Design Review Board 3-13-19

001I would like to call to order the March 13th 2019 meeting of the Design Review Board Alexis we have roll call here here board member Kim Lee yeah board member Perkins here we have four that is a quorum thank you well welcome I am Tamara burns the chairperson of the Design Review Board I would like to take a minute today to relay the board's purpose and procedures the design review board is a seven person volunteer citizen board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council the purpose of the design review board is to foster excellence in the design of Ann Arbor's built environment and to advise petitioners on how a project can meet the spirit and intent of the downtown design guidelines we are mandatory review voluntary compliance meaning that projects have to

002come before us but there is no legal requirement to follow our suggestions one review is required although we've been encouraging and been very successful and having petitioners come two or even three times as the project evolves so from the beginning we wanted to be as accessible as possible hoping that the discussions between the board and the petitioners might help the general public in understanding the design considerations and outcomes and in turn encourage the community put to push for excellence and design in our downtown so we're very happy to be back upstairs where we are being broadcast to a wider audience the procedure of the meeting is as follows first the applicant will present their proposed project to the design review board then the applicant and the design review board will hold a discussion on the

003design of the project following the presentation and discussion members of the public are permitted to comment for up to three minutes because not a question-and-answer discussion period all speakers are asked to sign in and state their name and address for the record so moving on to our agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda so this is now open for discussion does anyone have any changes to the agenda yeah I'm just thinking of I think the items that I have Genda is approved moving on to the minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes it is now open for discussion are there any corrections to the minutes everybody have a chance to look at them mm-hmm okay all those in favor all right any opposed minutes are approved may I now

004have a motion to prove our recommendation letter this was for six one six East Washington okay it is that is now open for discussion and he changes or corrections to the letter all those in favor any opposed the recommendation letter is approved okay our next item on our agenda is a presentation for the proposed energy Commission's dark-sky or ordinance amendment good afternoon thank you for allowing me to be today my name is John Mirsky I'll introduce myself more fully and the second slide which gives the the participants of the group that's been working on this lighting ordinance so what may be just some brief background well let me go ahead and just you to do the presentation let's see I think I have to do this so there has been a working group that's been

005working on a proposed lighting ordinance the idea of a lighting ordinance first was floated or came to pass formally a couple of years ago when presentations were made to both the environmental and the energy Commission's and we loosely formed this group it's under the auspices of the Energy Commission I'm the second person shown there I'm on the Energy Commission as well as the environmental Commission and I'm also serving as a sustainability advisor to the city administrator we also have serving Sally OE who is at the University of Michigan in the Department of astronomy we also have two planning commissioners Erica Briggs and Sarah Mills we had also as a technical consultant someone who's got of like a lot of experience with lighting and lighting ordinances at the International dark-sky Association in Arizona and then we

006also had a woman who was involved with the establishment of the first dark skies park in the state of Michigan so with some additional background is the there's a dark skies association in Michigan and it's comprised of the the following organizations that are listed and they have been also supportive of this process so what's the rationale for a lighting ordinance as you can see light pollution has been increasing at roughly 6% per year and obviously that depends on the locale in some cases that's been increasing a rate of 20% per year light pollution by definition is essentially wasted energy it really doesn't serve any purpose and if you look at the pictures with the red in the yellow yellow increases that shows that we have approximately a two times increase in the illumination levels then

007what we would call normal and in the red zones it's as high as nine to twenty seven times higher so you can see that there's been a significant increase in the amount of light pollution you also could see that from the satellite photographs and the very first slide that I showed so light pollution is partly driven by cheaper lighting and more efficient lighting you can see that as the dashed line has gone gone down which is the cost of lighting it's been essentially offset by greater per capita consumption of lighting and so because of that we feel that legislation is needed to be able to realize energy conservation as well as control light pollution and its negative impacts so what is the impact of light pollution on the environment in human beings first of all

008in terms of cicada in rhythms it's clearly disrupted by artificial light at night or the acronym is a LAN that's been determined by the AMA and I'll show you some more information some positions that the AMA is taken and it also disrupts eco systems and wildlife and I'll talk a little bit more about that so first of all on the ecosystem and Wildlife in the upper left-hand corner you see a picture of the number of birds that were killed in just one night when they hit a building in epsilon e in downtown epsilon E Michigan lies in the great wait lakes migratory area where that birds used to fly north and south and in the spring and in the fall and a lot of collisions are caused by illumination at night there is an organization

009called safe passage which includes the organizations in the lower-left that advocate for light being reduced or turned off during those seasons and lights impact all of the different types of animals that are shown there pollinators insects bees even fish so if there's excess of lighting salmon cannot migrate properly not that we have a lot of that problem here in Michigan but the AMA has also taken a strong position as far as artificial light at night where it believes that light pollution is something that is causing health impacts in human beings as you can see it disrupts sleep it causes glare and I'll show you later in some slides the the safety implications of glare as well as the health implications of glare we're all so it can actually be painful and then also it also

010has impacts on safety issues as well as for example the design of lighting fixtures and thing like that that would positively impact those implications for those effects so there are three types of a light pollution first of all glare and glare is caused by light reflection within the eye there's light trespass and you can see here where the building in the middle is trespassing over a property line in impacting neighboring structures and inhabitants and then you also have night glow it's clear that more light is not necessarily safe for light over over illumination causes shadows and I'll show you a slide where you can see that someone passing into a shadow is actually it can be hidden glare reduces visibility night vision is compromised and what we really want to see is that the targets

011are illuminated and not anything else so this is a an example of how glare can actually and in improperly lit areas can actually cause a problem so you can see a student here walking and approaching into a lighted zone and just a few steps later that student basically completely disappears in the shadow and this is not just a case where we have this in the pedestrian only zone but as everyone in a bura knows I think from recent incidents this is also a problem in areas where students are crossing streets or for that matter any any pedestrian is crossing is costing the street also glare reduces visibility so you can see here on the Left cases where fixtures luminaries are not shielded and oops that's in PowerPoint you see it unfortunately in the PDF version

012you can't so if imagine on the right if you have a shielded a shielded luminary the person I'm gonna move my cursor right here I don't know if you can see it there's a person actually standing by a doorway right here and by shielding that fixture that person is much more easily seen and the same thing here there's actually a person standing right here in a gateway and the glare makes it impossible to see that person and simply by putting your hand up and covering that light fixture you can see the person also different types of light makes a difference blue light scatters far more three to five times more than warmer lights so that causes problems we really want to see a shift away from high high degree Kelvin lighting so some of you

013may be familiar with the lighting scale for lighting and the warmth of lighting probably you all are given your role on the board and what we would really like to see is shifting more from like five thousand K down into the three thousand 2700 K range particularly for for these types of applications so what we really want our or advocating in the the lighting ordinance proposal is that we only want to light what is needed normal no more than what is needed when it's needed and no bluer than needed the analogy is depicted up in the perennial corner with a faucet you don't leave a faucet running just out of convenience just so that you can walk up and put your hand underneath it you actually want to illuminate or you want to water things

014or use water only when it's needed and we feel we should be doing the same thing with light for all the reasons that I just described just as a for information there are six michigan state parks that are dark sky preserves there's also one county park up near the Mackinac Straits that is also a dark sky preserved so Michigan actually has areas that are recognized by the Department of Natural Resources and by other entities as being actually an environmental benefit an economic benefit to the state of Michigan we actually have people as tourists that are coming specifically to these sites to be able to observe the dark skies in the evening as I mentioned we feel that this is something that's consistent with the kind of image in the kind of city that DNR at

015Ann Arbor wants to be some of these discussions about a lighting ordinance actually go back roughly 15 years we found some documents where there were indications that lighting was a concern and there was investigations into a possible lighting ordinance but unfortunately that didn't go anywhere so as I mentioned a couple of years ago this was resurrected the goals of the lighting ordinance is to protect public health and safety that's consistent with Ann Arbor sustainability framework also protecting the environment also there are goals with the sustainability framework relating to protecting the environment protecting energy efficiency reducing costs to the city to public servants and to citizens to support nighttime activities and also to retain and enhance the character of the city this is a rough road map the formal portion of developing a lighting ordinance goes

016back to August of last year as I mentioned there were a couple of presentations to the energy environmental Commission's prior to that but we had a meeting with the Planning Commission in August of last year in that meeting we were able to recruit two members as I mentioned from the Planning Commission who have been serving on the working group we've been meeting roughly every two to four weeks over the period of the course of that time to draft an ordinance I'll get into some more details here in a second that was reviewed with Councilman Griswald in February as you probably know she has a real interest in pedestrian safety and we wanted to make sure that we had coordinated with her and this month were meeting with three different groups yesterday the ordinance was presented

017to the Planning Commission in a working session I'm meeting before you today and giving you the background and then tomorrow there's another meeting with the historic district Commission and what we're seeking not necessarily today because we know you have a lot of other things on the docket is to get your feedback on the ordinance and hopefully then in the April to May time frame get endorsements by the three Commission's that are shown here where then we would go to a public hearing on the lighting ordinance with the hope that this would then advance to City Council and potentially take effect sometime in the middle of the summer what we did in our work is we consulted a number of lighting ordinances that are in the public domain and that have been enacted I mentioned one

