Back to the drawing board
Committee seeks changes in bank design at former Gap location

By AMY BRISSON

The Chestnut Hill Community Association’s Development Review Committee reviewed updated plans for the proposed Commerce Bank branch on Germantown Avenue with bank representatives in a meeting on July 19.

At last month’s Land Use Planning and Zoning committee meeting, many concerns were raised regarding the bank’s plans for the building, the former Gap location at the corner of Evergreen and Germantown avenues. Among the items the committee asked the design team to reconsider were the scale of the building, the commercial feel, the colors, the tree pits, the window frames, and the lighting — elements key to ensuring that the building fits architecturally with the historic, pedestrian-friendly character of Chestnut Hill.

At last Tuesday’s meeting, the bank representatives presented redone drawings and computer generated pictures of the proposed building. They said that the design team had taken the DRC’s recommendations into consideration by adding a planter box along Evergreen, changing the window frames from black to bronze, adding ornamental lights, and updating the tree wells. Also, in response to concerns that an empty room with a large window fronting the avenue would add to the perception of vacancies on Germantown Ave, they proposed a mural painted over that window space.

Committee members looked over the new plans but criticized the bank for failing to address the most important concerns about scale and historic feel.

“It appears that those things have really been ignored,” said committee member Sanjiv Jain.

Jain proposed that the head of the actual design team visit Chestnut Hill to meet with members of the CHCA and to look at the building in the context of the whole street. This would save a lot of time and energy, said Jain, because he was not sure that the message of what they wanted from the building was getting to the designers.

“We live here, it’s a small community, and you are not coming in short term,” said Jain, warning that failure to respond to the group’s concerns could be interpreted as disrespect towards the community.

As for the mural, Jain pointedly asked, “the person who came up with that, have they ever been to Chestnut Hill?”

The committee seemed in agreement with member Patricia Cove when she said “I know I cannot support a mural.”

The bank representatives quickly scratched the mural idea and suggested a “finished and furnished” board room instead, a proposal which the committee found much more tasteful.

In the end, the possibility of a special meeting between the design team and the DRC or another committee was agreed upon, and the bank representatives promised to come back with a design that tries not to “ignore the regulating lines of the streetscape,” in the words of committee member Patrick McGranaghan.

5-7 E. Highland Ave.

Also on the agenda was the proposed rezoning of property owned by George Robertson and Sons, Inc. (Robertson’s Florist) that fronts both Germantown and Highland avenues. The application asks for a “resubdivision” of property lines in order that a building fronting Highland may be legally designated separately as 5-7 Highland Ave. The proposal involves no new construction or change to the exterior or use of the building.

The DRC passed a motion to recommend approval and immediately refer the case to the executive committee.

3-9 E. Gravers Lane

Wendy Kern, representing Bowman properties, asked that the consideration of Bowman’s plan for buildings it owns at 3-9 E. Gravers Lane be deferred for another month, until managing partner Richard Snowden is back in town. The project has been on hold for an entire year, but was resubmitted this summer.

The proposal was withdrawn in August of 2004 after being approved by the CHCA’s Land Use Planning, Aesthetics and Development Review committees because Snowden was waiting to hear feedback from neighbors about the plan, according to a Local article at the time. Since then, the neighbors have made a verbal agreement with Snowden and faxed him a written copy of the agreement for his signature, but have said that they never received a response. Kern said that the long interruption is due to “several family emergencies and business obligations that have kept [Snowden] away from the office.”

The plans involve the demolition of a one-story addition that was built on Gravers Lane in 1964, and the erection of three retail locations and two bi-level condominium units, plus the addition of terraces and parking spaces.

The DRC agreed to the deferment, but moved that if the plans were indeed the same as what was proposed last year, and if Snowden followed through on signing the neighbor’s contract, they would expedite the process by having only a single meeting on the proposal. The neighbors also requested that Kern ask Snowden to attend to the shrubbery and maintenance of the buildings in the meantime