2006-08-08-DAC-MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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LEXINGTON DESIGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes: August 8, 2006 Present: Colin Smith (Chair), John Frey, Ginna Johnson, Timothy Lee, Bahig Kaldas, Wendy Manz, Parker Hirtle Scribe: Colin Smith Call to Order: The Meeting was called to Order at 7:30PM. Approvals: Minutes of the July 11th meeting were approved with minor corrections. Presentations/Review: 727 Marrett Road- Starwood Hotels o The DAC was presented with modifications to the PSDUP for 727 Marret Road, by the Starwood development team. The PSDUP was approved at Town Meeting in April of this year. It should be noted that the DAC remains concerned about the larger issues of “1. Scale/Intensity of Use”, and “2. Natural Site Features & Proposed Site Utilization”, summarized in its letter dated April 2, 2006. The meeting focused largely on the minor modifications the developer has made to the PSDUP that was approved in April. Those modifications with DAC comments are as follows: Site Design: 1. “Village Green” was developed to include a “formal” system of paths, bus stop and paving materials to create the sense of a common space. The DAC recommends the width of the “Village Green” be maximized and its paths be reworked to enhance the notion of this space as destination and to improve circulation between the two buildings. A sketch was created (attached) during the meeting that addressed these comments. The additional space (3’-4’ in width) for the “green” shall come out of the landscape buffer space in front of each building. 2. Two types of pavers and colors were introduced between the two buildings to create a better sense of place. Along with the “Village Green” design, it was discussed to minimize the extent of paving along with the types and colors employed. The pavers shall be removed from the rocky knoll “turnaround”, and one type of paver used for vehicular circulation routes and the color of pavers shall be integral to the material and not painted on. 3. The lighting in and around the “Village Green” shall be more of a decorative 12’ high (pedestrian scale) fixture in lieu of the 25’ high parking lot fixtures specified. 4. The photometric lighting plan was reviewed and found to be acceptable. Building Design: 5. In general, the DAC found several improvements to the building design of both buildings (ESW & aLoft). The floor plans, façade elevations, materials and lighting have been thoughtfully improved over the previous design, some of which were in response to previous DAC comments. 6. Two building materials that we recommend undergo further study are the brick for the aLoft building (DAC prefers the brick color shown in the renderings