018of the individuals on the working group came from the International dark-sky Association they have to model lighting ordinances one dates back to 2011 the other was updated last year in Pennsylvania there is also a group of that's been advocating for lighting ordinances it's the Pennsylvania outdoor lighting Council they have three different model lighting ordinances that we looked at and they have been implemented I believe it is in 24 different municipal entities in primarily eastern Pennsylvania we also looked at the lighting ordinance from Plymouth Minnesota as you can see it's known for its ranking by Money Magazine as the number one place to live in 2008 and as you can see they orden they implemented lighting ordinance in 2004 based on an old international dark skies association lighting ordinance we also looked at a lighting ordinance

019from Arizona and then one written by a gentleman Chris Lincoln Buell who works at an observatory station in Flagstaff Arizona what we're seeking is input and your endorsement particularly on a couple of areas we think of particular relevance to the design review board is facades and also there's a section dealing with curfews where we're recommending that lighting where it's not really serving a useful purpose only an aesthetic purpose that lighting would be shut off after midnight and then not turn on until until dawn of course we're interested in feedback on any other sections there was a lot of feedback that was provided by the Planning Commission last night and I have but it could forward to you it revised let's say working document of the lighting ordinance based on their comments so there are some

020differences compared to the lighting ordinance that was sent to you in advance of the meeting and you may want to take that into consideration another thing that was done that may be of interest that I could forward to you is to members of the working group drove around town and took photographs and took a lot of readings of different lighting applications around the city parking lots building facades buildings it may be no surprise that the brightest building that's lit in Ann Arbor is the Michigan theatre with the lighting out front and if you're interested I can provide those to you so that's my formal presentation and I'm open to take any questions at this time thank you very much well I would like to say that as a amateur astronomer I'm really happy to see

021this going forward I wish it could have happened a long time ago so I'm happy to see the group doing this has has any thought been given to the city of Ann Arbor and the university employs some very sky polluting type light fixtures hum is there any discussion about trying to replace those with something that directs the light only down so maybe a couple of things that I should have mentioned earlier in in response to your general questions first of all this lighting ordinance only applies initially to public and private property so their lighting that's in the public right away so that means street lighting would be handled in a second step so the city has something as you probably know called the orange book I forget the the formal name I can look it

022up here in a second what is it called again that's the way we refer to it yeah okay I think it's yeah it's commonly known as the orange book some standard specifications and we intend to take up lighting in in those areas in those public right of ways as a second step we wanted to do this first see that there was general support for a lighting ordinance if there was and with the approach that we've taken then take the second step of recommending changes to the to the orange book as far as existing fixtures is concerned there is an exemption portion at the beginning and what the exemption does is it basically exempts all existing fixtures and except for when there are major renovations or there is new construction and we also have a clause

023in there that says that 10 years from the time that the ordinance would take effect that lighting would have to retroactively Lee be updated so it's in conformance with the ordinance feedback from the Planning Commission was that elements of the UDC which would be include the the the lighting ordinance may not it may not be possible to have what is termed amortization of it pre-existing conditions so that's something that the Planning Commission and the lighting ordinance working group will be looking into but you're absolutely right a lot of the original LED fixtures that the city and the university installed which were these LED globes they're shooting light in every single direction and of course a lot of that is going up into the sky and really serving no purpose whatsoever it's contributing to light pollution

024it's actually inefficient because we're lighting things that we don't need to light so we would like to be able to see some kind of long-term compliance but that's something we have to determine together with the Planning Commission and the City Attorney's Office and the second question is there any are there any proposals to change the amount of light that's needed for walkways and the egress areas parking lot you know pedestrian friendly zones so yeah those are all regulated by by light trespass and by illuminance values so luminance values are basically the the light intensity that's measured over a defined area so that's we've specified values and we looked at the best practices from all these other different areas and we're addressing those we're addressing parking lots we're addressing athletic fields we're addressing you know just

025even the kinds of luminaries that would be put at the entrance of a building so we would basically be covering all that if it's on private property and then like I said in a second step for the orange book and public right away I believe a say o township has a dark sky ordinance would it be similar to that that actually didn't come up in our discussions I don't know that they do they I don't know if it takes you do you think it takes the form of a lighting ordinance you need development we've done there we've had to have all the light fixtures comply with dark sky you did okay okay Oh we'll look into that John and I noticed your first goal is public safety in in under your four items your and

026your first goal as do what is needed so when when architects submit site plans for review it goes through all the city agencies including law enforcement yes are you finding that that there's a differing opinion about what is needed and what comprises Public Safety that's always been the driver well there certainly I mean we saw variances in the very various lighting fixtures or the model the ordinances that we reviewed there isn't just one one common denominator that everybody seems to be using and that's why we we looked at all these different ordinances for example there's also some compromises that we wanted to make in the sense that for example Bloomington Minnesota defines I think it is four or five lighting zones so on top of the normal zoning that they have they go from areas

027that are basically natural areas to downtown commercial areas and they define lighting zones and then they define what is the allowable let's say illumination levels for each one of those zones and when we talked to the Planning Commission their recommendation this was in the very early meeting was that we not make things that complicated that we simply try to differentiate in differentiate between residential and commercial areas according to the zoning that we have and not have multiple layers of complexity and different types of lining for different areas so does that sort of answer your question or yeah it sort of does okay ask another one then no no no no we're thankful this is great yeah appreciate it we're all supportive of it very good good to hear it so I'll go ahead and forward

028the latest draft if you will with input from the Planning Commission actually we're trying to meet I think it is Monday of next week so I'll double check on that if it's gonna be later than that I'll send you the update right away I may wait until after that because hopefully we'll cleaned up a lot of things and we'll get you that by Monday and then I can also send you some of the examples with photographs and the illumination levels of current buildings so you have that as a standard of reference okay very good thanks thank you thanks for you support all right our next item is 545 South Main Street and I'd like to first ask Alexis to give her staff report on that thank you we have reviewed 545 South Main Street for

029some basic compliance with the zoning ordinance and development standards and as well as our take on I have done this before planning staff have reviewed the 545 South Main Street project Dr 1900 to for compliance with the basic zoning compliance as well as the design guidelines first off a quick introduction this is a project to redevelop the 545 South Main Street into a brewery restaurant it's about a 1 acre site 45,000 square feet it currently contains two multi base sheds and a one-story now vacant lumber and millwork building the plan is to remodel renovate expand the industrial building remove a significant amount of the asphalt paving and create a loading area in a small parking lot as well as outdoor entertainment space it's got a few issues in terms of compliance with basic zoning requirements

030it has a non-conforming street wall meaning that the building is not between zero and ten feet from the front property line it also doesn't comply with the minimum building height requirement buildings in the d2 district requires buildings to be at least two storeys in height it is has a corner that is adjacent to a residential district but it does not have a conflicting land-use buffer or the proper setback when adjacent to residential and the building is in the floodplain two of the buildings are in the floodplain one of the buildings is in the floodway and none of them are flood proofed and they none of them are currently fraud proofed we generally discourage buildings from the flood way my review of the for the compliance with or in furthering the spirit of the downtown design

031guidelines in conversational terms it didn't look good because there is this underlying assumption of the downtown design guidelines that a design plan will propose a very large project full demolition or at least a significant expansion so that you approach the maximum FA are allowed the guidelines don't really address adaptive reuse of existing sites so in that sense when you compare the proposed project to the guidelines it does not further most of them but there are many redeeming qualities the project is generally a good thing so because of the underlining assumptions and the lack of great guidance we've staff focused on applying the overarching goals of the design guideline and the intent of each level rather than some of the specific strategies recommended overall we found that the site context and planning guidelines talked about supporting

032a downtown place and supporting the pedestrian experience and so to that end the site could use a better primary entrance the use of the lawn area should be explained the number of curb cuts should be the minimum necessary the use of the shed should be clarified they should be functional and supportive not as merely as decoration particularly in light of the floodplain regarding building elements the building elements call for features and details at the street edge there's not much street edge presence here in summary the issue seems to be the inward focus of the design plan whereas in a downtown you are looking for buildings and functions to be open and engaging outward focus outward facing so a balance needs to be found between adaptively reusing this industrial facility and contributing to the vibrancy of

033downtown Thank You Alexis I didn't have time to drive by the site so I'm not a hundred percent familiar with it so these buildings are all existing yes yeah there are some existing can existing photographs of the site in the design plan packet and the design team will do a presentation yeah if you would come up at this time and introduce yourselves and your project I'll also take one second to mention which I should have done the staff report was prepared with the original submittal I understand that some revisions have taken place since then and I'm sure that the design team will present those can I load a jump drive into this system is that the best way to do thank you excellent thank you design review board I am a Kurt cattalo from Union

