Architectural Review Board Meeting   8/19/2024

All right.

It's 104 by my watch.

So I'm calling the August 19th, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board to order.

Yes.

Thanks a lot.

Today's meeting is a hybrid meeting.

The public may access and participate in the meeting electronically.

Instructions for doing so are posted on the Albemarle County website at the Albemarle County calendar.

The public has real-time audio-visual access to this meeting over Zoom and real-time audio access over telephone.

Both is provided in a lawfully posted meeting notice.

This meeting is being recorded and will be made available on the county's website.

This meeting is a public record and subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

All speakers, when it is your turn to speak, please first state your name for the record.

Applicants who are making presentations, note that your presentation is limited to a total of 15 minutes, which you can divide among your team members.

Staff will let us know when the 15 minutes are up.

If applicants in the meeting room have team members attending virtually who will need to present, please make that known when you come to the podium.

Everyone who is participating virtually, please mute your microphone until it is your turn to speak.

No.

Nope, me either.

All right.

No one is rushing forward to the podium.

So we will move to the consent agenda.

We've had a request to add our first regular review item, which is ARB 2024-48 Kappa Sigma International Headquarters Site Plan Amendment.

Add that to the consent agenda.

So I was just gonna informally see if anyone has a problem with that.

And if the applicant is here and

Does not want that to happen.

Please raise your hand.

I don't want to deprive anyone of the opportunity to present their case.

So in that case, we'll add that item to the consent agenda off the regular review item list.

The other consent agenda item today is ARB 2024-51, Holly Hill's apartments initial.

So no reason to move it off consent in my opinion, but would appreciate considering adding some additional detail about documentation of the trees to remain in the landscape buffer that's remaining.

All right, thanks.

No, and I'm good with it too.

Correct.

Oh yeah.

Does anyone want to make a motion?

So moved.

I'll second.

Alright, thanks a lot.

So in that case we just have one

Regular Review Item, which is ARB 2024-49, High School Center 2 Preliminary.

This is a preliminary review of a site plan amendment and an architectural design for the new high school center building that's to be constructed in the Lambs Lane campus adjacent to Albemarle High School on the Hydraulic Road entrance corridor.

The ARB provided advisory comments on the rezoning for this project in October of last year and both the location and the design of the new building have changed since that review.

Images on the left in this slide are from October.

You can see that the building was set close to the road at that time and occupied a large portion of the existing parking lot.

Now the new building is proposed where the existing building services building is located.

And also where the building design previously had a major elevation with a symmetrical design facing the entrance corridor, the current design is more like a grouping of forms and volumes with an emphasis on horizontal lines.

The building's main entrance, which is marked by a tall metal canopy, is oriented to the north towards the existing high school building and parking lot, and it will be visible from the entrance corridor, but it will not be oriented towards the street.

The building wraps around a courtyard on the east side of the building, and that courtyard is oriented towards the entrance corridor.

Doors from various parts of the building open onto it, and a low retaining wall separates the courtyard from the sidewalk and the parking lot that's adjacent to the street.

The building design is contemporary in style.

It doesn't really have a connection to the historic architecture of the county, but the site layout and building materials and forms are expected to be coordinated and compatible with the existing campus.

Only one of the perspective images that was provided shows a view from the entrance corridor street.

Additional perspectives from other locations along the entrance corridor would be helpful to confirm that the building forms and general appearance are appropriate.

An important feature at this site is the mountain view that forms a backdrop for the campus.

Much of the building is two stories in height, but the finished floor elevation sits below street level, so that should help maintain that view.

This image raises a question about the color of the rooftop elements.

In this image, the dark bronze really contrasts with the surroundings in the backdrop.

and a lighter color like the gray shown in the elevation drawings here may be more appropriate for the equipment screen and other elements near and along the roof.

With the building moved back on the site, landscaping is not proposed along the street.

There's an existing group of trees at the southern tip of the site and a few individual trees near the entrance to the site from Hydraulic Road.

In between, there are no trees.

If trees were to be added to meet the guidelines requirement, the open view to the mountains could be compromised.

So some low-level landscaping could contribute to a more orderly and attractive appearance.

Those are the primary issues that are identified in the staff report.

We've also made some standard recommendations related to material samples and specifications, landscape and lighting plans, and equipment, and those are all pretty standard conditions.

Our recommendation is for the list of comments in the staff report to be addressed in a future submittal.

All right.

Thanks a lot for that presentation.

Thanks, Margaret.

Thank you, Margaret, for your report and presentation.

Yeah, thanks, Margaret.

Very clear.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I don't have any questions either.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about this very exciting project for the Albemarle County Schools.

My name is Kagan Squire.

I'm project manager for building services with Albemarle County Public Schools.

Joined with me today is Matt Wortman, Director of Building Services, and then we also have our consultants from Quinn Evans.

Thank you, Kagan, and thank you all for the opportunity to be here.

We've been working on it with them for three plus years now in various forms and has evolved from that initial location on the street.

So what we're going to do is share more images of the project and the site, which I think will address some of the questions and give you a bit more context and then go through some of the other kind of themes from the comments that we received about rooftop equipment screens, material samples and colors, and then the views from that entry corridor and the landscaping there as well.

So for a little bit more context on the site, it did move away from the street on the slide that's up now, that red area that says HSC2 site.

