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Design Review Board

Level 3: Construction of new building/structure

6-C-14-DT

This case has been appealed

Staff Recommendation
APPROVE Certificate 6-C-14-DT with the following condition: 1) Coordinate with the City Urban Forester on the final location, soil volume specification and species for the street trees.Case File
Location
210 W Church Ave
Applicant Request
The proposal is for a new 8-story hotel with 112 rooms and an attached 3-story parking garage with 112 spaces. The development will be on the half block between Church Avenue, State Street, and Cumberland Avenue. The property is currently vacant.

Site Plan:
The development will fill the entire half block, with the exception of an interior courtyard and the 5-foot front yard setback (as shown on the site plan). The hotel will encroach upon the 5-foot setback to install planters at the base of the State Street and Church Avenue corner of the building, and to create a 'breakfast balcony' along State Street, and for the metal canopies that extend from the façade along Cumberland Avenue. These encroachments are only for the basement and ground level of the hotel and garage.

The main pedestrian entrance to the hotel will be from Church Avenue, and there will be one vehicular parking entrance to the parking garage from Church Avenue and one from State Street. The Church Avenue parking entrance has a 22-foot wide drive aisle, with two loading spaces and bicycle parking in the courtyard area.

The streetscape improvements include removing the existing curb-cuts around the property and installing new concrete sidewalks to match the existing sidewalks, new street lights to match those on Church Avenue, and street trees.

Hotel Elevations:
All of the windows will have aluminum frames and clear glass. The corner tower will have prefinished metal panels that extend the full height of the structure and square ribbed metal panels starting at level 2. The rest of the upper portion of the building will be a mix of brick, EIFS and decorative metal railings for the balconies.

The exterior of level 1 (ground floor) will be clad in precast concrete block and have composite wood accent trim, brick planters and prefinished metal canopies above the main entrance and parking entrance along Church Avenue. The State Street elevation will also have brick on the basement level. The wall behind the brick planters will have accent tile.

Parking Garage Elevations:
The base of the garage will be clad in brick with the upper portions skinned with panelized composite wood accent screens, 'green' screens that will have live vegetation, and prefinished metal canopies. The stair tower at the corner of State Street and Cumberland Avenue will be concrete.

Signage:
The large blade sign on the Church Avenue elevation will have halo-lit letters and is approximately 50 feet tall by 4.5 feet wide. There are two externally illuminated wall signs, one near the main entrance on Church Avenue and one to the right of the 'breakfast balcony' on State Street. Each wall sign is approximately 6 feet tall by 10 feet wide. The two parking entrances have non-illuminated signs atop the prefinished metal canopies.

Lighting:
On all three street facing elevations, the prefinished metal canopies have recessed can downlight fixtures. On the ground level of the hotel there are up/down wall sconces between the storefront windows. The corner tower will have LED strip lighting to illuminate the underside of the tower for the full height of the tower starting at level 2. The LED strip lighting will be on both Church Avenue and State Street elevations
Staff Comments
The development is proposed on a vacant lot that encompasses one-half of an entire block, approximately .9 acres. The existing development surrounding the property includes: West - 1 to 3 story buildings facing Gay Street with the uses primarily consisting of retail, restaurants and office; South - 5 story parking structure for the adjoining 27-story First Tennessee Plaza Tower; East - surface parking lot; and North - two 3-story residential condo buildings, The Elliot and Keyhole Building, which are both contributing structures within the Gay Street Commercial (National Register) Historic District.

Since this proposal is new construction, many of the guidelines are applicable. Listed below are some of those guidelines, with additional comments from staff shown in italics:

Section 1.A - Public Realm
1d: Widen sidewalks to accommodate street trees and amenities with a minimum 5-foot clear pedestrian passage.

• On the State Street sidewalk there is one instance of concern at the 'breakfast balcony' where the building extends to the property line and there is a tree well that constricts the sidewalk. The architect has shifted the street trees to relieve this constriction.
1g: Consolidate curb-cuts and locate driveways near mid-block, when necessary; alley access should be provided for service and parking, if feasible.

• There are several curb-cuts along the three street frontages and these will be reduced to two as shown on the plans.
3a: Create parking garages that do not contain blank walls. Allow for future commercial uses that may not be feasible at the time of construction.

• Being that the garage is being constructed to support with adjacent hotel, this should fulfill the recommendation to allow for commercial uses.
3b: Locate parking garages under structures, or provide for retail, residential or office uses that line the garage. Corner locations are preferable for commercial uses.

• See the note for 3a.
4a: Foster downtown beautification with landscaping and plantings, public art, and public open space.

• Landscaping is proposed at the base of the structure on the Church Avenue elevation and wrapping the corner of the building at the State Street intersection. The courtyard will be landscaped which will be visible from the alley and the buildings across the alley. The parking garage will also have 'green' screens that will have live vegetation to provide interest to the façade.
4c: Plant street trees where possible. Choose tree planting locations that will not significantly alter the setting of, or harm the materials of historic buildings.