034joints I'm here with my wife and partner and Stephenson and Eric Lyons our managing partner and Tomas von Stodden from Ivana and architects who drew the plan that was submitted to you before I let the expert being Tomas take over and walk you through the vision for this property I wanted to give you a quick overview of what we envisioned for this former mill site in Ann Arbor generally speaking it's a project that thank you generally speaking this is a project that we've been working on for years actually it's it's like many Union joints a projects that has a long destin'd because if it didn't it wouldn't be something that interested us we tend to pick projects that are a challenge because at the end of the day we know that it'll deliver something you

035don't find elsewhere and that's that kind of unique and authentic experience is something that matters to us as a little restaurant group when I say little we've been around since 1995 and we currently have about 875 employees working at our 8 locations an ad agency we're an independent restaurant and we have a very independent spirit and we love problem solving so a little look at what we've done is we like to say that that we start with with the challenge and we kind of work our way forward and from 1995 when we repurposed the former Baptist Church on Main Street in Clarkston to the parsonage next door which is Union General to a gas station in Berkeley which is vinsetta garage which is the oldest family-owned service station east of the Mississippi we have a

036downtown storefront in Clarkson which is the Union woodshop built in 1929 the city of Fenton gave us their first fire hall the Fenton fire hall and we repurposed that and a pump house next to it we've done a former Dairy Queen into a bunkhouse drive through recently and then and checked off something on her bucket list and repurposed to former Hooters in Rochester Michigan as grande cast storage owner we opened recently but I think that all of these places including our home base which is an old Union school that was a forward Factory during the war which was then independence Township also it essentially served as this building does today for the smaller community of Clarkston we kind of pride ourself on taking something and bringing it back to life in a way that respects

037its heritage while repurposing in a way that makes it viable for the future so I like to say that that we look for buildings that aren't run-of-the-mill and I think it's pretty ironic that a mill would fit those qualities as you know it's an interesting structure and that it is not historic but it's been around for a long time and it has a certain presence and it has something that we're always attracted to which is a patina it has a definite purpose in its construction and a definite character in the way it was built and the way it's weather the history and those are things that an as our lead designer works within the space but more importantly it's something that that we try to tie through the whole experience the food that we serve

038is authentic the food that we serve is real we don't hide behind edifice and our buildings are the same way we take a very honest approach to everything we do whether it's the architecture the the design or the menu itself I mean we're the kind of Restaurant Group where our servers don't have uniforms we hire on experience we hire on care we want everything to be as real as possible and since 1995 it's paid off for us I mean we serve a very unique version of comfort food in that it's it's based on the basics but it's still amplified and that what we do we do with more care than most would expect out of a dish of say mac and cheese I always say that part of our purpose is repurposing that's why you

039look at these buildings that we've dedicated our lives to and whether their former churches or former service stations these are buildings that always served one unique purpose but were destined to serve another and I think of the as far as finger Lea is concerned it checks a lot of boxes for us in that it's always served one purpose at no point did it become anything but what it was built to be which is this mill and so for us to have the opportunity to repurpose it it allows us to start with this blank canvas this baseline that we're gonna build upon and that's really what Tomas will take you through if you look at our organization itself as I said it started with the Clarkson Union in 1995 really this this church very communal Hardy

040ironically built with finger lis lumber from the day it's a relationship that we have that stretches that far back because Cameron Lagoon who's our builder on these projects is from Ann Arbor at the time and Anne Stevenson who designed this was living in the old west side so this neighborhood this area has been on our radar for a long time and the kind of food that we do in Clarks and we think is communal and would have a good home in Ann Arbor I should say before I forget that the descriptions that have come out based on the material that we submitted to the design review board call it a brewery our intention is not to brew at this location when we opened the Clarkson Union in 1995 we had 36 beers on tap because

041we knew that we could buy better beer that we could brew so that's true today - we love micro brews we really support the craft brew industry and this will not be a brewery it will just be a restaurant that has great craft beer if you look at the Union general store next door Ann and I and our two kids live above it and have for years this is a true general store but again it's baked goods it's individual items it's bath and body its curated and it's built with care and again it's in a form of person and when you're inside you know that you're in a building that's unique the same is true of the Union woodshop this was always a restaurant in downtown Clarkston always on Main Street but when we repurposed

042it into this wood shop we kind of took that approach that honest look at it and just celebrated what we produce in that space which is barbecue we were fortunate to be the Detroit Free Press restaurant of the year and it's got a national attention for whatever reason that's really because we're doing something that's authentic so whether it's Thrillist best barbecue or Southern Living magazine noticing what's going on in Main Street that kind of attention means a lot to us and our chefs and cooks the wood shop shop is a repurposed space above it that is essentially a bar it's essentially an area that seats 75 to 100 people that is just all inviting there'll be kids playing skee-ball in there kids playing pool whether wait for tables it's just a very inviting and original

043setting vinsetta garage as I said as the Oh was the oldest family-owned garage east of the Mississippi when we took it over with our partner Casey Crane and it's it's been getting a lot of attention for many reasons but one is because of the food that we do out of there is very in character with the space itself it's big its authentic its hearty it's the kind of food that you would have expected the mechanics to have had during their lunch breaks in the day and ironically when we had the Mechanics reunion for all the wrenches that used to work there they sat in the back room and had hamburgers and pizzas and they said you know the strange thing is is that this was our break room back in the day so for us

044that kind of poetry of coming full circle means something to us the same could be said as Fenton firehall this was a project that the fentons DDA put out for review and we were fortunate enough that they chose union joints to take over this project so they gave us the building and $100,000 to essentially put the Fenton fire hall in this space again it's three layers it's three levels and we put an addition on there to service the bathrooms because it was a volunteer fire department so they didn't need a lot of bathrooms for volunteer firefighters so this has an addition and it has three floors that are activated I think it's very similar to what what we've learned and fitness what we want to bring to Ann Arbor and that this kind of activation

045and bustle on these three levels is exciting it's exactly why the city of Fenton chose us the city of Fenton also submitted this project to the Michigan Municipal League and it won the region and then we went up to Marquette with the city of Fenton to present this for the Michigan Municipal League at their statewide conference so it means a lot to the city because again they took this area which was essentially abandoned when they vacated for their bigger fire station and created a little sense of bustle that is serviced in this little park setting and it joins an older part of town which they called Dibble Ville and some new developments which are just beyond us which is the new Fenton and this bridge did exactly what they hoped it would do which is

046create traffic in this otherwise dormant area so we're very fortunate about it one of the other things that the city of Fenton did is they gave us this former pump house which is on the banks of the Shiawassee River by this waterfall and gazebo in the city park this is something that we run all summer long we call it the pump house it's our handcrafted liquid nitrogen ice cream and again people will be in the park they'll be fishing they'll be kayaking they'll be weddings going on concerts in the park and then this little pump house services them with our ice cream and shakes and such and again it creates an energy in the area that previously was just really a gazebo on a waterfall honcho which is a restaurant in clarkson which is in

047a former auto shop which then is conjoined to a gas station we made these two buildings into one and created hansha which is a Latin Street food joint and again we have outposts of this at the DTE Energy Music Theatre but it's it's just very approachable very fun and it's food that you'd expect in that it's a taco but we kind of put more care into that you might expect that's why we won the Detroit taco Fest in the city of Detroit two years ago Grand Catherine is an evolution of that in that former Hooters just again a very big restaurant it's 200 seats it's bustle it's on a very busy corner at Rochester Road and Big Beaver and it has an outside seating which is on a very busy thoroughfare but again it creates

048some energy on this otherwise highly active corridor a big beaver we're very proud of that and that we kept some of these hooter influences but still repurposed it into something that's decidedly unique and then bunkhouse burgers which we just opened in December is a former Dairy Queen that serves little hamburgers sliders off the grill a little quarter pounders for five bucks that car is lying out four and we're very fortunate it's the kind of food that you could see people grabbing and walk into the stadium on game day and it's no different than what we're doing there and Clark's into making the most of it so between an Eric and I we've been doing this since 1995 and one thing that we try to do is every step of the way as we remember that

049what got us here is is working closely with the community - doing everything we can so that we're not just coming in and serving people food we try to serve the community in bigger ways any way we can and I think one of the reasons that we've been able to do what we do is that we have a very high retention rate with our staff so out of these eight hundred and seventy-five people the core group has been with us from the get-go our cooks became chefs our servers became managers our dishwashers became bartender so there's this evolution and one of the things that we've always been drawn for is giving people the opportunity and we think that Ann Arbor with the opportunity to to bring our talent at the front of the house here

050and really take advantage of the folks that are able to work here 30% of the people that work at our restaurants work within that zip code and so we think that the the walkability the fact that there's this young labor force in Ann Arbor will make this a special place not just for the people that are running it but for the people who are interested in the culinary arts and want to join us for a longer stint than a summer job what we've been able to do is get recognition beyond our footprint so these are just some of the accolades that we've received and whether it's the Huffington Post or Esquire naming us one of the best bars in America these are things that matter because they just they give us some perspective as to

