photo by: Core Spaces and Antunovich Associates/City of Lawrence

The city’s historic preservation board says that plans to build a five-story and more than 550-bedroom apartment and retail building on a prominent corner of Massachusetts Street are wholly inappropriate.

As part of its meeting Thursday, the city’s Historic Resources Commission voted unanimously to deny a certificate of appropriateness for the project, finding instead that the project will encroach upon, damage and destroy the environs of three nearby historic buildings: the English Lutheran Church, the Douglas County Courthouse and the former bank building that currently houses the Watkins Museum. The project is located in the Downtown Conservation Overlay District, and the commission also voted unanimously that the project does not comply with the city’s downtown design guidelines.

In the explanation of his vote on the certificate of appropriateness, HRC member Aaron Bailey said that the site proposed for the project, the corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets, deserves to be treated respectfully.

“That is a very, very special place in our community, and the Watkins Museum and Douglas County Courthouse are easily the crown jewels of the city,” Bailey said. He added that having a five- to six-story building within a stone’s throw of those buildings is something that has never happened before.

photo by: Core Spaces and Antunovich Associates/City of Lawrence

Chicago-based Core Spaces filed plans last October at City Hall for the project, called Hub on Campus, which is targeted at providing student housing. In November, the HRC members said that they agreed with city staff’s assessment that the project’s height and scale did not reflect the character-defining patterns of the downtown district, but rather than denying the project, the commission voted to defer its decision until its Architectural Review Committee reviewed the project. That review provided the developers guidance about bringing the size and design of the project into compliance.

Jeff Zelisko, senior principal at architecture firm Antunovich Associates, told commissioners Thursday that the developers had made significant, substantive changes to the size and scale of the building. A summary of the changes indicated that the building had been reduced in height by 6 feet, in area by about 31,000 square feet and that 34 living units, the equivalent of 51 bedrooms, had been eliminated.

Zelisko said the building was similar in height to the Eldridge Hotel, U.S. Bank building and other new developments on New Hampshire Street, and that it fit the context of downtown and that the building “could be anywhere along Massachusetts Street.” Changes were made to the design of the building, varying the building materials and aesthetic to make the building appear like multiple small buildings in an effort to mirror the look of Massachusetts Street.

However, HRC member Matt Veatch said that effort was not successful. Veatch said it was difficult to make a single, monolithic structure look like everything on Massachusetts Street in an organic way. He said the building was a “Disney version” of what downtown looks like.

photo by: Core Spaces and Antunovich Associates/City of Lawrence

After the recent reductions, the design is about 250,000 square feet and still stretches the width of the block between Massachusetts and New Hampshire Streets. Bailey said the project continues to be out of line with the mass, scale and height of downtown.

Matt Gough, an attorney for the development group, said that if the building were to be any smaller, shorter or less dense, it would render the project economically unfeasible. Regarding the downtown design guidelines, Gough told the commission that he thought the project met more than 90 percent of the guidelines, which he noted are not meant to be a checklist.

The commission heard nearly an hour of public comment from about 20 residents, all but a few of whom were opposed to the project. Many commenters agreed that the building was too big for Massachusetts Street and that the project would be detrimental to the character of downtown and the neighboring historic buildings. Charles Jones, who is on the board at the Watkins Museum, said that when he looks at that corner, he see buildings that are symbols of heritage, governance and faith, and that they needed to be treated with sensitivity and respect and should not “give way to economic strength.”

Downtown Lawrence Inc. Executive Director Sally Zogry said that a majority of the organization’s more than 200 member businesses were in favor of the project. Zogry said that the past two years had been tough on downtown retail businesses, and that Downtown Lawrence Inc. supports dense residential downtown development that will increase the number of people within walking distance to downtown businesses. She also said that additional retail space would put downward pressure on downtown’s “extremely high” lease rates.

The development group is allowed to appeal the HRC’s decisions to the Lawrence City Commission.

In addition to the building at 11th and Massachusetts Street, the developers are proposing that townhouses and a parking garage be built along the east side of New Hampshire Street, north of the church. The residential ground-floor use requires a special use permit, and the commission agreed with city staff’s recommendation that the residential use does not harm the environs and that that element of the project complies with the design guidelines.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the special use permit for the ground floor residential units on New Hampshire Street at its meeting next week.