That is the current site of the building services facility for the school system.

They have now moved out of that building.

So that building will be demolished and this building will be located there on that same site.

That decision to move away from the street was based on a number of things.

One of them

Just being better, more effective building siting and circulation planning for the complex set of things that happen on this site throughout the day to keep both schools operating.

It's already complex with the vehicle patterns and pedestrian patterns moving around the site now.

just from daily school operations to sporting events to all kinds of other things that happened there.

A lot of complexity and putting this building in the current building services site which is proposed now worked just better in many, many ways.

It also was a more affordable solution in terms of keeping existing parking and that portability as well as keeping the school running while a new building's being built.

Not losing the parking was very helpful.

So that is a site to take a look at how we're addressing some of the circulation challenges.

This diagram shows, and we'll get too deep into the weeds here because there's so many different things that happen on the campus, but what we're describing here very simply is

how the morning and evening arrival and dismissal times will work for each school trying to navigate parents through the site in a way that doesn't conflict with teachers trying to leave with pickup and drop off for the two schools and with students trying to leave from those big parking lots that are along hydraulic.

So the point here is we're working really hard to make sure that we're improving the overall circulation on the site in addition to adding a school building here.

Zooming in a little bit on the site for High School Center 2, you see that parking lot that sits there now along Hydraulic Road.

That will become where our geothermal well field goes.

And then you see the building to the left here.

It is an L-shaped building.

It's an assembly of different forms.

So it's hard to read in any one given elevation.

You really have to see it in three dimensions to understand how the forms come together, which we have some images that we'll explain here shortly, I think.

The school does address the existing Albemarle High School front door.

We're trying to create an area in between the two buildings that is a little bit park-like.

We'll have some more trees that are there now and there's a series of paths that wind around a little bit of an organic way but address the main circulation pathways and connecting points that students and visitors to the site will be traveling along.

So visitors to High School Center 2 as well as students will park in that existing lot.

It's along hydraulic there, central to the image.

And there's a existing parking lot that will change in size a little bit.

That's just to the left of the image.

You see a piece of it on the left side.

That's where staff for High School Center 2 will park.

And then the driveways are reconfigured in between the two buildings to create some more space for drop-off and make it safe for students to pass between the two buildings.

The L-shape of the building doesn't close a courtyard.

that sits kind of sunken down, as you know, the grade steps down from Hydraulic Road pretty significantly down to what will be the finished floor level of the building.

And you'll see that in the images from the street that we'll share in a moment.

There were two comments about a refuse area and some equipment that will be screened on the south side of the building here.

These are the locations of those two things.

I just wanted to confirm that, yes, we will be screening all of that stuff and it's on

what will really be the backside of the buildings from a building visitor experience perspective.

So zooming to the building floor plan here, here are those two locations.

And here is a blow up plan of the refuse the trash and receiving area for the kitchen.

And you can see it has gates and a masonry retaining wall, not retaining wall, a masonry enclosure wall around it.

to conceal that and then you know it is a two-story building but it has a lower level like a basement level like a walkout basement type of setup because the grade does drop away we're able to conceal the mechanical space and actually the data center for the school division down here in this kind of bunker underground

Now we'll have access from grade though because of the way the grade drops off and outside of that area sunken down into the hill and mostly concealed by the grade will be where two generators, some mechanical equipment and transformer will be hidden inside some retaining walls and with some screen walls that will have gates to open up to provide access.

So got an image of that in a moment as well.

Shifting gears to building materials.

From this view, you see how those assembly of shapes come together more clearly than any elevation can show you.

Mostly the building is brick masonry in two different colors.

The light gray kind of tan color that you see here will be a blended tannish grayish combination of brick.

And actually the samples are right behind you on the stage there.

The bulk of the building though is kind of very typical orange brick.

That's what the majority of the volumes are.

There are some metal panels.

There are metal soffit panels on these canopies.

We have standing seam wall panels.

And then that rooftop equipment enclosure will be a ribbed perforated metal panel in a color that is TBD.

But here's some just photos of similar materials.

As this being a public bid project, we can't specify specific manufacturers.

product, but we will specify a type of product and give options.

So we will get a standing seam metal panel.

These are some examples of what standing seam panels look like installed on a building.

And then there's the chunk of the panel there in the image.

Neither of these colors are what's proposed, but those are examples of how it looks.

We'll have two types of metal soffit panels.

One will be a wood look panel on the entry canopy, and then the rest of the building overhangs around the building will just be kind of a more neutral panel that blends in with the rest of the metal panels on the building.

The equipment screen enclosure, what we're proposing is a rib panel that you see a section of here on the left side of the screen.

It'll be perforated to allow airflow and whatnot.

And then the building in the photograph is actually Fluvanna High School just down the road.

And you can see where I put the red box there.

That's an example of the same product in a very light color.

and that building, trying to make it kind of blend.

On this building, actually I'm going to go back a couple slides here, you can see how the equipment enclosure nestles down into a higher volume of the roof to try and minimize its height to address exactly the concern that was mentioned in the comments.

We don't want it to stick up really high against that skyline and that view to the mountains.

So we're doing our best to minimize the size of it and picking that horizontal rib panel to emphasize more horizontality to it rather than a vertical nature to it.

Color of these panels is subject to change at this point.

