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PZC Minutes 121493SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Members Present: John Perkins, Sue Railton, Buz Reynolds, Patti Dixon, Rhoda Schneiderman, Henry Vest StaffPresent: Steve Amsbaugh, Director of Community Development; Mary Holden, Planner The meeting was called to order at 3:15 PM with all members present except Henry Vest and Jack Hunn. Henry Vest arrived at 4:30 PM. Aquatic Center, Conceptual Design Review Steve Amsbaugh stated that the design team for the Aquatic Center was present to discuss, basically the site plan for the Aquatic Center, and they will also discuss the components of the Library that are general in nature. They will also discuss the conceptual design to find out if the Commission has any comments or concerns about the direction they are heading. They will be going through the design review process at a later date. He stated that after the meeting, a joint meeting of the Commission and Town Council is scheduled to review the comments and concerns. W. Amsbaugh introduced Chris Carvelle, with C W Ventres, to make the presentation. Mr. Carvelle introduced his team as, John Bebel, the contractor; Kelly Dunn, project architect, Michael Hazard, associate architect, Paul Kuen, landscape architect, and Chris Squadra, the Town of Avon's representative. Mr. Carvelle stated that the single big move is the moving of Benchmark Road over to the back portion of the sit%thus expanding the whole park, without having the divider with through traffic. He described on the plans where Benchmark Road goes now. He pointed out the tennis courts that will be relocated to the other end of the lake. He stated that one of the things that they were not able to incorporate was the pond. One of the things they are trying to do is maximize the open space, the amount of green space and the amount of connection between the Library and the rec center with the park and form a gateway to the park that extends your pedestrian Town Center Mall all the way through and into the park. They were also able to preserve the volley ball courts and create a lot of pedestrian P" 1 n SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 2 Aquatic Center, Conceptual Design Review. (cont) connections throughout the whole area. He pointed out on the plans where the bus drop- offs would be. This will allow being able to get to the whole complex from two ends of the site, allowing through traffic to go through and not impact the pedestrian experience in the two buildings, and not impact the connection coming through from the Town Center. He stated that this is not a final design as far as detail. There will be a lot more definition to entrances, etc. The development of their entry to the building will take on a lot more character than it currently has. There is actually in plan, the wall of the building really cuts back underneath the building and the large overhang for the aquatic center forms a nice large sundeck patio that has some shade and some exposure to the southwest. The building is also on a strong southwest axial entry and drop-off zone to the park in terms of its sun exposure and views down to the lake. One thing that they have tried to avoid is any north or east entry to the building itself. All of this was trying to get the library included as a partner in this marriage of buildings that has a lot usage. What they are trying to do is make this building a pavilion on the park. They are trying to break down the scale of all the pieces and parts that are going to be in this building, so that there isn't going to be any one massive expression of the building. The best view of this site is not on the plans. The best view is from above at Beaver Creek. The fifth elevation of this building is very critical. How this building looks is the evening, they have a lot of mechanisms for daylight and lighting this building a: night, so this becomes a beacon. This has the potential of becoming a new identity for Avon. This is a European style, indoor leisure pool, that will be basically an indoor component that has cropped up here in Colorado. It is not just a lap pool. There are phases also. This is the ultimate design that the Commission is seeing tonight. They will be coming back in January with a model so that the Commission can get a sense of the scale. The building has been pulled back, but the road has been pulled back behind it, so this is basically doing two things, both b-ildings become a marriage. It becomes one grouping with the library, acquatic center, fire station and town hall. Regarding the parking count, they felt that this building needed a minimum of 150 spaces, collectively, not counting the specific spaces that are in front of town hall or the fire station or the spaces next to the railroad tracks, they are now at 196, so they have increased the count from where they were the last time. They have worked with Larry Brooks and Bill James, and Inter -Mountain Engineering, who will be doing the engineering for both teams on this project, in terms of the road relocation and both the rec center and the library. Hopefully in April the construction for the relocation of Benchmark Road and some of the relocation of the key utilities and drainage ditches will begin. They are on a fast track mode of trying to get the road construction, at least under way and bid out early spring. SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 3 Aquatic Center. Conceptual design Review, (cont) Mr. Carvelle described the floor plan for the building. He stated that the main entrance to the building is on the south and west access. The aquatic center is in the south west corner of the site, to be able to get as much daylight and openness to the aquatic center as possible, as well as the view of the park. There will be a soft curved metal roof to minimize the massing of the building and also to get the snow off some very long spans across there. It will have a lot of different features in it. When you walk in the door you will be walking through an enlarged stone lodge like fireplace element that sets off the main entry. They have yet to choose exactly what stone they will use. That kind of material will occur in column details around the building. It will also clearly direct people to the front door and it has an image of the mountain peaks in the surrounding valley. As a part of that it turns into a large stone fireplace and then a lounge area which is off the main gallery and looks straight out on to the