051how we're doing in a bigger game and as far as fort finger ly we think this has a really special opportunity to kind of be part of the Union joints family and continue that that passion that we have for repurposing so this is just kind of a general mood book that and put together and it's just kind of the flavors of the joint which is leveraging a patina leveraging and authenticity and making the most of something I mean we know this area and I think that it's fair to say that what we try to do with the space and Anael tell me if I'm speaking out of line is that we want the space to be like the menu itself and that it's something that's at once familiar and surprising so there's nothing in here

052that's necessarily unfamiliar but the way we do it is authentic and real and inviting and at the end of the day you're gonna know that the experience that we've created at any of our joints is different than anything you could build on a pad site I mean when you walk the fork finger E and see this green space it draws you in off Maine or Madison and it starts this narrative that you're not gonna get if you just pull into a parking lot and admire and then go to whatever restaurant was built on the pad site these are things that matter to us and I think if you look at the way we've planned it you're gonna know that this is something that could only be in this building this is something you're not gonna

053find at every third exit on i-94 because it's it plays though the building's purpose it plays to what you have here and I think that that authenticity is what makes a difference in the space and the way we do it and just creating this narrative whether it's walking in off Main Street and sitting outside or playing ping-pong or doing putt-putt golf on the green space going to the shed grabbing a walking taco on your way to game day being on the roof and just looking out at the bustle of Ann Arbor and the energy of the city these are all things that that you're not gonna get anywhere else and we're gonna play to all those strengths so I'll turn it over to Tomas now just to really walk you through the the vision for

054the footprint itself and I know the DRB had some specific questions that he's better to answer than I but we just want to say that we're honored to have the opportunity to to bring everything we've learned in 25 years of repurposing to this specific project and we think at the end of the day it's it's an opportunity for placemaking that we haven't found anywhere else and we're excited to find it here tomash so hello everybody my name is Tomas Johnston from von Stein architects and have the extreme pleasure of working with the Union joint screw an incredible bunch and I actually moved here in 1994 and was very happy when they opened up their first place in 1995 so it's been a pleasure to know them from a distance and get to know them more

055recently so the first thing I guess I would say before anything is I looked intensively through the design guidelines and I guess there's two ways to read them the one is that we're looking at a position where you're taking something down you're building again but to me the origins of those design guidelines come from conditions like this they come from recognizing the district that you're in the shape of the land the topography the context what you have built around it the railroad tracks the floodplain a river that was there and all these things and so for me when I sort of step aside and I walk down that hill and I come past a residential unit on the on the east side and you roll into the site there's something so natural and wonderful about

056that opening in in the site and the corner there so I think that there's a lot of ways to look through this so I can read it and say well we're addressing every single one of those things in a way that we think is really dynamic sorry so so anyway so I really so I enjoy that that rub because I think when you look at architecture and development in cities you can really read these things two ways but the origin of them comes from the richness that comes from history I would argue always and the things that the design guidelines recognized our craft and and thoughtfulness in history of architecture that we're all fighting for now in the midst of flat architecture right and buildings that are too tall not set back so that's my

057sort of starting thing with stuff the site is you guys probably know borders Madison and Main Street that has the cut of the railroad tracks there is the one shed that sits right adjacent to it running the length of it that shed has doors on that is closed the upper shed on the north side is an open shed quite a bit taller different in its posture perhaps peering out over the site and then there is the cast-in-place concrete building which had the old mill shop in it and Jason - that is a block structure with a corrugated and fiberglass second-story on top of that so we do have a second-story little one so that is the context I was a bit surprised and really walking around at how little some of the adjacent buildings have

058done to address the streetscape and the pedestrian experience and it's something that we've thought about a lot I also think that there's something very important in this district about finding moments when we can preserve and repurpose that structure into something else for another experience and so I love the fact that really we haven't talked about renovation we've talked about repurposing and repurposing allows you to sit inside of something as it was and an experience and reappear Ian sit and I think that's very different than the sort of renovation that comes in and cleans something out to the point where all that's left is a brick right say well that's a nice brick wall but there's nothing about the fact that this was you know a mill site right so important I think to hold on

059to these are some photos of the site so looking through the upper left hand side is looking from Madison into the site it's pretty boxed in with the way the angle of the street goes and then going across that top is the cast-in-place concrete building that we're proposing putting the second-floor patio space on deck space middle left shows the two-story structure block with the siding on it that's proposed to have the kitchen and take-out on the first floor with a second floor bar and private dining bottom left is the open shed on the north side middle bottom you're seeing from that alley side on the east side the back of the building so those are some contextual photos so this was a site plan that we that we forwarded to you at first and there

060was some mixed responses to it and they were great really good feedback that we got from Alexis so thank you very much we thought we had some pedestrian issues some delivery issues spending more time walking Main Street we really felt like it was important that that became a really inviting entry off of that side so this is what we had sent you guys since then we've revised that to provide delivery section on the north side with dumpsters in the back and kept the kept the southern parking lot we've also introduced two areas so we now have a separate oh sorry thanks I think do you youngster thank you so original site plan that was submitted revised site plan and so there's a few things that we thought with this one we really liked the fact

061that it became a more welcoming and framed out entry we can use the old curb cut coming off of Main Street if we do this which keeps the size of the curb cut down quite a bit it also allows us to frame out pedestrian sidewalk coming off the street there so this now is a dedicated pedestrian access here and it really kind of gave us a more contiguous framed out green space to work with in here on the on the Madison side we have an entry that comes actually on the corner the lot here it actually cuts through the existing shed there's an opening in there and then there's a covered bike storage area here and it connects around the side this way so again trying to give something that gave an experience on that's

062on that southern side of being able to move through some of the history you know it's a tight area but we like the idea of getting that pedestrian circulation to actually activate that existing building get rent giving people in this urban scenario a chance to put their bike on site give some control for safety also for cover there and leads a nice way right into the green space there so that was Rudin's that parking plan it allows us to put the dumpsters in the back on the top side and have ample space for deliveries that upper area we still think we've always wanted to be able to use the north shed in some ways so we think it's possible at times to actually close off the parking on that top side when deliveries are done

063in the middle of day and use that upper area and activated with secondary seating areas for events so gameday type events we probably wouldn't be parking on that northern part of the site and using that as the place it becomes fully activated love the idea in this low area of getting rid of the asphalt having green space I think one surround at the open spaces in Ann Arbor and I think the most architects the first thing you want to do is put paving down and put planters in and take over right and so I think in a way it's interesting to think about this sort of history of open space and how people used it and so in the olden days if you had a beautiful estate you had somebody set up a table in

064the middle of the grass and you ate in all the grass now you make a paved outdoor room with a fire pit and a serving thing and a grill and the gazebo and all this and in our opinion it's a bit over built to allow for that sort of freedom and openness and quiet occupation of the space so we kind of like the idea of really especially in the midst of Ann Arbor where there's a lot of hard scape having a large or soft area in there I don't know how much you guys want to get into the floor plans it's really more interior stuff so this is showing the block building with a kitchen in it cast-in-place concrete building largely untouched were we doing the extending the windows and height in here so they've

065been filled in with some corrugated metal on the bottom over time and so we're doing a bifold wooden door with a true divided light in it this is a wood stove piece here and the bar built against the corner here the building was looks like it was done in lift support concrete so has a really wonderful texture on the walls that comes from that sort of pouring when things are stacked up on evenly so we're trying to kind of go into this quietly so this whole wall is actually an unpainted old wall it really has that beautiful kind of pattern to it so again just allowing the building to come to us and give us a little bit of advice this is showing second floor so we have a staircase a couple different staircases coming

066up to here some back a house bar area and private vent space there's an existing rollup garage door very typical of a second for the lumberyard we're adding another one over here so we've thought that those could be rolled up and then you're you have connection to that whole courtyard and then again because were low in terms of topography there the idea of occupying the second level in the patio space again allows this other extension and connection to the urban fabric that is really pretty important and I think could be quite dynamic as people are moving up and down into the landscape these are the building elevations so for the most part these are all really just existing openings that we're coming in and putting new new windows into this is a bifold side folding

067door somewhat reminiscent of an old sort of carriage door with a little bit of a twist with a diagonal fenestration pattern in here again - a pretty flat cast-in-place concrete wall just trying to bring some texture and pattern to it there's two different entries this entry is the one that you would see coming down through the courtyard if you came down Main Street and then there's a new entry vestibule over here that would come off the Madison side existing roll-up door new roll-up door here for that second-story space these are stair and elevator connections and enclosures that come up onto the top of the roof they're a small setback gable section again like the descriptor on this that we would use is trying to think about the old factories or the old mills where you

068would have a conveyor and that roof structure would somewhat follow that conveyor so it's really kind of let's call it forum follows that function up there the deck what we're doing there is a pretty little edge on the concrete so we're setting the deck back a little bit that patio about 16 inches back so there's an articulation of the old concrete structure in front and then that that patio deck starts behind and again just important to us to have that front concrete concrete piece read through and stand strong again here this addition off this side allowing the concrete piece to run through higher up there we do have an exterior staircase coming down here on this on the far end of the patio space and then this we just did for the sake of giving