We are proposing a darker bronze color.

that I do believe shows up a little dark in our renderings versus what that material is like in real life.

It has a little bit of reflectivity to it.

So in the bright sunlight, it doesn't look black, black.

It has more gray reflective appearance.

But here we are looking at the front door.

You can see those wood soffit panels on the underside of the canopy.

You can see the variety in the brick colors.

You can see how the landscaping kind of conceals the front a little bit.

and then where we have the standing seam wall panels, fairly limited areas.

In this view, you can really only see it above a roof kind of beyond.

It's on these little accent portions of the building or above a roof type sections of the building where putting bricks doesn't necessarily make sense.

There is a lot of glass on it and we do have a glass sample back here before we're using glass, very low reflectivity and high visible light transmittance.

are shifting away from the materials a little bit to the view from the entrance corridor.

This is a photograph that is almost exactly where our rendering that was in the initial submittal.

was taken from, so you see the entrance to Albemarle High School down there on the right behind the pine branches there, and then straight ahead across the existing parking lots is the High School Center 2 site, and you can just barely make out where the building services buildings are, so you can really tell how far it steps down here, the grade.

Of course, this building would be taller than the building services building, so you'll see more of it, but this next series of photos just is from driving along hydraulic to the south,

So still on the right side is Albemarle High School.

And then you see the rooftop of building services there behind that silver car.

And you can see what the view of that mountains looks like.

And you can also see how, as was mentioned, there's not a lot of landscaping here.

Right now, there's not a lot of landscaping for two reasons, security and visibility.

Also, there's a water line right there that you can't plant trees on top of.

That's one reason why it's very open right there.

And here we are just a little bit further south on hydraulic.

Looking back, you can still see Albemarle High School's main entrance there.

And then you see, again, the rooftops of the building services facility.

So as you move further south, this new building will be more visible, but you will still be kind of looking at the upper, upper portions of it based on the grade change.

So now series of renderings that are basically that exact same sequence of photographs.

So here's the original where you see, you can tell that the height of the building is taller than the existing building that's there.

These next couple were pulled together quickly, so we didn't Photoshop in the mountains, but you kind of get a sense of where that building sits.

So here we are moving further south on hydraulic.

The building would be obscured by the trees and whatnot that are down closer to the building.

So you don't really ever see it fully from the road, just through the trees, but it does get revealed a little bit more as you move south.

So that is where it is from the entrance corridor.

And then here we are.

We've come even further south to the southern entrance at the Georgetown Green neighborhood into the Lance Lane campus or into the Albemarle High School campus.

So I want to share what it looks like from that perspective.

And you can just barely see the building services facility from here.

So we're going to drive down and drive down this road.

The road curves around to the entrance of Albemarle High School.

And just beyond where the trees end on the left side where the parking lot starts is where the new driveway will diverge down to the left here and go around High School Center 2 and then reconnect up around the backside of High School Center 2.

So here these red lines show you pretty much right where the new driveway will go in relation to the existing site elements.

It's just a big open parking lot now for building services.

and the property line with the Georgetown Green neighborhood is just on the other side of this wood fence that you see there.

So there will be a new fence that replaces that to create some privacy for that neighborhood and separation.

So this rendering shows, excuse me, that view.

Now that driveway dips down and then hangs the right and goes up around the backside of the building.

And in this view, the design and development of that enclosure around the generators and things are down that lower level wasn't quite complete.

So we have a

a kind of a quickly pulled together image here that shows down there to the left next to that car you see an image of how that screen works it really is tucked down into the landscape though and into the gray as the building or as the gray slips away from the building so we think it'll be fairly concealed it'll be screened and you won't know what's behind there there'll be some plantings alongside of it to obscure it and blend it in

There was another comment about adding landscaping along the face of the building on this face.

We haven't done that for two reasons.

One, again, security and not creating places for folks to hide on this backside of the building where there won't be a lot of eyes on the street, so to speak.

But also there will be a small sidewalk against the building here.

You can see some doors on this face that exit directly from the classrooms.

So this is the safety feature of the building.

In worst case scenario, people can exit directly out of their classrooms from a security perspective.

And so they need a place to traverse to safety away from the building.

So we put a concrete walkway there along the face of the building.

But otherwise we do have trees here that will be large canopy deciduous trees along the road in between the building and the road, as you see.

Now in these last couple images we're jumping back over in front of Albemarle High School just to show a little bit more about what the building looks like from that side.

This image is just right at that intersection of driveways where the driveway that comes from the south connects with the driveway that wraps around the front of the school so the entrance to Albemarle High School is right at our back looking to the south.

And in this rendering, we've taken a few steps back.

So we're almost at Albemarle High School's entrance, but looking that exact same direction.

And so the walking paths that you see here kind of emerging from the trees replace that entrance drive that curves along there below the parking lot.

And what you see through the trees is the entrance to High School Center 2.

So that visual connection between the two buildings was important across this campus green space.

And you can see how the volumes of the building kind of break down as you come in this direction to change the scale for pedestrians.

And here we see this overall view again of the entryway and how all the pieces relate to each other.

You can see that driveway coming up around the backside of the building on the right side of the image.

And the white boxes beyond are those townhouses over in the Georgetown Green neighborhood.

and our last image here is along this new pedestrian pathway that replaces the current driveway looking down into the courtyard of the building.