aquatic facility. When you walk in the front door you are in full view of the aquatic center when you walk into the gallery space. As you walk in there will be control desk, which controls people going into the athletic portions of the facility. You cannot get to any of the center without going past the control desk. There will be one side that will be a community side that will have a separate entrance. This will be a community center for meetings, seniors, etc. The control desk is at the pivot of all the athletic spaces. The day care center, the aquatic center, and the aerobic/weight area all are in Phase I of the plan. The conference center and gym are in the future. There is a lot of thought in terms of controlling how you get into the facility, in terms of supervision by the staff. One of the goals of the facility is to have a lean and mean staff in terms of how this facility is used to keep down the operation costs of the building. In conjunction with that, operational costs have a lot to do with how the building is massed out, building form itself, how daylight is brought into this building and how the breakdown and scale and massing came about. This is a massing of several structures. In plan, they are trying to have every piece of the building have it's own identity off one central access point. That is one of the big concerns with Town Council is the scale. They are trying to bring daylight in a lot of different places. He described how they are trying to clearly express the integrity of the space, which is the long span structure, and in the mountains, the post and beam is something that is expressed in the lodge vocabulary across Colorado. They have drawn their vocabulary on Beaver Creek, and the Vail Valley and the peaks around the area. Also, there is a lot of glass there and they are setting it way back because they don't want it to be a curtain wall building. It wants to have a lot of shade and shadow and a lot of relief to it and a lot of setback underneath the roof form which is curved. There will be a nice column and base detail out front, with the glass behind it. They are trying to control heat gain and heat loss, but be able to maintain maximum visibility and sun penetration to the space without the heat SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 4 Aquatics Center. Conceptual Design Review. (cont) gain/heat loss characteristics. They are going to do a low "E" glass, which has a reflective characteristic to it, but it will be on the second or third surface within the glass itself. Carvelle stated that the snow will come off as it comes down. It will not build up on the roof. Also, the walkway system is away from the building. Discussion followed on the possible stone to be used. The amount of metal that will be showing was also discussed. Discussion followed on the curved roofs and the three dimensional quality of the building. Rhoda Schneiderman felt that it was kind of unbalanced. There is so much glass and so little of the solid variety in the first Phase. There is a possiblilty that the other half will not get built. The massing model will give them a better idea of how it will look without the second Phase. Mr. Carvelle stated that they are just looking at the front of the building. There is a lot of major masonry solid portions of the building. He stated that this will add to the park, because right now there are a lot of big blank walls on most of the buildings around the park. The other elevations were then discussed. Discussion followed on the color of the roof. They are looking at it being sort of a peweter color, kind of neutral. Discussion followed on the other colors. They will pick up the sky and water color and then counterpoint that with a warm tone in the masonry. They want to carefully use the stone and brick. The bricks will be in patterns. The possibility of using sandstone was discussed. Sue Railton asked if they had thought about any other elements for the entrance other than the glazing. She felt it looked like a department store. Rhoda Schneiderman stated that when you use the post and beam concept in metal it is not the same. It is not a mountain environment. What most people will see is an extremely modem building. She stated that she kind of likes the building and it has potential, but she is not sure it will fit well in the space they have to work with. She doesn't think that we can build something so different that it will not blend. It should have some sort of cohesion with the park, instead of having this big building that doesn't fit well in the landscape. She asked if they had given any thought to putting a lap pool on the outside so that parents and onlookers watching their kids from the lobby space can see their kids playing instead of having to look across another pool. Mr. Caravelle stated that the reason that this is down here is that this has a lot of vertical elements, big slides, structures and bridges, and very httle activity as compared to having most of the people in this zone. The layering of low intensity of the lounge space was a concern acoustically and aesthetically. John Perkins asked if there was any possibility of breaking the massing over the pool and the lazy river, to break up this very large mass. He thinks that they are going to read two strong masses. It is a better building without the gym. He questions putting the cars between the building and the park. He feels it is unfortunate that they cannot park under the building. He is concerned with the people figuring out how to get to the parking lot. He also had some concerns regarding some of the other elevations SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES. December 14, 1993 Page 5 Aquatics Center. Conceptual Design Review. (cont) He stated that he finds the site planning a bit awkward. Discussion followed on why the site plan was done this way. Discussion followed on the lack of bus transportation and the need for people to drive their car to where ever they are going. Discussion followed on the roof lines. Discussion followed on the matter of identifying the entrance to the parking lot. Discussion followed on the need for two entrances, one for autos and one for pedestrians. Steve Amsbaugh stated that it was time to meet with the Town Council. Buz Reynolds stated that he has several things to bring up on this. The applicant will come back for more conceptual review at the December 21st meeting. The Seasons At Avon. Final Design Review of Modifications Steve Amsbaugh stated that the owners