• Street trees are shown on the Site Plan; however, the final location, species, number of trees will need to be coordinated with the city's Urban Forester.

Section 1.B - Private Realm
1a: Maintain a pedestrian-scaled environment from block to block.

• Pedestrian-scale is not explicitly defined but the intent paragraph for this section of the guidelines states that "the use of 'human-scale' design elements is necessary to accomplish (pedestrian-scale). Human-scale design elements are details and shapes that are sized to be proportional to the human body, such as, upper story setbacks, covered entries, and window size and placement". The proposed building does use landscaping, protruding architectural elements, signs and differing exterior materials to define the base, middle and top of the building to respond to this recommendation.
1b: Foster air circulation and sunlight penetration around new buildings. Buildings may be designed with open space, as allowed under existing C-2 zoning; or buildings may be 'stepped back' on upper floors with lower floors meeting the sidewalk edge.

• The C-2 zoning district does not restrict the height of buildings but does restrict lot coverage depending on the height of the building. This proposal is restricted to 95 percent lot coverage, which it does conform with. The guidelines provide the board the ability to approve a lot coverage above that allow if the upper floor are 'stepped back', but this is not a requirement.
1c: Use building materials, cornice lines, signs, and awnings of a human scale in order to reduce the mass of buildings as experienced at the street level.

• See notes for 1a and 1b.
1d: Divide larger buildings into 'modules' that are similar in scale to traditional downtown buildings. Buildings should be designed with a recognizable base, middle, and top on all exposed elevations.

• The design uses recesses and varying building materials to break the building into 'modules'.
1e: Avoid blank walls along street-facing elevations.

• This has been accomplished along all the elevations of the hotel and parking garage.
2a: Set buildings back five feet in order to provide wider sidewalk space when new construction in non-historic areas is to be more than half the length of the block.

• The original concept reviewed by the Downtown Design Review Board at a public workshop did not propose any portion of the building extend into the setback. Members of the board encouraged the development team to utilize some of the setback space to include landscaping at the base of the structure and to consider an outdoor balcony off the lobby/breakfast room along State Street. The State Street sidewalk will be constricted to some degree along the balcony but the minimum 5-foot clear passage will be maintained.
2b: Consider using landscape elements to define the sidewalk edge where a building is to be set back from the sidewalk.

• Landscaping will be provided along Church Avenue and the corner of the building at the intersection. Landscaping could be added along the parking structure on both State Street and Cumberland Avenue.
3a: Use complimentary materials and elements, especially next to historic buildings.

• The Gay Street Commercial Historic District does extend down Church Avenue and include The Elliot and Keyhole buildings, which were both primarily constructed as residential structures. These buildings have brick exterior with stone and wood accents. The proposed hotel will incorporate brick and precast concrete for the base of the building and window sills.
4d: Differentiate the architectural features of ground floors from upper floors with traditional considerations such as show-windows, transoms, friezes, and sign boards.

• The lobby area will have larger windows a different exterior material than the upper stories.
5b: Orient primary front entrances to the main street; secondary entrances should be clearly defined and oriented to streets or alleys, as appropriate.

• The primary entrance faces Church Street, which is the main street.
5d: Consider corner entrances at the end of blocks.

• Because of the slope of the property, locating the entrance at the corner is not easy to accommodate.
5e: All windows at the pedestrian level should be clear.

• This has been incorporated.
5f: Recess ground floor window frames and doors from the exterior building face to provide depth to the façade.

• The main entrance is recessed, along with the large lobby windows.
7c: Screen rooftop vents, heating/cooling units and related utilities with parapet walls or other screens. Consider sound-buffering of the units as part of the design.
7d: Locate utility connections and service boxes on secondary walls.

• The 'transformer room' will face Church Street but it is entirely enclosed. The equipment will not be visible.
7e: Reduce the visual impacts of trash storage and service areas by locating them at the rear of a building or off an alley, when possible.

• The 'dumpster room' is accessed from the alley and will have an overhead door to conceal the dumpster.

Section 2.B.1 - Recommended Signs
1a: Wall signs on sign boards that are above a transom or first story and mounted flush to the building façade.

• The two proposed wall signs are below what would be considered the sign board. There will be in-ground light fixtures to uplight these wall signs. Since the signs are externally illuminated, the pedestrian experience should not be impacted negatively.
1b: Projecting signs of modest size (9 square feet, maximum); a larger sign must be approved by the board.

• The sign appears to be scaled appropriately for the structure. The halo-lit letters should keep the light trespass onto other properties to a minimum.
Applicant

Blackburn

Planning Staff
Mike Reynolds
Phone: 865-215-3827
Email: mike.reynolds@knoxplanning.org
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Case History