All right, and that's what we have.

Thank you very much.

Thanks a lot for that presentation.

See if any members have questions.

Starting with Tara, do you have any questions?

I don't.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you for a very clear presentation.

Just a couple of minor questions.

comparing to the existing building materials.

We haven't done any kind of graphic comparisons, although we certainly could include that in the next submittal if desired.

The materials on Albemarle High School are brick, of course, that's similar in color to what we're proposing, as well as a silver kind of colored composite metal panel and some precast, you know, the light buff color.

So although we haven't illustrated that,

Intention was to have metal panel, metal panel, all the different colors, brick that was closely aligned.

And then instead of using precast concrete, precast around the entrance and around some of the windows surrounds on that building on the front.

On this building, we're using that buff color brick to kind of match-match.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Certainly, we have considered a few different options ranging from kind of the silver, bright silver metallic on Albemarle High School to this darker color.

and I think I can give you a reason why we landed on the dark bronze.

Thank you.

And one last question.

It looked in some of the views like there was a single exhaust fan that was appearing in some of the renderings.

So there will be a few exhaust fans I think are kind of low, kind of tucked up against the roof enclosure that I don't think you'll see from the ground.

And we can illustrate that there will be a kind of a tall fan for a fume hood.

And if we do need to seek a waiver, we will in that case.

There it goes.

Okay.

So that exhaust, excuse me, the exhaust for the fume hood will be about right where the cursor is here.

And it's quite tall, six or eight feet.

So it looks like a crayon sticking out from the building.

Okay.

Thank you.

Those were my questions.

Thanks, great presentation.

Just had a couple minor questions.

I don't know how visible it'll be from the corridor, but a couple of the renderings show the black metal fence, I think, enclosing some of the exterior spaces.

Like, for instance, this one along that new kind of connector sidewalk.

Is that a function of, like, fall protection?

From a retaining wall or is it a program requirement to fence in that courtyard?

Keep unwanted guests from coming into the school and while still creating an environment where students can can leave and go outside during the day into an area that is

kind of within the walls of the school, so to speak.

So there will be egress gates out.

So in case of an emergency, you can get out of there.

But it's to manage access to the school during the school day so that students have a place to go that's kind of within the bounds of the school, but outdoors.

Thank you.

And then the other question was looking at hydraulic and the frontage plantings along that existing parking lot.

Is there much room to work with there between the parking lot and the sidewalk?

Yes, our intention was to kind of leave it alone along there as much as we could.

Yeah, that's kind of a funny shaped ribbon of green space.

And it's quite a steep hill, actually.

And I don't know off the top of my head what the dimensions are, but it probably goes from 20 horizontal feet to 40 or 50 at its widest point here.

But it's on a slope the whole way.

There are a few trees planted along there.

And that water line is more, if I recall correctly, it's up in this area.

Well, my cursor is not visible to you anymore.

Sorry.

It's closer to that mid, kind of mid, in between the parking lot's entrance.

So yeah, off the top of my head, I don't know how much flat space there is before the hill really, really drops down to the parking lot.

I asked just one of the street views you showed I think with the grade sloping down in the parking lot sunk below hydraulic some minimal kind of shrubs along that would do a lot to screen those cars and I think take the emphasis off the parking lot and allow a focus on the new building and maybe it's only where that parking lot kind of pinches up close to hydraulic but

Just something to think about.

I did really like the previous site plan where the building was right up against the corridor, but I understand completely the logic behind this.

But just thinking about that, I think the images you showed are very helpful and how this fits in with the campus and the mountain views beyond.

All right, thanks.

I don't have any questions myself.

All right.

In that case, the ARB will now go into discussion.

I guess we'll start with Dave.

Sure, so like Frank I did love the previous site plan and the the frontality of it to the corridor although I'm reminded in this presentation of the the really wonderful distant view to the mountain ridge and I think that's another important feature of the site which I think actually in some ways this maybe enhances or preserves more fully.

and I think given the planning considerations of tying into the existing campus it you know makes good sense to me so I'm satisfied with the update and the site plan and you know I think it looks like a good addition to the campus I think my only open questions are you know without I don't have any expectation that the materials would match exactly the existing campus but I'd like to see some more documentation about how they harmonize and relate

and appreciate the applicant's openness to considering the canopy color and you know personally I think perhaps something in a mid-range that relates more to the existing

without perhaps being as light or silver as the existing metal might be more appropriate there.

And then lastly, I think probably would like to see just some documentation about the fume hood and just something to establish how visible it is or isn't and whether screening requirements are appropriate.

All right, thanks.

Tara?

Yeah, I really appreciated the presentation from the applicant speaking to some of the open questions that David has mentioned.

I think the only thing that I'd like to add is that in looking at the colors for the canopy, I just think that it's looking at some of the buildings in the context and the way that they organize their mechanical equipment.

It seems like one of the things that the applicant did nicely is at least attempting to sort of coordinate it with the other finishes on the building to sort of make it appear at least integral to what's going on.

So I think whatever approach they take in terms of the canopy material and coordinating the metals that applying a similar approach to the

to the screening for the mechanical equipment that I think makes sense to me.

Other than that, I am happy to hear what other board members have to say, but I thought it was a really nice presentation.

All right.

Thanks.

I think it's a really nice building.

