New Haven Independent

While you’re at it, make sure the building does not become a glass box but somehow speaks the “language” of the other vertical structures of the New Haven skyscape. And please don’t forgo the opportunity to make a green, sustainable, iconic architectural statement for generations to come… Oh, and what about hitching posts for pedicabs on Chapel Street as well?

These and other suggestions — great and small, by turns helpful, provocative, and engaging —preoccupied a room full of New Haven architects, such as Keith Krolak, urban planners, designers, and regular citizens Tuesday. They participated in a workshop on the evolving shape of the tower-dominated development slated to rise on the former Shartenberg site on downtown’s southeastern border some 24 months from now.

The man who won the competition to develop the site of the old Shartenberg department store, spanning the block on Chapel between Orange and State, is Bruce Becker (pictured here with realtor Bernie Diana discussing a possible hotel atop a tower). Becker faced professional questioners as well as just-interested citizens at the evening public workshop convened at 200 Orange St. by the city’s Office of Economic Development.

In response to previous criticism that the building was too big and too dense, Becker’s team has already taken eight stories off the top of the main tower (but added them to a smaller tower, at the corner of Orange), and also offered a brick facade for the first four to five stories on Chapel to integrate more into the streetscape. Click here for the previous changes announced.) The $100 million project’s residential tower is now planned to rise 23 stories. Still evolving were parking configurations, the type of retail, whether a hotel might be part of that, and the extent that all of this might be done in a manner balancing Becker’s goal of creating a building record-breaking in its “greenness,” its luxurious amenities, and integration into the life of the city.

In an atmosphere, genial, thoughtful, and engaged, some of the toughest questions came from people like Joe Schiffer (on the left in the photo) of Herbert Newman Associates, one of the firms that lost out on the original bidding. “As long as you try to conceal the parking,” Schiffer said politely, referring to floors two through five of the proposed structure, “it’s not going to work. Everyone will know the cars are there. Maybe you should consider some kind of ‘lining,’” he suggested, meaning a line of small, low-depth studio apartments in front of the garage, “so headlights don’t shine through to the street.”

“You should also be aware as you move forward in your research,” added Yale architecture professor Alan Plauttus (to the right, his hand, like Schiffer’s, in the thoughtful position), “that by the time your building is done, many of the units on the floors across from you on Chapel Street are going to be rehabbed and lived in. Those people don’t want to be looking at headlights from your parking garage.”

As it is currently conceived by Becker and his lead designer, project architect Michael Losasso (to Becker’s right in the photo), the Shartenberg building will have one floor of parking below ground. The ground floor will be retail. The floors two through about five (the numbers are evolving) up to the height of about 45 feet, which is the height of the streetscape on Chapel immediately facing, will be a parking garage. Although it is concealed or “wrapped,” there was skepticism about whether these parking floors would fool anyone. Becker conceded that parking is a huge issue needing to be addressed, since it is one of his aims to have the building be not only record-setting in terms of its “green-ness” but also be an example to the region of TOD, or transit-oriented development.

“We can’t go down underground further,” Becker said, because the expense is so great and also because of the water table, “but we are looking into this.”

Schiffer and others also urged Losasso and Becker not to build a glass box. “Please,” said Schiffer, among other architects, “consider your vertical presence and make it be a good neighbor. The way you have it now, there is no stepping, no modulation. As a glass slab, the tower sets itself apart from the city and the fact that it doesn’t touch down its foot also separates it.”

Becker said that, yes, they would consider some stepping, some articulation, but that some New Haven towers are models, such as the Knights of Columbus headquarters. “However, keep in mind that many of our design decisions are going to be driven by the green-ness of the structure. A simple rectangular structure is far more efficient. We could have articulation, but that could constitute a steep trade-off in energy saving and efficiency.”

