Clockwise from top left: Blake; Novella; Hilton, Tower Lane plans.
Pedro Soto sees big boxes rising around town — and isn’t offended.
The big boxes are new apartment complexes and hotels built by developers lured by the city’s hot real-estate market. Some experienced New Haven development-watchers have spoken out about what they consider cheap slapped-together designs, which they believe dilutes the city’s historic architectural beauty.
As chair of the city’s Development Commission, Pedro Soto doesn’t have the same concerns. He’s an historic preservationist. He advocates for historic rehab over demolition (with an occasional exception, like the planned razing of the former Webster Bank branch at 80 Elm St.).
But history evolves, with new ideas enriching the mix, Soto argued. And in most of these cases — such as Spinnaker’s Audubon Square and Hilton Garden Inn projects, Randy Salvatore’s three Hill developments and his downtown Novella and Blake Hotel buildings — the new structures are rising on surface lots. Bringing new people, not displacing anybody. Creating new history, not destroying the old.
Thomas Breen Photo
Pedro Soto on a Development Commission tour of center-city projects.
They represent a trend in lightweight “podium” design and construction. They rely on a first-floor concrete platform, with five to six wood-frame stories atop them using different materials (such as faux-brick) as “cladding” or outer skin; and an open-bay parking area at ground level.
“Every era has their preferred inexpensive form. That’s how you get economies of scale,” Soto said during a discussion of the issue on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“These buildings are absolutely everywhere,” he noted. “I like them. I think they look kind of cool.”
Some Independent commentators have disagreed, in threads to stories like this and this.
“These buildings bear absolutely no resemblance to their surroundings other than using a little bit of brick,” commenter mspepper wrote about Paul Denz’s Corner Block and Randy Salvatore’s Tower Lane mixed-use designs. “Not one aspect of these buildings is, in any sense, traditional. They are the type of homogeneous designs meant only to be done on the cheap, with no redeeming aesthetic qualities. It’s function over form — the function being to line developer pockets as efficiently as possible. Nothing more.”
Added Estaban: “Another 5 over 1, stick built house, constructed with 2x4s under a cheap brick veneer dressing up an otherwise plastic exterior. This same building is being replicated and repeated all over the country. It’s cheap and won’t last more than 30 years. These are the slums of the future.”
City of New Haven
Drone view of collapsed wood at front left, back right, at Audubon Square construction site.
After a partial collapse last month of an upper story of Spinnaker’s under-construction Audubon Square development, Fire Chief John Alston Jr. expressed concern about the popularity of the podium design and lightweight construction in the Northeast. The lightweight steel and lightweight timber have tensile strength, but they create voids that “allow for more rapid smoke and fire travel,” he warned.
In his “Dateline New Haven” appearance, Soto also identified out-of-town slumlords as a prime housing policy challenge for the city right now and raised questions about plans to locate a new Vegas-style strip club emporium near a homeless shelter, family housing complex, and planned apartment developments.
Click on the video to watch the full episode of “Dateline New Haven” with Pedro Soto:
Soto's perspective fails to consider that these "designs" fail to add anything to New Haven's architecture.
Stamford destroyed its architectural heritage in the name of progress and now it's full of bland high rise boxes for the transient population that has no loyalty or involvement in the city. Perfect for corporate nomads, but not so great for working class people or those who value community. <br /> Long time residents still wonder why so much new building went up and taxes continued to rise. Mayor Malloy gave long term tax credits. Does that sound familiar?<br /> If New Haven sells its soul, it will be done by the people who live here and not the outsiders.The Novella - or "Darth Vader" as some call it, is unworthy of its location across the street from the magnificently restored YMCA.
So much of what has been built is undistinguished and will easily be demolished when the next wave or urban renewal strikes.
How could a self-proclaimed "historic preservationist" approve of the destruction of the distinguished Art Deco lobby at the former Webster Bank. Real ones are weeping!