I think the presentation was very helpful.

I feel like we got to see all sides, all views, great renderings.

I think it's a definite improvement over the building that's there now as far as legibility.

I appreciate the dialogue between this building and Albemarle High School.

I think if we had to

you know, except the entrance, main entrance not fronting the corridor.

I think it makes a lot of sense to have that dialogue in front Albemarle High School.

So I think that's nice.

And I think, you know, looking at keeping the existing parking lot, we kind of know what it, what the impact on the corridor is going to be.

I think it's a nice,

It's nice that we're able to save.

I think we're saving those large stand of pines at the southern end of the site.

And given the grade change, this building is kind of set back.

So there's not a lot of vantage points where it will have a big impact and a big presence.

Yeah, I thought that was a good suggestion.

You had to, if possible, add some low-level screening to just help with that front parking lot.

I also liked the previous, you know, having the building rather than parking in the front, but sometimes practical concerns have to override that.

I don't personally take issue with the dark bronze.

I kind of like it.

But the staff report says, consider doing that.

So I think it's definitely worth exploring.

But all in all, I think it's a great proposal and appropriate.

So our recommendation was to provide the applicant with the comments listed in the staff report and to have them addressed with the next submittal.

I've added at the end of the list two comments that sound like items you were discussing, 21 being provide a graphic comparison of proposed materials to those existing in the campus.

and 22, document visibility of the fume hood and show screening options.

I guess I'll just roll through and see if anybody has any additional tweaks.

No, I don't.

Thank you, Margaret, for capturing that.

One thing I just remembered I was thinking about as I was reviewing the presentation was the railings in the courtyard area and then I think in one of them showing railings beyond in the silver color around the site I think it might have been associated with a ramp or some other sort of sloping area.

I just wanted to clarify the height of the ramp in the courtyard area.

So we have it as a six foot height.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm Kylan Shirley with Quinn Evans representing Albemarle County Public Schools.

Defense changes in height depending where it is.

So in some places, a six foot high fence and in other places where it is on that hill allows for it to be shorter, like a four foot fence while still preventing people from getting over it.

And black everywhere.

You mentioned the railings.

They probably showed up as silver and some renderings, but the intention is for it to all be that dark color that matches.

So to my point, I guess the thing I was looking at is just that the railings in my I get a sense that they're, you know, at this stage in development, not necessarily detailed fully, but I think they do have it's pretty continuous.

Like it's just like pick it, pick it, pick it all the way down.

So one of the things that I think would be helpful

from a perspective of scale, especially given how visible that dark bronze one appears to be in the rendering, is just to look at providing additional detail that might speak to the way that the structure gets laid out over different modules, whether there's like an eight foot section and then a four foot section or a two foot section or something like that.

I think it would help to make that length of railing appear a little bit less sort of

I don't know.

It would provide some variation that would help the appearance of that railing.

I don't have any edits, and I don't either.

Just before you jump to that, just note that I did add the third item there.

Consider providing additional detail to provide variation along the length of railings.

I'll second that.

Alright, thanks a lot.

All right, so we will move on to our two work sessions today.

The first is for ARB-2024-50, Flow Hyundai.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

Architectural revisions to the Flow Hyundai building design.

If you remember in December last year, the ARB reviewed and provided comments on the preliminary design.

for this dealership on Route 29 between Bowie Ford and Lloyd Chevrolet.

In June of this year, staff received a recent medal intended to address the architectural comment regarding the top-heavy appearance of the fascia and incorporating more traditional elements and proportions into the building design.

Our staff believes that the item has not been sufficiently addressed.

The updated design shows two changes from the previous design.

The first one is the overhanging depth of the facia has been decreased from eight to three feet, but this change is anticipated to be more impactful for viewers closer to the building, less as viewed from the entrance quarter.

Second one.

The second one is steel pillars have been added inside the building and ACM clad piers have been added near the rear of the showroom.

How we're due to the replacement inside and at the rear of the showroom building, the piers are not expected to sufficiently ground the building.

Revising the design to shift the steel piers into the exterior of the showroom may help better visually ground the building.

Staff's requesting the board's feedback on the revised architectural design.

All right.

Thanks a lot for that presentation.

All right.

Tara?

It's really up to you all.

Okay.

Frank?

One question.

Sorry if you answered this and I wasn't paying attention.

Is the color the same?

Did you already say that?

The color for...

The brown looks different.

Is that just how it's rendered?

I believe it's just probably just different rendering.

It's the same?

Yeah.

All right.

I don't have any questions, Chris.

I apologize.

Good to start with the color.

My name is Kevin Shaffer and I'm with Design Develop here in Charlottesville.

Thank you, Chris, for the introduction and for the guidance through the process.

Very excited to be having a work session here on this project.

They had such a nice, fancy presentation last time.

Is there a button I hit to get that?

like the presentation, I can just scroll through the PDF, it's okay.

The goal of the work session today is kind of threefold.

One, to update the process on this flow Hyundai dealership along the Route 29 corridor.

Another is to highlight the revisions that have been made to date

And then third is to discuss some additional items that we'll be looking for feedback as we approach a final ARB hearing or submission.

and then to gather feedback on staff's comment regarding not being sufficiently addressed.

