HomeMy WebLinkAbout20240720 30-30 1/2 Caroline Building Expansion Public Comment (4) 2/25/25, 12:20 PM Mail-Mark Graham-Outlook
Outlook
Fw: Comments - 30-30112 Caroline St - 20240720
From Susan Barden <Susan.Barden@saratoga-springs.org>
Date Tue 2/25/2025 12:19 PM
To Mark Graham <Mark.Graham@saratoga-springs.org>; Julia Destino <Julia.Destino@saratoga-springs.org>
1 1 attachment(183 KB)
Black and Orange Pile of Bricks.JPG;
Please upload the following email and attached pics. to 30 Y2 Caroline St. DRB app. Thanks!
From:fenton@nycap.rr.com <fenton@nycap.rr.com>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2025 11:47 PM
To: Susan Barden <Susan.Barden @saratoga-springs.org>
Cc:Aneisha Samuels<Aneisha.Samuels@saratoga-springs.org>
Subject: Comments-30-30 1/2 Caroline St- 20240720
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Hi Susan. The online form wouldn't accept the entire text of my comments. Could you send
them along to the design review board?
The images on the page of application materials for the proposed building at 30-30 '/2Caroline
Street have to be place holders for a brash, stunning, colorful design to come. It looks like
someone took a snapshot of that orange and black bruiser on Excelsior, or maybe a
screenshot of the rendering of the orange and black project at 78 Church, and pasted it in to
suggest that another behemoth from this sinister Halloween clan might pounce and engulf
Sperry's, a lonely vestige of the block's storied history, like a robotic rottweiler downing a bone
marrow appetizer. More dull lego cubes of bare brick, their musty glow set off by black panels of
mourning crepe worn, perhaps, for the loss by fire of 26 Caroline.
Let's remember how hard, after the fire took most of that building, the Preservation Foundation
and the City worked to preserve at least the fagade to keep the historic character of the street
front of two- and three-story buildings intact. Yes, this is the urban core, and the fagade couldn't
be saved. As our city grows, this is where taller buildings should go. But here is the core also,
the beating heart of our city's thriving life, where most visitors end up sooner or later. With this
once in a century opportunity, what shall we show them on this block of one of our most iconic
streets? Something arresting, surprising, with dramatic appeal? Or a dull, safe, mildly repulsive,
vaguely oldish clone, looking alarmingly like a pallet of bricks just unloaded on the construction
site, offering at best the claim that orange and black is the new orange and beige of recent
decades?
Let's reduce the height. Break the hulking mass into 2 or 3 distinct buildings, or at least a
convincing appearance thereof, each with a different, vibrant color. As gradually we fill in all the
open spaces along our downtown streets, if we're not careful we'll lose the accidental plazas
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2/25/25, 12:20 PM Mail-Mark Graham-Outlook
and vistas that in many places we still enjoy. Definitely vary the depth of front setbacks. Civic
spaces must be included to let in more sky and give people more room to roam. And set off the
ground floor to connect businesses directly and openly with wide sidewalks, and give ample
space for large trees, providing a minimum of 40 square feet of open soil for each tree, as
required by our Urban and Community Forest Master Plan.
Thanks,
Rick Fenton
23 Lefferts St
518-421-7098
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