and developers of The Seasons At Avon, formerly known as the Peregrine Building and Grand on Avon, requested last week a special Planning and Zoning meeting to review several items relating to design review approvals. they already have final design approval for the building as it stands. They also received various minor approvals in about 1990 that never really stuck with the approved project, like a schematic for a porte cochere and other parking plan. Those they are revising and will be presenting them tonight. Amsbaugh stated that he has listed in the Staff Report a series of overall design approvals that they will seek over the next weeks. They will not have them all tonight. He stated that they ought to discuss these items one at a time, that way if the Commission is comfortable with one approval they can approve it and move along and if they are uncomfortable with something else they can research that further. That way the whole project is not stopped. They would like to get going on the Vail Associates side of the business. It is a final design process and these are modification to the approved plans. He asked the applicant to give a brief overview of where they are heading with the building. Steve Elken stated that he is the project director for the development side of the building. He introduced Tom Gart, one of the owners of the building. Mr. Elken stated that the Gart Company and theirselves are developing and selling off the condominiums. The first floor is a joint venture development of the Gart Company and Vail Associates. Vail Associates will occupy approximately 85 percent of the first floor. The existing, approved plan shows approximately 58,000 square feet of net leasable, and the revised plan adds about another 10,000 square feet in what is called the open mail between the south building and the first floor of the high rise building. The proposal is to enclose the 10' SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 6 The Seasons At Avon, Final Design Review Modifications_ (cont) "football" shaped area, or pedestrian mall area, to create additional office space, plus common area space for the employees and residents. Buz Reynolds asked if this will effect the parking. Steve Amsbaugh stated that there are 356 spaces available, 292 underground, 33 on-site surface and 31 at the project you just looked at. If an analysis is done with their new square footage, they need 355 spaces, so they are one over. In terms of codes they are alright. Rhoda Schneiderman asked where the 33 spaces are. Mark Donaldson stated that it is on the south side. As you enter the one way drive from the east there is diagonal parking on the left and right and as you head out there is the same thing. The idea is that the first time user can get familiar with the site. The central theme of the porte cochere is to allow the first time user to come into the central corridor and get directions. Steve Elken stated that the basic plan is to have about 60,000 square feet of office type use, with Vail Associates and their entities and about 10,000 square feet of retail type uses. They will begin in the near future marketing for the retail space. There are 103 condominium units. They have chosen to re -position the building as we!I as renaming it . They felt that they want to play up the vitality of the four seasons in the valley, thus the name The Seasons and the colors, as well as the four towers, will be treated as a different season of the year and they will each display a different color of the year, all complimentary to each other. John Perkins stated that it is a great scheme to break down the massing of the building. On the south side of the building they are opening up half of the balconies with open railings to open up from the inside of the building. Some one sitting in their living room will now be able to see the golf course, etc. They are doing certain upgrades. They have put brand new roofs on all the buildings. They have hired Communication Arts out of Boulder, who are very people oriented on how to develop themes, colors and finishes to make it user friendly and to make it an important component of the community. Some of the aspects of Vail Associates will be their marketing, their executive offices, their legal department, bookkeeping services, etc. Tom Gart stated that the major change they are making is that they are closing the gap between the front building and the back building and this will facilitate the traffic flow and bring alive the mall the Town put in long ago. Mark Donaldson stated one last link between the uses and the building, Vail Associates is managing the condominium sales and will also manage the hotel operation that will help bring the commercial and the residential together in an operation for years to come. Management is on-site. Steve Amsbaugh stated he wanted to give an overview of all the elements of all the plans that are going to be before the Commission and then discuss the ones that will be a a SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 7 The Seasons At Avon, final Design Review of Modifications. (cont) presented tonight. With Mark and Communication Ars on board and the ideas that Steve reflected in terms of the name and the theme of the building, some of that is reflected in design solutions for the exterior of the building. Some of those that are identified in the Staff Report are: the new color scheme, which will reflect the seasons, and this will be discussed in detail; a modified architectural on the central towers; a revised detail along that long front first level commercial roof facade; a revised Porte cochere on the south entrance; a new enclosure for the "football' area between the main building and the south commercial building; new chimney caps for the roof -top chimney clusters; revised balcony rail details, which will be presented at a future meeting; new garage doors for the two garage entrances will be at a future meeting; revised Master Sign Program will be at a future meeting; and there are a seriesof miscellaneous stairs, windows and doorways that will probably be addressed in a future meeting. That is the overview of all the things that will be coming before you. The most important that will be presented tonight are colors, the towers, some of the articulation along the commercial area and the enclosure of the football area, and the pone cochere. Amsbaugh stated that site plan modifications are normally discussed at final design review, but at this time they are not proposing