Back in December, some of our primary comments, and this is a building work session, so I'm jumping straight to site, but I just wanted to let the board know that we did, through the special use permit process,

Adjust the site plan that we were receiving comments from that initial preliminary submission, which included adding more landscaping to the front, adding interior landscaping in the parking areas and then adding additional perimeter landscaping.

And so that process has all been sort of vetted through the special use permit process, if that's correct.

And so we've incorporated

Those revisions in landscaping.

The building is about 130 feet away from the entrance corridor itself and there's several layers of landscaping that happen between it as well as a significant amount of vehicular display.

So there is that aspect of the location of it on site and the amount of landscaping that is being proposed.

There were two key revisions between this submission and December, which Chris has highlighted already.

The first and the primary was significantly decreasing that fascia as we sought to reduce the top heavy appearance.

Previously, we were using the facia to kind of square up the background buildings behind it.

And that involved an eight-foot overhang so that we could tie into these elements that you see on the side here and try and complete that form.

And that was really working against us in two different ways.

The first way is that obviously it emphasized this very contemporary, very top-heavy

This heavy element that was floating on a glass box.

But it also kind of broke down the hierarchy and there was no background building.

There was no step in the facade when we started to do that.

There was no kind of distinction between the front showroom use.

And so when we start to significantly pull back that overhang, not only are we getting the reduction of the top heavy appearance, but we're starting to get a little bit more defined building hierarchy.

and the building's starting to talk about what's happening inside.

So this volume here is now specifically showroom and we're not tying back into the office side or into the service area side.

The second change is that we brought down these vertical elements on either side of the showroom, which would be clad in the ACM.

We're still distinguishing from the sky panel that's on the fascia canopy and the sky

The facia element is a very important Hyundai brand element, but it also kind of re-emphasizes this idea of this tree canopy and the tree columns that are inside, which are now much more prominent and much more visible as Chris noted.

The reduction of the overhang, and this is a good example of kind of where that building is, the building corner is now allowed to be independent and also address this idea of eroding away a separate solid volume.

I think we heard that back in December is how can we create this more front heavy prominent showroom box, but then erode away and reveal this showroom with the curtain walls.

The reduction of overhang, though, has eliminated a lot of the shadow that was previously onto that curtain wall system.

And that curtain wall system wasn't getting the visibility that it should be allowed.

It's a very clear glass.

It's low reflectivity.

Obviously, the goal is to see the cars inside.

But it's also to highlight these tree columns on the interior as well that will be very visible.

So the tree columns in combination with this rear ACM band that comes down vertically and touches the ground and sort of helps visually create that box will be very prominent, particularly in this entrance, which is from, in this view, which is from the main vehicular entrance.

But we did want to address the comment that maybe these are changes that are more noticeable from the interior or from the pedestrian side versus from the entrance corridor.

Even from the entrance corridor, the reduction of the overhang has a very significant impact.

And I think, again, mostly in the shadow and just

The visual parti, if you will, of this very heavy element sitting on a glass box.

It seems much more proportional in the image on the right now.

In this new

Submission that we provided in June, we talked a little bit more about the battery storage and dumpster enclosure.

This is kind of going off the first point and onto the second point, which is the introduction of other elements on the site.

And we just wanted to let you know that the site elements, this is a car wash on the on the rear side.

But these site elements would be designed as a cohesive campus with the same material and the same finish level as the building itself.

This is an Eves finish, exterior finish on CMU block on the car wash. And this is very far away.

You can see it in this image back here.

This is the EV battery storage, which is always nice to separate our battery storage from the main structures and the dumpster enclosure.

And so the point being with this, the introduction of these items is

just that we would design all of these as a cohesive campus and we were hoping to get your feedback on not only these two major revisions but also if there is any concerns about these outbuildings as we started to move towards a final submission.

One of the things that was discussed and then I'll show on the screen just as more a discussion and a talking point more than anything because this is the first time you've seen this rendering as well.

There was a number of very specific items that board members offered and we were grateful for to reduce the top heavy appearance.

And one was to reduce the overhang depth.

One was to reduce the height

of the fascia.

One was to ground the building and yet another one was to eliminate the step down in the height of the fascia.

So you can see in this previous image, there is a step down here that does accentuate kind of this asymmetrical contemporary design, this element that's floating on top of a glass box.

If this were another step forward in the right direction in the board's mindset, we would just like that feedback as well.

This could be an opportunity or an option that we present to Hyundai if the board seems as more favorable, maybe a little bit more rational, maybe a little less contemporary, and then also emphasizing the interior tree columns as well, an opportunity to make this fourth one on this side just that much more visible and that much more legible.

So with that, I will

Just ask any questions you may have and we look forward to the feedback.

I think as I mentioned in the December review, any specific guidance that we can take back to the national brand would be helpful.

And then that gives us something to point to and have these conversations as we try and have the most efficient process through the ARB.

All right.

Thanks for that presentation.

Sure.

Great presentation.

Question about the tree canopy columns.

There's four clusters of three columns each, and they're splayed at different angles.

A little bit about how the sausage is made.

Only one is real.

What color are they?

They are a metallic silver.

Did you look at any other colors?

Is that, is it a brand element?

In, sorry, in December, we also showed a precedent where those columns were pulled exterior of the building.

In that precedent, they remain silver as well, which

is an additional material that maybe feels a little awkward to us on the exterior, this kind of metallic column.