069you some sense of coloring so right so this is white and this this thought for now is to leave this existing red and green patterning that is on that second-story the building these elevations somewhat untouched you're just seeing this addition of the roof structure and the elevator here this is the backside the alleys onto the adjacent University of Michigan building and again this is just a one side sort of service side of the two-story building again looking through the materials here cross-sections which do some helpful so this is the kitchen inside the two-story space a little bit higher dining area proposed entry a little bit lower than that this is the second floor or private dining space with a staircase that connects you up to the to the rooftop these are shed elevations and I

070can explain a little bit more in these and the mobility art to see rendering wise but what we're proposing doing with the sheds now is this upper shed so this is a view looking in from Main Street you could see here the two garage doors here there's an entry door to take out here this is the main entry on this side parking lot through here and then we have pedestrian access that comes along there this shed on this side by the railroad tracks right now has a series of multi slide doors that are a little bit interstate disrepair so what we're thinking about doing is running a new steel beam in front of them and having the doors slide off to the side so they completely open up and the idea and those shed that

071shed particularly used to be able to use that as a three season dining area so the shed would completely open occupy it in a way that was pretty quiet so it's gonna have minimal services inside of it and really just cut that asphalt back to the edge of it so the grass where they would just run up against it so here you can see this is from the Madison side looking in parking lot this is the area where there's bike storage and the circulation out kind of comes around this corner the green space in here this is new entry so we felt like it was important to have one you know with the two entries that they each of them has a face that's opening up onto the streetscape scribble identify that you can see

072here this is the shed while you open now so it's really quite an engaging piece for that courtyard really frames it out nicely so we have a nice dynamic we feel between this dining side the doors and that whole dining side opened up shed can open up on this side this is just kind of a clip and it's hard to get this perspective but here's the sidewalk and this is our proposed pedestrian access going through the shed back in here is is a bicycle storage and you kind of come around that side to the entry here so some of it is you know that's sort of meant if you think about how paths go people take the path of least resistance so in this case at least that we can make this path somewhat enticing

073and moving through this piece of history the hope is that people will use that pedestrian access more than just going straight through the parking lot and this is just a closer up view so in some cases building element wise right now there's an existing the low roof section or the gorgeous the little transom piece over this so in this case we're really just following that back down and taking what was in filled with metal over time and they're really kind of returning that back to what seems like it would be appropriate appropriate for the time period here you can see the corner of one of the new glass pieces so we're increasing the light by probably 30 40 percent into the building that way this is another view internally so edge of the grass some

074smokers out here and then access into the kitchen there so that's that's where we are I can certainly go through I mean when I when I sat back and kind of bullet pulling it for myself the the context buildings building elements I mean to me I think there's a way to speak to each of those conditions that's covered in the project if your questions about stuff I can go through things I don't want to kind of pour you it I think so this is this is great it's a lot clearer these new renderings yeah I'm assuming that the buildings are the main building is all designed to be yeah so we're gonna have barricades and a deployment strategy which seems fitting for a middle sight so there will be a bay in the garage and

075there would be the brackets on the sides and we've gone through and talked to Jerry a bit about it and we feel pretty comfortable with the approach we're taking now yeah and I think even in the case of for example the one shed that's on the tracks we've talked to him about doing some flow through louvers that you know would at least allow the thing not to fly away so we're pretty confident in how that's up now and its really in keeping with the sight and the spirit of the project too there's been historically a lot of flooding in that part of town but more over toward where finger Lee showrooms are and so forth thing has this site talking to the finger laser do they ever remember this site being underwater they don't remember

076being underwater it seems as though it's come up to the sort of delivery height but not every much above that and it tends to go away quite quickly so there's not and there's no evidence that I can see I mean we've done quite a few flood area projects before there's no evidence that I can see of anything coming up and creeping you would see in the concrete typically you know you'd see a stain line in there so I don't see anything that's ever gotten above that main floor height well I'm I really liked the idea of being able to adaptively reuse a building like this my offices used to be in an old mill building that used to belong to Washington Lumber Company and we had a very nice time turning that into our offices

077and I'm really glad to see something like this happening with this building instead of just bulldozing it and starting over that's just my my personal feeling about it the folding-doors have the sort of herringbone or are those doors or are they windows they're [Music] their doors yeah so there will be some kind of steps out in front of them to get down to the to the lawn level yeah either a step or we'll have a rail you know we're sort of working through some of the grading issues there and finalizing the heights with with a civil engineer so we're either gonna have a rail and open them or we'd put a step in front of them but they're a full-height door yet yeah with glass yeah and really I mean I think and certainly hit

078me in the back of the head but I mean in my mind I think that they would probably be built in a way that feels as though somebody set up to make old windows in the olden days right like all windows were built primarily on a jobsite historically they had that sense of you took the router bit out you cut the profile you put the piece of glass and so I think there seems like there's some so I think so I think that you know there's something wonderful about thinking about there's so few things then you know these windows there's just not that many of them the doors to pay attention to them and put them back in in a way where the feel them the weight of them feels as though they could have

079been there forever but they're new it seems important to us what Jeff said I'm pleased to see the building reused certainly we have a set of rules and guidelines and so forth for all the character districts and this is certainly and they call it an industrial character district but it's in keeping with that in there no it isn't an anomaly there it's not a short building in a very tall environment so I'm all in favor of what you're doing in concept the details I guess the other folks could comment on here but some of the specifics of staff saying we really would like to have one curb cut I'm in favor of - given the uniqueness of this site if you didn't have the railroad slicing across one corner it would be a very different

080kind of site plan yeah so I think it makes good sense okay I'd like to see a little more imaginative imaginative use of color on on this project personal preference so I don't know if you if in the end it's going to be just basically white and old metal panels or you know some color on the frames of windows and doors and that sort of thing yeah I think that there's and I think there's you know the wonderful thing is there's everyday we make things better right that's what architects unfortunately do until the thing is built so I think that there would be I mean I think that we're for sure gonna color I think the other thing just kind of in our officers looking things then sure Kurt's gonna jump in say somebody said

081I think until we properly put signage into this so so a little bit of it is if you took a classic old gas station and you took the sign away you would say yeah you know like it just doesn't look good and then you put the sign of em so I would want to be careful about compromising that I love that you're leaving the colors from the historic building and just I would be careful adding color that you'd compromise the integrity of that yeah yeah yeah I mean we're all for all for color we talk a lot about that but just being doing it in a very sensitive manner and you know maybe even focusing on the newer elements yeah I think the other thing to remember is and that I grew up in the

082250 year old in and it was all white it was on top of a hill and in Connecticut and so I just remember coming home we had the old glass and you look in and the fire would be there and the lights would be warm and it was so important to have that white crispness to the warmth and color that came from within and now you look a lot of these houses where you know the outside is gray and all these colors and it really kind of has hurt the ability of that inside to feel alive and to you know to feel the texture of the air and I would say that you know in all of the Union joints projects you feel the thickness and the most wonderful way the color of the air

083in the space is and I think that that's something that you're going to see coming out of those windows it's just really really important to hold on to something I'd never want to try and render so I'll just jump in here that I actually do a lot of preservation work and we're working a couple of old mills right now much bigger than this but um but I love that you're keeping this I'm born and bred in Ann Arbor and you know I'm kind of heartbroken that thing really was sold and even though understand all the reasons but so happy that a you know this piece of Ann Arbor is gonna be there and you know and I think all the comments about the guidelines are really interesting because we really haven't come across much you

084know many projects like this most of them have been these big like Alexa said you know coming out to the edges of the property to maximizing FA our and I I'm so happy you haven't done that here and and you're making use of what's what's here in you know in a really wonderful way you can see the historic building you can read it you can see what's new but it's contextual and not jarring I I guess just a couple comments I'd like to hear what materials you're using like at the for the guardrail up on top there and then I also like to hear more about the site itself that the the sidewalks and curbs and things seem really urban or something they're just maybe maybe something could be looked at there it's something that

085really pulls from a gravel yard you know and what what maybe tracks were going through or if there was you know they're sort of a grid or is there I don't know yeah I think that's a great I mean I think that that whole courtyard is sort of the thing that is the most fun to work on and in a way the simplest and hardest thing and I think we've all sort of just been waiting for that moment to work on a little bit we're working we've got a good grading plan so we just have to be really sensitive we floodplain what the flood lane not to mess around too much with how we're cutting and telling that but I love the idea of thinking about that softness you know of I mean walking down

086the piste oh and right I mean all of those things are amazing and certainly the shaping I think of how the quarter is laid out is something that as we begin to work through a little bit more how that's occupied with the various things that probably will evolve a little bit the the materials so I guess to me when I look at the materials it's a mixture of responding to the site and building in a way that seems in character with the site with also understanding what's happened over time to the materials and that a cast-in-place concrete building painted white is this building built today would look absolutely different than this building does that's been here for who knows how long so the connector pieces that you're seeing up here this is proposed right now

