wonder if Chris wants to weigh in because we form-based code is something that the town is entertaining, right? So if that comes to pass and we'll have a big revision. Town did just launch a downtown design standards project which you all will be introduced to fairly soon. We just hired Dodson and Flinker. I don't know if that was mentioned to you but we're very excited about working with them and it will be about an 18 month to two year project. So they will be having a lot of ideas that they'll get from the public and from you about how to design and how to allow new buildings to come about in the downtown. On the other hand, so that will happen but you're certainly welcome to send us your thoughts about how the current design guidelines could be made better. And now with our new town council, we have kind of a rolling way to amend our zoning by-law. We don't have to, you know, for six months before spring or fall town meeting comes up. So, you know, we could be working on this while Dodson and Flinker is doing their work. We don't have to wait, you know, for two years. So if you have ideas about how this could be made better, we're willing to work with you on that. Yeah, that is great. Okay. We'll follow up on this free time. I know, be careful when you push for it, Lindsay. No, it's good to know that input is so welcome. Chris, do you have a sense of- Maybe you can give us a group about how we could integrate some feedback into our meeting schedule or something. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I'll see, I'll talk with Rob about it maybe for the next meeting, Rob, go ahead. I was gonna suggest that maybe on a meeting when we don't have a lot before us, just find like a discussion topic, we can bring that up and just discuss as a group that probably the best way to do it initially. That's great. And Chris, do you have a sense of, now that Dodson and Flinker's been hired what their public or what their, I guess we're a public meeting, what their public meeting schedule would look like. They're starting to work that out. They haven't worked yet, but they're gonna come back to us. We had our first meeting with them. I think it was last week. Oh, fantastic. So they're starting to put that together. So we should be able to tell you soon maybe by the next meeting. Super. Thank you all. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. I appreciate everyone's time tonight. Have a nice evening. Appreciate it. Thank you. You as well. Bye bye. Goodnight. Goodnight.