Is that rain sound an effect on your presentation?

It really emphasizes the tree canopy.

The cars look wet now.

I think they do a good job of grounding it.

I think they're an interesting element, and I think they'll have a uniqueness and kind of a mass.

All right, Taro.

Could I ask about the, we were talking about this since we're on this image, it's lucky, these portions of ACM panel that are around the corners of it.

Sure, they are nearly flush with the fascia.

There is a slight reveal that you can see here that still gives a little bit of hierarchy, but it would be four inches, I believe is the depth of the framing change we have at that time.

The grounding elements are on this side about three feet in width, because this is about a three foot overhang.

So just slightly less than three feet and they're about five feet deep.

An effort to still create a shadow line, give hierarchy to that top element, but also very clearly bring it down to ground.

Yeah, yeah, it does.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think the tree columns do a nice job.

I guess because I was looking at the rendering that you just showed with the

Thank you for that, Paisha, continuing along.

I'd be curious to hear what my fellow board members have to interpret on that.

But I do feel like the way that it, I think that reducing the depth of the overhang was really helpful.

And I think, but I think if you can like kind of read that line of like the canopy all the way across the building, it kind of starts to me to feel like it's working against your

attempts to make it less of a single facia floating above the glass volume.

That there's something about the asymmetry and the way that it works with the grounding elements to suggest it's a little bit different than just a single canopy.

But I'd be open to other interpretations of the way it's reading.

If other board members prefer it,

Can you go back to the view of the single facial dimension option?

Can you describe more what's happening at the back wall of that space?

Well, there's a series of offices, sales offices, some sales managers.

There's a hallway that goes back towards a waiting area, which is what you see on this side here.

There's a step in the ceiling elevation that's happening between the showroom and then the rest of the facility, the offices and the parts storage towards the rear and eventually the service area.

Thank you.

I mean, I think what's, I don't know if it's fully present yet, but what's intriguing to me about this option is the way it maybe relates to the local precedent of porches.

And so to the extent that the showroom could read truly as sort of an independent porch on a building and to the extent the facade of the offices and the spaces

Behind was carefully composed and it sat in front of those.

I think that could be an interesting if abstract way to relate this to the precedents of our county.

Similarly, I think, you know, if there were a way that the tree columns could be expressed outside the

Perimeter of the curtain wall that would still tie it more directly so that sort of the enclosure and support were primary but also understanding that the brand standards for different colors would complicate that but

but I do think that the, call it the platonic simplicity of the pavilion in this case I think does relate well to some historic precedents locally.

Is there any room to reduce the height of the facia further or is that sort of the minimum for the parapet condition or gravel stop or whatever else maybe?

Yeah, I mean, in my opinion, certainly like the less mass there is, the less top heavy it's going to be, at least in terms of directly addressing that comment.

You could probably only take it so far before you, I guess, defeat the intent of that element as a part of the Hyundai brand.

But I guess I agree with Dade also, bringing the columns to the outside where they'd be more readily visible.

With that silver color, they'd still relate to the storefront, at least presumably.

So potentially three avenues to explore I think is the step down, the asymmetrical step down, is that emphasizing the top heaviness and if the statement is the more mass there is, the more top heavy it feels, which I think I can buy that logic then that kind of

suggests we get away from it also then that helps.

rationalize or emphasize this more front addition element like you were mentioning and then potentially expressing the columns and then any sort of reduction of that fascia height that we can get to while still I think screening the rooftop units almost becomes my priority of thinking about the entrance corridor guidelines.

I'm sure Hyundai

Yeah, I think this one is intriguing.

I think the rear wall does effectively become part of the facade in it.

So the composition maybe becomes challenging relative to program, but I think it's intriguing.

I think if the applicant ultimately wants to pursue the step down, I think for me, the step down probably needs to step all the way down to the ground effectively, and then maybe have a punched opening in it for the window.

because I guess I just wonder if you, I'm just trying to think of local precedents.

If this thing is there's a facia and then four series of four columns thing at the rear might interrupt your reading of that whole rear wall as being sort of the facade.

And it would not confuse the structural reading, right?

And I think that probably goes to Staff's comment, which is from the entrance corridor, how visible are those rear items as well?

So I think there is attention to play there with the visibility of the tree columns versus that grounding element.

Obviously there's work for us to do, but I do see a scenario where maybe that front wall comes, the rear wall of the showroom comes forward and then

You know, that allows for a place for that vertical leg to happen in the background, because at least from this perspective here, this starts to get very legible for me about, and I really appreciated, you know, your comment, Dade, about eroding the box, you know, having this building element that didn't get eroded away, and then, you know, you can, it's very legible.

So even from this element, it seems like it's impactful and purposeful.

So I think there is a tension there for us to study.

Really helpful, though.

Well, let's see.

Let me see if I can just sum up real briefly.

It sounds like board members think that there are a few items that can still be worked on.

One is regarding the step down of the fascia that might work better as a consistent height.

Another is regarding the interior columns, the tree columns.

making them more visible, possibly moving them to the exterior and also reducing the height of the fascia.

Is that, are those the three items that were, does that cover everything?

I mean, they're secondary, but I guess to the, I would be composing the rear wall of the showroom as part of the facade.

Yeah.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thanks a lot.

Thanks.