087to just be a corrugated metal very similar to the rest of the shed language it's going on throughout there glass doors on the end here the rail so right now the upper deck we're proposing to do and would just to have a little bit of softness in in contrast everything's up there we haven't so right now the way we think about the rail is that the rail would be galvanized it would be galvanizing at all and I like it because I love the chalkiness of galvanized in relationship to the to the old concrete building so it has a certain softness and if you think about the sort of history of galvanizing its roads its industrial all right I mean it's all the barricades everything so we're thinking that that would be in galvanized and then

088the way we've kind of rendered its a date is with a what stainless wire mesh panels so and you guys ever been to the High Line in New York but the whole High Line is just that mesh and I like it because it really allows air to flow and it's actually a clearer visual than even glasses just because you never get reflection off of it and it's so little in terms of the size of it so that's what we're seeing so it's kind of this mixture of the galvanize can say hello and work nicely with the chalkiness of the whole concrete building and then the stainless allows this a little bit more of a like contemporary industrial offset to it thank you I I mean three of us up here wrote the guidelines were running

089the committee of the world the guidelines and I did just what a alexis did I started looking through the guidelines and I'm always the stickler on this group who says you're not conforming to c3 and and and I realize just as as Alexis said that they don't apply and we were thinking of something like this when we wrote them so I'm I'm happy to throw them out and I'm glad to hear you say though that you understand acknowledge some of the driving forces and and probably our biggest one that we tried to get into the guidelines throughout is the pedestrian experience and and I can see you've given a lot of thought to the pedestrian experience once they enter this sort of secret garden yeah and Alexis is right it's a very inward opening building

090but I wonder if you can talk a little bit you said you were aware of things like the Allen Creek Greenway and the floodway and other things that are happening beyond the site so what what are your thoughts about the experience of the passerby the pedestrian going by and either bordering Street looking in yeah so I think that um obviously looking in I think it's going to be an incredibly rich environment to look into so in the wintertime you'll see this little fort right that's been shoveled and plowed and their areas that are occupied whether it's a yurt or a 10 or an igloo out there like you're gonna see this little land in there right so I think that that's that same fascination that we all have when we go look at overview of

091a fort you get up in the tower and you look at it and it's just everybody loves looking a little model of something like that so I think in a way that visual and provides that route that richness I would say as far as the feel of I think there's many things about cities and streets and topography and built environment that unfortunately are put in have to be put into categories and design guidelines that ultimately aren't about that they're more about how your body feels so I would say that to me over time and it's nothing that Ann Arbor can help but Ann Arbor has slowly erased the feeling of topography that's the downside of large buildings is you get so high that you no longer can feel the movement of the land and so

092the beautiful things left with the railroad tracks coming down and sort of splay now and coming around the corner there the beautiful thing that they preserved is that corridor of topography and land right so we've stuffed a creek below the ground and done things like that but that area the land still has that flow and that movement I would argue goes way back in time and so I love the idea that as you're coming down the street down one side feels really tall and great a couple little buildings on this side you just feel like oh I mean up with the railroad tracks here I come and you flow into that site so to me there's something very natural about allowing that feel in the body and movement and then on top of that you're

093not just saying oh there's the flow there's the flow into this new occupation of the space think about that interesting yeah in looking at the view that said that sound Green now it sort of typifies you know what fingerless went through was really utilitarian space and got built as they need things and they need another shed to store wood they built one yeah and and so there wasn't a lot of thought so it's it's sort of a real sort of slapdash gathering of of what they needed to provide shelter and and what they build over a long period of years so there might be an opportunity to look for elements to sort of unify and calm that down a little bit instead of keep jumping it up with with more discontinuous elements and in doing

094more of the same you know the yurts and the igloos and and yeah and everything else I I think there there might be an opportunity here to to calm it down a bit yeah I mean I think then I I don't know how it is for dining but I mean you could almost put a wall tent in there right and the wall tent might be more in keep waltzing so if you think about the hunters tents out west so they can't the old canvas tents like if you were in the military and you traveled across you set up that tent right so there's incredible old canvas tents that you can still buy we bought some for we did a little compound on Lake Michigan up north that's a series of these canvas tents with a

095deck in them and beds in them and power the people sleeping in the summer so I mean there are I think and if you think about that sort of traditional very traditional gabled roof structure the canvas the porch on front of them the courtyard the fort there are I think there are other things that can come in alignment with that I think it's just looking at the at that how the space is being used from the restaurant point of view and tying that in a little bit but I would I think I would say I'm pretty sure that it's not going to look haphazard than that courtyard for sure yeah yeah and I would say I think that the that trying to I think there's things that bring a sense of order so you know

096to me there's a couple of things one is responding to the architecture of touching so if you're touching that white chalky concrete but apparently trimming out the rail above it in a way that separates itself but also complements it so we don't feel as though there's just 200 feet of 12-inch folded aluminum Brown trim on the building right so trying to really be sense about those things the other thing is that that repurposing and repositioning I think allows a certain sense of unification of the site so right now putting the green courtyard in the middle and having the concrete building open up on to that more and then having a shed open up onto that you really have a space that can be unified with the occupation of it right with being in there does

097that make sense another applicant but if you've got any yeah I just was thinking about with this new use it changes that the perception the one can cut through that corner mm-hmm that's been finger lis in the past if we're people coming down mattes and they're coming down state you get onto the corner and turn with this it's pretty inviting to go I'm just gonna cut across that that greensward I like the notion of the green but you might that's one element of what I'm gonna say the other is as people are using the West shed standing in front of it picking up tacos or whatever they're they're gonna be doing in the shed I would think that the grass in front of that might get pretty well beat up mm-hmm you might consider a

098slice of hard scape right along parallel maybe there's a wide across the front to allow the neck what's it's going to be natural students and so if we're gonna be cutting across it gives a place to do that without through the lawn and it also gives it potentially a useful area directly in front of that shed that doesn't always have to be rejuvenated yeah yeah nothing is a great point I mean if you think about the history of universities and courtyards and the every university puts you know string around the courtyard with the grass grow after all three he said I had one more coming I'm not sure how you're gonna when you get to the code conformance piece if its rehabilitation code or what you're doing but the end Michigan energy code worries me

099on this billing and how you comply so there might be an opportunity over the North shed for solar energy it seems to be in the right spot yeah yeah and you're not gonna shaded and yeah that's a great array up there so it's something yeah that's a really great great thought yeah for sure the last thing I wanted to ask you is if you would consider coming back for another design session I'm sure you know what the answer now but what do you encourage that so yeah yeah I mean I think it's a great you know I would say it's worth coming back once we've developed the courtyard area some more because I think that really relates to a lot of the issues of pedestrian feel of things and I also think I mean it's

100it's good on all sides right because we can hear from you and you can hear from us and it's just an ongoing process of working together so absolutely yeah and and I don't know if you know we're all from different so disciplines and our two at landscape architects and our planner are missing today so yeah be good to come back here yeah for sure all right okay thank you thank you okay okay we're gonna take a five-minute break you all right I think I'd like to get started again thank you and we're gonna move in no we're now we're going to do public comment on that on the group that we just saw and if yes project they just heard and let me see your state your name and remember this microphone yeah okay Evan

101Potts is my name and when these down town ordinances d1 and d2 were written well there were no we were nervous that we the public were nervous about something's for instance height mass scale context in the neighborhood and so forth and we were reassured by the consultants and the staff that the character area overlays would take care of that that that will fine-tune things well this is a character area overlay district and you have another one on your agenda also this is the first time I think I have experienced a situation of a proposal by a developer a situation in which the character area might actually be made being made use of it might actually be useful to us I I assume that each of you has it in front of you as you sit

102there you're able to quote the intent of the character area for each of these I presume you know that because I know that but but there are other little little things that weren't I don't think we're brought up too well one is Allen's Creek floodplain the fingerlings lumber floods regularly very seriously so how do we deal with that we need to know more about that and and traffic is a something of a problem down there and it meinen matter and so we need to hear a little more about that thank you very much thank you is there any other public comment on what we've just seen hello my name is Dennis Burke and my home would a but and be right off the northeast corner of this proposed development back in 1982 I stood in

103the same position that these folks did with my architect wanting to do a substantial rehab and development of a house that was in terrible condition and we went through many many architectural rounds and with you folks and eventually we were turned down so my wife and I decided at that time to salvage what we could and build a single-family home there and I've brought up two children and made substantial investments in that property over the years and I've been very delighted about the apartment buildings that have gone up South on South Main I continue to see a lot of residential development and high-density housing on the south side of town on the southeast side and Southwest but I have very serious concerns about repurposing this building for this activity primarily I'm concerned about the noise

