Landmarks board must OK mall work

BOULDER – The redesign team for the Pearl Street Mall, anxious to move forward with a proposal on a major facelift for the four-block promenade, recently learned it also must pass muster with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board.

Because the mall is designated a Historic District, one of six in Boulder including the Mapleton Hill area and Chautauqua Park, the Landmarks Board must approve any exterior changes, especially to the downtown buildings, before renovations can move forward.

But there might be questions about whether the Landmarks Board should be reviewing some of the plans at all. Most of the changes to the Pearl Street Mall occur along the public right-of-way.

“We knew that the Historic District was coming into being, but I think there’s definitely a gray area about the public areas,´ said Paul Trementozzi, a principal of OZ Architecture, which along with the Boulder-based Communication Arts, RRC Associates and Sasaki, out of Boston, is working on the redesign.

Timing is of the essence for the downtown Boulder mall with the opening of FlatIron Crossing looming in Broomfield. Downtown merchants, now armed with new marketing studies warning of potential market share loss in the millions to the new Broomfield mall, want to put a plan before Boulder city council as quickly as possible.

Funding alternatives and timing of the new construction also need to be nailed down with city officials. Construction in downtown Boulder is expected to begin when the Broomfield mall is complete. Preliminary estimates for the redesign now have been placed at $4.5 million to $5 million.

The conceptual plan for the redesign of downtown Boulder, which will include design recommendations, renderings and final cost estimates, is due out at the end of October. The Landmarks Board meets the first Thursday of each month.

The Downtown Historic District’s boundaries, a jagged area from about Spruce to Walnut streets and 10th to 16th streets, were established earlier this year. Both the Landmarks Board and members of the mall master plan advisory committee say the historic review shouldn’t slow plans for the mall’s redesign.

“That was a verbal commitment that was made by a number of people,´ said Richard Foy, principal with Communication Arts.

But members of the advisory committee clearly were surprised by the added task when Molly Winter, executive director of the Downtown Management Commission, announced it at a final presentation on Oct. 7.

Michael Holleran, chairman of the Landmarks Board, said proposals for redesigns with minor changes generally are approved after a couple of meetings. But bigger projects could take more meetings. He added, however, that the Landmarks Board is looking for a way to make the process as smooth as possible.

“The redesign (of the downtown mall) is not minor changes, but on the other hand, they’re not problem changes,” Holleran explained. “Our concern about it isn’t any particular lamppost or tree, but rather how it fits into the whole feeling of the place.”

The mall itself is slightly more than 20 years old, but some of the buildings in the historic district date back to the 1870s..

Preliminary plans for the mall redesign include a pop-jet fountain for the mall’s 1300 block, an expensive fixture that shoots water at random heights, lighting added to highlight architectural designs of the historic buildings and canopies to provide shade. Other features include better public restrooms, changing the planters, trimming some trees, removing the bus stop at 14th street and adding gateways on both ends of the mall.

Sharon Rosall, a Landmarks board member, said if lights were added directly on the buildings, it might give some board members cause to pause. Canopies that rise up to a second-story level also might be questioned.

No one wants the Pearl Street Mall to have a “Disneyland” kind of look, she said.

Foy counters, however, that lights will not change the historic nature of downtown and only would improve the downtown experience at night for shoppers and diners.

“Let me offer the lighting of the Statue of the Liberty, the lighting of the Empire State Building or the lighting of the Eiffel Tower,” Foy said. “Those are all historic structures. They all have very lovely light effects added to them and in them and on them. If we have beautiful buildings, why not let them express themselves in the evening hours?”