and site plan modifications. They will be coming before the Commission in the future with landscape details along the porte cochere and that existing wall. There probably will be some mall side improvements made in terms of landscaping, in the future. There are six building modifications that are being presented at this time. The first one would be the modifications to the four towers on the north elevation. The applicant stated that the towers are now square off and they want to round them off to soften them that will be treated with stucco. The lettering will be part of the sign submittal. Discussion followed on the painting and the porcelain ceramic that is imbedded into the stucco. Steve Amsbaugh stated that what they have, in terns of those modifications, is an arched roof form at the top to break up the real square roof tops. They are proposing to add some relief to the towers with some sort of a grid pattern in the recessed area. At the junction of those triangles there will be some sort of decorative medium applied and each one of those triangular grid patterns will be painted an articulated preconceived color, that will be gradiated up. It will provide a transitional effect. The whole rounding is within the logo, with the tops, in the porte cochere area, the covers on the chimneys and the awnings. It really softens the building. Steve Amsbaugh stated that there will be a standing rolled steel ribbed roof element on top. All of the steel elements and the roof elements and the awnings will have the same teal gray color. Amsbaugh stated that those are the major elements of the towers. The other elements that relate directly to the towers would be the curved awning elements that are rolled steel in the same color. They are approximately five foot in depth on the fascia. Those will SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 as Page 8 JEThe Seasons At Avon, Final Design Review Modifications cont become part of the signage element in the future. Steve Amsbaugh stated that the next important component is the enclosure of the football area. Buz Reynolds asked if there would be wood burners. The applicant replied that they are converting to gas. The existing area is basically a one le, el commercial building sitting on a concrete slab on the south side of the building, separated from the residential/commercial building. They are proposing to increase the square footage by enclosing the football shape and also closing it at each end. Mark Donaldson described how it would be enclosed. They are blending this roof with the existing south building's roof so it is natural. What they are doing is removing the parapet walls so the drainage will work. They are adding a two stop elevator from the garage to this level only. They are zoning the parking so that what is happening is the east tower residents will be in group F. Space will not be reserved so they are zoning it. They obviously have to have some areas for the residential. Steve Amsbaugh pointed out the area where they are seeking to add the roof. They will remove the fascia. In the future they will come back with some skylight details. Steve Amsbaugh stated that the next element is the chimney cap element. The fireplaces will be converted to gas. The base of the fireplace will be the common brick. The porte cochere is the next element to be changed. It is over the recently paved heated driveway. Some of the important elements of the porte cochere is the existing concrete retaining wall and the applicant needs to address detail as a landscape element and site element as well as part of the building. So they will probably be back with something on the wall. Reynolds asked if they were keeping the landscape plan that was previously approved. The applicant responded that they will probably beef it up. Steve Amsbaugh stated that the pone cochere canopy is proposed to be a steel metal support system that is anchored on two stucco columns at the wall. Rhoda Schneiderman asked how they were finished on the top. Mark Donaldson stated that they are all metal down to the stucco. Schneiderman asked if they would be stepped. Donaldson stated they would be. It will be the same color of the roof. The signs and fighting will be done together. Amsbaugh stated that there is an existing rust color handrail on the back side of the porte cochere area, along that deck that will be painted the same color and there will be a new railing along the face of that wall. Amsbaugh stated that those are the architectural elements to be reviewed. The most important thing is to discuss and understand the overall color theme for the building. The seasons concept. individual architectural components, etc. The applicants described how the towers would be handled. SPECIAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 14, 1993 Page 9 The Seasons At Avon Final Design Review of Modifications. (cont) Mark Donaldson stated that the main idea is to break down the massiveness of the building. What henry Beers has done is segment the building in halves by breaking up the middle. The applicant pointed out on the rendering the areas to be blue gray and the areas to be red. The Commission thought it was a very creative approach. John Perkins asked what action needs to be taken. Amsbaugh stated that Staff recommends approval of the five items discussed tonight - the tower modifications; the north elevation roof fascia modifications; the enclosure of the football area; the chimney caps; the porte cochere; and the colors. There were actually six items. Amsbaugh stated that there are three conditions to the recommendation for approval, as follows: 1. That the streetscape along Benchmark Road and the landscape improvements along the north side of the building be incorporated into a revised site improvement plan. 2. The west building elevation be revised to soften the current large blank stucco appearance. 3. All surface on-site parking be identified on a revised site improvement plan. All surface parking shali be striped to clearly delineate the amount and location of surface parking. The applicant stated that the area of the west wall will be a day care center so there will be basically a window detail there. Rhoda Schneiderman moved to grant approval for items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and staff recommendations 1, 2, and 3 be included. Patti Dixon seconded and the motion carried unanimously. The meeting was then adjourned. Respectfully submitted, /r <�ve?') ICA Charlette Pascuzzi Recording Secretary