104especially with the terrorists eating I'm very concerned that the sheds would be repurposed and used for special events I'm very concerned about the amount of off street parking I would echo what we've heard over here if you want to see how bad the traffic is in that area just come down there some day between 4:30 and 5:30 and stand at the corner of Madison and Main Street I don't think they have near enough parking for staff and are any of the patrons of the facility I'm also concerned léopold brothers for those of you remember had a brewery that was just an adjacent building to this we had lots of problems over the years with Leopold brothers with noise not only myself but many of the residents this is a residential neighborhood called the police many

105many times to come and have them turn the volume down and try to quiet the crowd so I just don't think the character of this neighborhood is such that we could tolerate really having this kind of facility in and about the residential with all of us folks there trying to live there all the investment that's been done for residential in that area most of the business places are moving out and in the hours of operation are significant concern two-finger leaves you know closes at five o'clock they're typically not open at most Sundays most of the businesses in the areas do closed typically in the evening and the evenings are quiet in that area of town we do have a 7-eleven it stays open but these are just convenience stores in a gas station but this

106facility I think would be open till 11:00 maybe 2 a.m. with frequent activities they're talking about outdoor entertainment I just don't see this as the proper use of that facility of that building being a commercial destination for eating and a lot of outdoor activities year-round thank you any other public comment okay moving on to the next project which is 1,100 South University Avenue the applicant would like to step forward and make their presentation we're just the first time we're doing this so that's fine thank you this is a 1,100 South University Avenue project I believe currently known as the Vic village South Design Review Board project number Dr 19-0 0-3 again I'll give up my my brief summary of a zoning review and compliance with the downtown design guidelines but first a quick introduction this

107is [Music] I'm sorry this is the project that takes up most of the block on the south side of South University between East University and Church Street it'll redevelop seven Lots with a 13 story high-rise building student-focused housing above some first floor commercial space with two levels of parking below they will use the residential and the affordable housing premium options to get close to nine hundred percent floor area ratio access to the parking garage is going to be either off of Church Street or Eastern University the included design plans have access from church street that may be switched to East University I let the applicant speak a little bit more about that a cursory review of Zoning indicates that it does or will comply with all the standards areas that should be confirmed are the

108the massing articulation and regarding site planning we found that all of the subcategories for site context and site planning do apply they are providing the urban pattern and the features in urban patterns and forms that enrich the pedestrian experience the site layout does include some open space particularly in front of the in the thin strip in front of the buildings and at the corners that have appropriate urban qualities parking driveway service areas have been designed for minimal impacted pedestrians we would note it's not zero impact but they have been designed for minimal impact there is a pedestrian connection on the south side be in sort of a mid block connection for the buildings one of the the premises of the design guidelines is for the building to be reflect the character of its of its

109area and I would say that the South University area is really no longer a low scale neighborhood when we're talking about buildings on South University so in in that sense this building does fit in with its context there is one existing and remaining lower scale building but from the renderings it does not appear that this new building is looming or hulking presidents it appears that it can fit nicely within we find four building elements that all the categories are applicable and that they do provide a strong Street edge and street-level entries and a high level of first floor transparency and I understand that the applicant is here to give a brief presentation I will use them like I've heard to use the mic thanks Alexis my name is Sean Rivera the VP of construction for

110Hugh's properties where the developer of the project with us is Pat fix with the owner as well and we have Diane McIntyre and Dave NIMS with the architect who are going to be discussing more of the design items I just want to give a kind of a brief overview of where we're at how we're moving forward so there's obviously a lot of information that is missing within the package such as unit counts things along those lines and the reason for that is we met with Planning probably about a month or so ago as we started to discuss this project primarily as it had to deal with how we were going to handle the curb cut issue and one of the things that alexis recommended to us and one of the things that we like to

111do with our projects is to come more than once to the design review board so we primarily wanted to come forward because the curb cut issue while will affect a little bit of the of the facade there as you go down East University if it gets moved to there the primary aspects of the building will not change on the front facade aspects of this building we are in the process of working with engineering and planning and the DDA to evaluate the curb cut issues we're gonna also discuss and go back with the architect and our ownership team to talk a little bit more about how it where we put it at how that impacts the overall massing of the building overall impacts the FA are that we're able to achieve as well I think Alexis's

112report states about 785 right now and we really want to look at maximizing the affordable housing component and maximizing the overall FA are all which is done with 150 feet that we're allowed in that area so primarily want to come forward get your initial thoughts and views in regards to what the renderings and the elevations look like our intent is is coming back again for a second review once we have finalized the full unit mix the floor plates final elevations based upon some of your comments today as well as depending on where the curb cut is at and with that I will hand that over to the architect to talk more through the design aspects and then obviously we'll answer any questions you may have Thank You Shawn good afternoon my name is Diane McIntyre

113with Hobbes and black architects here to speak on the Vic village south project as Alexis and Shawn explained this is a 13 story high-rise it is located on the south side of South University Avenue we are flanked by Church Street and East University Avenue and I'm going to take a moment to walk you through the site plan and floor plans quickly and then lead us to the building elevations and perspectives there we go here showing the site plan on South University Avenue and to orient yourself this is the current location of the PNC Bank and we're also flanked by the good time Charlie's building good time Charlie's of course staying and the other one and two-story buildings on that block would become the proposed residential high-rise and if you've been around in Ann Arbor for

114a little while you've probably seen all the development in this area predominantly student housing high-rises on South University Church and East University and these are some context photos as we go around the site different university buildings student housing high-rises still an eclectic feel for some buildings that are remaining we have pizza house and as we move down the block obviously the University towers China gate and here we are at the site plan again which begins to show you that the proposed building is looking to extend to the property lines along the north and west and currently we have the garage entry located along Church Street and as Sean mentioned we are looking at the possibility of you know pros and cons of this location we have shown or also these East University side of the

115building and this also shows the pedestrian walkway that will connect mid-block both the East University and Church Street across the South portion of the building two levels of below grade parking are proposed with the first floor predominantly retail and commercial space bike storage as well and as we move up the building mostly residential and also some amenity amenities faces as well and up at the top level level 13 predominantly amenities faces and rooftop patios so you can see on the elevations and I think it may be clearer on the perspectives but the use of materials is predominantly brick and there's also metal panel materials at the vertical recesses that run through the building changes and brick colors there are three different colors and we'll see that later and then the top floor predominantly more of

116a glass material that's stepped back further than the rest of the building facade there's also the primary entrance the residential entrance upon South University Avenue not right at the corner of South University and Eastern University whereas that space would be dominated more by a retail presence and an outdoor open space this is showing the back or south side of the building and then we're going to look at east and west quickly a preliminary section of the building showing the building height at 150 feet above the grade plane and the 150 feet is - not the so much the top of the building as the top of any mechanical screens and would also incorporate the elevator over run as well again the different brick colors from nutmeg sienna evany cast stone elements and then the perspective

117of the buildings showing some of the surrounding buildings as well with a dominant glass vertical architectural feature at the northwest corner of the site directly diagonal from the Dennison archway at the University bit more of the facade on the north and west sides showing predominantly brick materials and I also see good time Charlie's and I think as has been discussed before a two-story high street wall at the property line and then a step back about five feet after that point for the third through twelfth floors with another step back at the top floor and I believe that may be the last slide so I would welcome any questions you may have well the curb cut is that it's a concern because there are three curb cuts in a row there is that the the challenge

118I'll go back to the site plan all right right so on the east tonight of the site you'll see what's currently a service drive which would have its curb cut and this is also a shared drive with 611 and and then this would be a curb cut for the residential parking and then there's also a curb cut currently for the good time Charlie's site right here so it's three curb cuts in a row with some pedestrian islands in between there are pros and cons to putting the curb cuts on either side over here where we shown a proposed curb cut there's actually quite a bit more pedestrian traffic that we would need to consider obviously safety is a concern so we're looking at both sites now and we have a traffic analysis that's helping to

119guide us so it's working progress and we're working with them to give us some guidance on occasion just this is really a minor point but why you had that that that plan up it looks to me like all your doors on the South University side swing out is that what you're intending you know those doors I guess could swing in or out and I think they disappeared if we had them swinging in at this point on the site plan so I think bicycles are gonna love that and I don't think it was allowed to swing out into them now that was just a minor the first thing that caught my eye is that that corner that is framed as you walk through the barrel vault from the diag it's the building and self you and

120east you and and I just wonder you it is you worked it out I know that an entry the entry then that just on that previous slide that is on South you this is this real elegant two-story precast piece that looks really nice in and so that is your primary entrance to the bulk of the building because it's perpendicular to the corridor system and and doing something like that at that corner that we're looking at would be more difficult because I think the corridor system would need to become diagonal or do something what was that the challenge they did their corners is such an opportunity because it's so perfectly framed as you're coming through the barrel fault and a whole South you emerges as you walk across the dike it's the first thing that you

121see in in being the first impression of the building and it just seems like an area that you might be able to give more thought to part of it in regards to the mid block is obviously when you deal with the core aspects of the systems for the elevator said obviously guys a lot of it from the student perspective where they entered the building they're gonna learn where they need to enter at the building at in regards to the corner aspect because that first floor retail tenant is there we wanted to make that corner via a regional tenant to be an active corner from a retail perspective so the retail tenant there will be able to have that area that's look at which plan it is but they can come out activate that corner and

