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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
College Hall Gets Initial OK
By Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
St. John's College gained approval from the city's Historic Design Review Board on Tuesday night for a multimillion dollar structure it hopes to build on its Camino Cruz Blanca campus.
The endorsement includes a height exception of 23 feet, but requires college officials to appear before the board again for further approval of design details.
The proposed building, named Levan Hall after an alumnus who donated $5 million for its construction, is meant to be a "quiet building that honors the character and spirit of campus architecture," architect David Lake said.
Tuesday's approval wasn't exactly smooth sailing, though.
An initial motion to accept the design along with certain exceptions, including the height variance, was shot down 3-2, with Chairwoman Sharon Woods casting the tie-breaking vote. Woods, echoing other board members, said she was concerned with some of the materials the school wanted to incorporate into the building, notably Cor-ten, a weathered steel with a rusty look.
Architects said they were willing to work toward a compromise on that point, and the project was subsequently passed in a second vote, though with the stipulation the college come before the H-Board again for final approval of materials and other design details.
Consulting architect David Perrigo said he expected that to happen in August.
Some H-Board members also expressed concern that Levan Hall wasn't similar enough in style to other buildings on the St. John's campus, though architects argued that the school's buildings contain a host of variations. No buildings on the St. John's campus have been designated historic.
"To have a building that was just an imitation of what they had was not really what they were intending to do," Perrigo said.
Perrigo and others also repeatedly pointed out that Levan Hall will be more than 800 feet from the nearest public thoroughfare and almost invisible to individuals not actually on the campus.
At 9,975 square feet and three stories, the structure will give St. John's more classrooms, give the school's graduate students a facility of their own and bring together the central part of campus, school President Michael Peters said. With the height exception, the building will be 39 feet at its tallest point.
Nearly a dozen people spoke in favor of the project during a public comment session. Krishnan Venkatesh, head of the school's Graduate Institute, said the Levan Hall building committee had worked hard on moving the structure "toward harmony and invisibility."
"My short plea is: Please help give the Graduate Institute a home," he said.
Fellow faculty member Christine Chen chipped in that she "would love to have an office that doesn't reek of formaldehyde."
St. John's is within the Historic Review District, an area normally under the purview of the city staff. Plans for Levan Hall must be approved by the H-Board, however, because of the structure's status as an "institutional building" and because of the school's request for certain design exceptions. The H-Board on Tuesday also approved a conceptual design of a new transit center the city of Santa Fe hopes to build on Sheridan Avenue.
The proposal includes four passenger shelters, unobstructed sidewalks running the entire length of the street, trees and better lighting.
The H-Board rejected a design presented last year that included a pair of arches over Sheridan. At the time, board members said the archways didn't fit in with Downtown Santa Fe architecture.