After the gathering broke up to brainstorm in various groups, each led by a member of the Becker and Becker team, these were some of the other ideas, great and small, that emerged for the developer to ponder:

In the “amenities group,” Kirsten Springer (on the left) heard from New Haveners like Christine Bishop (on the right) that cork floors would be a good idea. Everyone also liked the notion of the building be wired, in the walls, for Internet and wifi. Retail suggestions were of interest too. “People want a mid-priced grocery and a mid-sized one,” she said. “Not a huge Trader Joe’s.” Some said a dry cleaner and clothing store would attract tenants. And a clothing store designed not only for young and slim people who go trekking, “but for people with regular bodies!”

As to green measures in the building, John Renner, another architect with Becker, said they would do just about everything in the book from an extensive photovoltaic canopy on the roof, the most energy-efficient envelope possible for the building, 10 percent or more of recycled materials in the building, 10 percent of locally or regionally produced materials, down to smaller energy saving features such as recycling of sink water to flush toilets, occupancy sensors for lights, and much more. “One of our favorite activities,” said Renner, “is staying up late at night on the Internet and seeing what’s the latest and what’s newest in green technology.”

In light of this Becker urged participants to advocate for a green building tax credit movement in Connecticut of the kind in place in New York.

As to ideas emerging from the transit-oriented development group, they were primarily what has been discussed before: the great opportunity of the proximity of the Metro North station on State Street. Becker architect Aaron Pine said expansion of train service is very much in the works and is being spurred by the project, especially weekend service along the shoreline, to places such as Hammonasset State Park. Bicycle storage is also being factored into the design, although the suggestion for pedicabs was new. Pine, like all the Becker staff, seemed to new ideas, even this one. “There is a pedicab company operating in New Haven,” he said. “Like bicycles it’s essentially a good idea, reducing reliance on cars. It’s not a great area, however, to have a pedicab stand. But we’ll think on it.”

While Becker was eager to hear from people such as Bernie Diana (pictured above), a real estate agent with Levy Miller Maretz, who had hotel clients interested in whether Becker was prepared to lease them air rights for a possible extended-stay hotel (with kitchenettes and other amenities), most of the hotel questions were of a more skeptical variety. “The reason we’re considering it,” Becker said, “is that it reduces our exposure to the rental market. If the revenue stream a hotel creates can equal that of renting, then we’ll think about it, and we are.”

Another questioner wanted to know why the building is all rental, no condos. “The simple answer is that our financing comes from large pension funds, and these people are into it for the long term. They want us to hold onto the property for its long-term appreciation, so no condos, no flipping.”

Becker said he was particularly struck by the concern of people that he not think of Chapel Street as the pedestrian-oriented side of his development and State Street as strictly vehicular. That is, how pedestrians navigate from the building to the train station, how they navigate around the Pitkin Tunnel which lets out onto State is also important. In that connection also, he acknowledged with gratitude the suggestion that the store that goes in at the corner of Chapel and State not close at 7 p.m., as part of a more welcoming and pedestrian-oriented face onto State Street that also reaches over to Wooster Square.

Scott Healy, who heads the Town Green Development District, offered an interesting and challenging final remark to Bruce Becker and his team.

“This room is full of New Haven professionals, and they sometimes can be seen as dividing up into the contextualist/preservationists and the contemporary modernists. There’s a danger that in listening to both sides you’ll get caught in the middle and you’ll come up with something mixed, a compromise. Resist it, please, Mr. Becker,” Healy said. “I’d urge you to build something striking, so that it can be an icon. New Haven has never seen, in modern times, any kind of return to ‘ye olde New England village.’ Quite the contrary, it has a great legacy of contemporary design. The Shartenberg project has the possibility of being a real icon for generations to come.”

How did Becker respond? He seemed to indicate that of his many goals in the project, making it not only financially successful but also the state’s most exemplary green and transit-oriented building, meant using the latest material. These concerns will drive his planning choices. Since those materials are all modern in their look, he said, that was a kind of affirmation of the gauntlet Healy had thrown down.

Nevertheless, the meeting also included a suggestion, which had come from Kirsten Springer’s group, that the developer/architects include in the final product a fish pond. Why? Because the old Shartenberg Department Store had one, fondly remembered.

Becker asked for ongoing suggestions be sent to him and his staff at beckerandbecker.com. The public review process on the site begins at the end of May.