122activate that as you come in part of the reason why we did the glass there was to for that aspect to draw your eye to that corner as well but to utilize that as a main entrance into the building just doesn't have a lot of that you lose a lot of efficiencies by doing that yeah I'm not worried about the students I know they'll find it and I know they'll fill it but I I do worry about it it's the view that we get of the building and as we walk across the dyeing and it's our first impressionist we're also headed east on South you it's the first tall building we're going to see in that corner is really critical are you a knight I hate to give it over to whoever of the retail

123person as for their advertised awning and it just seems like architectural II it's an opportunity that you're not taking and I know it's it's difficult the rest of the building is really elegant and well done I just wish you could think about that corner some more make it a little more special okay we'll put a clock on there for Bill I just don't want to walk through the urgency Starbucks I want to walk through their sin see something that is iconic of Ann Arbor and a part of the architectural language is a building yeah I completely agree with that comment I this is such a great opportunity for this corner and when you look at in a plan and you see the social work building pulled back and there's actually sort of a recess almost

124in the northeast corner as well and then you know I I really like what you've done with the glass and the corner you haven't tried to mimic the arch and put a you know I think of you know angled wall at the corner but you let it be a little bit light and with the glass going up but then that the base I don't know if that's dick is where you're you're having the issue but just what to do with that corner it seems awkward the the plan seems that nook that niche seems a little mean like so little you know it's it's not not symmetrical it's it's a little narrow I don't see people cutting through there very well but if you could take that corner and again that I don't have any great

125answers for what to do there but to do something that that reacts to this very important corner at this important intersection of University and not just you know have a little nook with a one little door in it you know it seems like it's understated suggesting that that that you try to reorient that that's a main entrance to building could it could still it still will be the entrance to a tenant that tenant could be thrilled if it's even something more dramatic right that's how it is come in and swing a door and you go into the space you got a lot of opportunities to do something really significant there take a look at Clyde for clarifying what portion we were talking about so yeah yeah I think I can speak for dick I think

126he was saying you liked the entry to the students the materials and the presence of it and just doing something that's that kind of statement at that corner not moving though yeah the entry on the North elevation of the flat elevation is really well done it's very I think that's a real nice touch and so something with the same mindset at the corner where you know you'll you'll find an opportunity yeah I well we're talking about that portal there I like it also I don't I think it's a bit awkward the way it the brick to the right of it comes in it's it's seems a little bit stuck on and I was wondering if if the it could be reworked somewhat so it's a little more by itself if there's a you know you've

127got these vertical I don't know those are those are glass glass and metal panels that go up between the brick is that right yes between between sort of the brick facade pieces right it must be yeah yeah the base of those columns there's a dark all right no I was talking about either like to the right yeah right there then you've got another metal and then you've got another one a little bit over on the far side but here it just if maybe if that apartment could be a little bit more set off and not just sort of a side of the of one of these these segments you know it's just it's off to the side there so maybe just look at that the other thing is for that entry I don't know if

128there's any opportunity to because it is very flat the whole facade is very flat you know is there an opportunity to push those doors back to create a bit of a recess for the entry and then pull a canopy out so you get kind of that feel where you're walking down and and suddenly you're you're getting a little bit of a deeper and more protected entry probably you're gonna have to swing those doors out probably looking very similar while we down on the the other side where that main entrance is set back a little bit there isn't an awning per se there by pulling that entrance back a little bit so you create a little bit more of a more inviting and it's not just BAM right there though it's just you know I'm really

129happy we've we've seen a lot of buildings in this district and more than one of them with you Sean and and sometimes in the past the material changes are expressed with just maybe a four inch reveal here and there and in-flight elevation they look effective but but in in perspective and in reality they're there they remain flat in that didn't happen here I really appreciate that the floor plane is actually changing and they're deeper reveals and so where the materials change it expresses an actual mass I thank you you did a real nice job with that I appreciate it I hope you keep that and not let it like flatten out as you're as you're developing it reveals a question on the East elevation is that setback from of that building property line from this

130short building is there as you get are you set back from that property line question is if they build another building up against it sometime we're set back about five feet from that property line and we were looking at the design of those units to not have to have windows on that side and we do have quite a few shown but we're aware that we're sure someone could build right up to the property line and that happens more often than you'd like yeah I'm not sure if somebody were to build up to the property line on that side whether there would be some code related issues as far as the firewall requirements yeah once they get they would have to pretty much set back in order to have any windows unless they went up with

131a complete block building but then obviously that poses challenge and how they constructed cuz they have to encroach on our property so obviously at the first two levels it's not hard because you're building right against the other building and once you get above we can set back and give us that five feet we need in order to scan our building brick the building all of that we just did that with the University of Michigan credit union building that they have right next to us on the north side where we stepped it back so we didn't have to encroach on their property or vice versa so yeah that definitely becomes a building code issue well when 101 North Main got developed there were some window this is the building at here on an Main Street another

132house in black building but there were windows in the west wall of that building and the planning or the building department or planning department one of the other made certain that the developer knew that if another building got built next to it which now the hotel is there that they would lose those windows and that they would have to make them comply with the firewall required yeah we set that far enough for building code issues by Vitas and then we didn't want to create the East facade to be too blank although we're well aware that how we designed those units along that East facade we were having most of them have their natural light coming from the north or the south just in case right looks like that Lobby or the corridors get the most

133of the windows for their larger the setback the larger the percentage of glazing you can have on that wall is it 25% for five feet so I think it is 25% from what I recall looks like I think that we're right at you're right okay well I really like the treatment of the lower two floors the weight that has been articulated it almost reminds me of separate buildings rather than you know one long mass so I think that got handled really really well I think there are some knifes canopies also that may be kind of hard to see only because oh gosh things become so small at the scale but we've tried to incorporate canopies all along here yeah let's get a blow-up of one I think on one sheet and on the brick yeah

134like know that there yeah the I would echo what Jeff said about the almost two separate buildings I feels like you haven't overdone the kind of layering of brick you know that's that you've you've done some of that or the lighter brick over the darker brick but it's not it's not overdone I had been thinking I almost wanted to see some variation in the height of that street wall pieces but I'm you know I'm a little torn on that I think one of the comments too that was made in Alexis's report I think Alexis you and clarify your intent if my understanding was correct is that the when I go back so the portions like we have along the front there where that cornice is that having a very it was your comment there are

135varying that cornice was that one of the comments I read because if that's one comment obviously we would like your guys's thoughts on that as well I did comment that more very haste variation in the height of cornice lines and projecting features to express the different modules might be considered I actually was talking about the height or the very top of the building but I think the same would apply to the height of the street wall my personal opinion is maybe the street wall doesn't need as much change in height because it is lower literally lower but the top of the building was a pretty solid line of top of building and for almost the length of a walk and I thought a little up-and-down vertical might add interest but I'm a planner and not

136an architect I do construction I don't design like what was done in the West West facade there's a little bit of variation what's your timeframe on this so our intent obviously pending the one we get back from engineering and planning and is hopefully we will come back in May with a with the overall redesign of the building and then obviously that will kick off the site plan process and that usually takes about six months I think now Alexis or somewhere in there you know we're looking at trying to start demolition towards the end of the year that would be what we do what we're looking at obviously that's all pending site planning all that process per meeting with the city obviously but that's kind of our intent right now thank you looks good I think

137through a few times we've learned yeah we will be really definitely coming back again we wanted this preliminary to get some of your preliminary views so as we move into the final configuration the building obviously once we know the configuration with the the curb cut we can finalize the building massing we've just finalized with our operator our unit mix that we're looking at so now how does a black can go back try to relay out units as well so we can finalize what that all is going to look like and then we can come back with more robust information we'll have obviously more views of what depending on what church looks like well if the church looks like so on and so forth a lot more of those pronounced elevations from what I heard that

138that corner is probably the biggest definitely be looking hard at that corner thank you Thanks at this point we can entertain comments get this down near me thank you it might work okay thank you again this is a character overlay district on South University and what it says in in the zoning ordinance what it says is as this is a mix of building types and sizes with retail uses on the street level and relatively narrow lot with the intent for this district is to maintain a variety in scale would design the reflects the small scale widths and heights of buildings though and look at the look the taller portions of buildings are to be located towards the interiors of Lots away from any lock lines and any sidewalks the south university character area lies just

139outside the DDA boundaries and adjacent to neighborhoods the intent for this district is to maintain a variety of small-scale commercial and retail enterprises mixed with some residential uses minimizing the impact on nearby residential streets this project does none of these things I think actually it's a very good example of doing the opposite thank you any other comments next item on the agenda is if there's any Planning Commission communications there is not and I would have deferred in the interest of time anyway yeah it's okay all right and then no communications I assume oh no there was one sorry that was going on the letter there was a letter from any other public comment on anything further okay then I believe we are adjourned thank you very much and thanks for being patient and going over

140you