So we will move to our second work session, which is the entrance corridor design guidelines addenda.

Okay.

Everyone, my name is Mariah Gleason.

I'm a designer at, well, here.

Thank you for your continued work on the entrance corridor design guideline addenda.

Today we have some revised segments and corridors for your review.

on Route 240 and Route 29.

So the last time you saw Route 240, we had multiple segments on it.

The changes when we brought it before the ARB comments were around revising the segment locations.

So the railway segment on the north side of 240 was extended to the intersection of Crozet Avenue and Three Notch Road.

The downtown segment was reduced from that intersection to south to Tabor Street and then Rolling Residential and Brownsville.

Those segments were combined.

So this is what the new segment looks like.

And kudos to Chris.

He's been lending his time and talents to helping us update the maps.

The major changes are symbology to help it be more clear when printed out in black and white.

So there's more contrast in the maps, but also a little bit more clarity.

So again, this is what the map used to look like.

Now we have a refinement to our maps and he's helping us update the 100 plus maps that we currently have in our addenda.

So thank you, Chris.

So here are the new segments and then we'll go through each of the actual segment sheets too just to show you what those have looked like as we've continued to update the maps and the language.

So the railway section

and Segment just acknowledges the predominant feature of the railroad along this stretch of Route 240 on the south side and then at the point that it takes a turn into Crozet Avenue that becomes our downtown and these are the precedent images I forgot to say.

The precedent images in this segment really showcase the buildings on the north side of the railway, the vegetation along the tracks, and then the distant mountain views that are available to the west.

So then acknowledging that the railroad is somewhat of a gateway and entryway to the downtown, the downtown then became what is this highly active area that's focused on high

streetscapes and easy pedestrian travel.

So continuous sidewalks, multiple crosswalks accentuated by differentiated paving material and markings, pedestrian lighting and furniture, trash cans, that sort of thing became the unifying element of this segment.

So the precedent images to convey that.

and then the Crozet Avenue residential.

This segment is characterized by residential uses with more of a suburban character.

Deeper building setbacks with limited visibility are typical of older residences to the north and newer residential developments are set close to the road and readily visible and those are located more towards the south.

Watervale Drive and Oxbow Drive specifically.

So the precedent images are on this sheet.

And then moving to the Route 29 corridor, this corridor used to have five segments in it.

When we came before the ARB, we kind of rejiggered how that was divided up and it was reduced to three.

Rural Transition, Rivanna Forks, and River South.

So the rural transition is mainly that area that has the trees that kind of canopy over the entrance corridor with a dappled light.

Up to the development at Briarwood Drive and Boulders Road is on the other side.

That's the Enjik development home of Rivanna Futures.

But you kind of see these extended lawn areas and then the wooded frontages along this segment.

And then Rivanna Forks centers itself on the Hollymead area and the Airport Road.

So this segment is characterized by clusters of developments separated by stretches of undeveloped wooded frontages.

Resident images here.

And then the southernmost segment is river south, which starts at the south fork of the Rivanna River and travels down to the city county jurisdictional line.

The difference here is that development becomes more consistent, frequent, and visible.

And this is where we have our most diverse set of uses and architectural forms

You'll see the Rio 29 form-based code planning area exists within this segment.

Developers can opt into that form-based code development, which is encouraged, or the development can make use of its assigned conventional zoning district.

So it can go either way.

The form-based code is an opt-in zoning district.

Oh, and this became the precedent imagery for this segment.

We tried to keep the developments that, or the images that the ARB had said that it really, really liked.

We also updated images for buildings that were recently completed and have since opened, such as the Starbucks across from Walmart and the carwash at the Rio Hill Shopping Center.

Are there any segments or quarters that you would like me to navigate back to?

I can start with the Route 240.

Well, I guess we'll just go through and see if anybody has any questions or comments and kind of take it from there.

No, I appreciate the continued work on this.

I think the simplification of the segments is positive and the precedent imagery is looking very good and clear.

Thank you.

And Margaret.

Thank you all.

Tara?

Yeah, I would agree.

I think the simplification of the segments is great.

And I think the imagery is communicating a pretty consistent sense of what that corridor is about.

Thanks.

Frank?

I agree.

Nice work.

No additional comments.

Nice addition.

Thanks.

Yeah, and I agree.

I think kind of consolidating some of the segments makes a lot of sense.

And I think like, you know, the segments that you arrived at,

make a lot of sense in terms of like where they start and end.

So I think it's an improvement over where it was previously.

Yes, you are off the hook.

It's just us right now.

We're going through kind of the second draft, so making sure that things are consistent throughout all of the maps and sheets.

We're referring to things consistently, such as wooded frontages.

We have a work session that we are planning around wooded frontages.

There are a lot of topics that

Great.

Well, thank you.

All right.

Well, thanks a lot.

They're looking great.

So we'll move on to other business.

First is approval of the July 15th, 2024 minutes.

I'll move to approve this.

Thank you.

Second.

Great.

All right.

OK.

Mr. Henningsen?

Aye.

All right.

Thanks a lot.

In that case, the next ARB meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024.

I need to verify.

I'll be able to make it.

I'm planning on attending.

Yeah, I should be here.

So we can confirm by email.

So in that case, this meeting is adjourned until our next meeting on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

And it is 2.23 by my watch.