The owners of the Surfside building, 54 Dodge Street OpCo. LLC, Plat 6, lot 138, are headed back to the drawing board for their renovation and planned addition to the building. This rethinking of the project, according to co-owner Rich Cooper, is in response to the reaction from the Historic District Commission, which met Monday, May 24, to discuss the plans.
The architect, Glenn Gardiner of Newport Collaborative Architects, has already reworked the project after the first meeting with the HDC, shrinking the overall size, moving the garage rather than demolishing it, looking at different roof line options, and dropping the dormer from the plans altogether.The HDC was not impressed. Member Mike Ballard suggested the applicants review the guidelines for the Historic District Commission and get a sense of what it is the HDC is supposed to be accomplishing. He said the proposal “runs in the face of what the guidelines for the HDC are,” and the current proposal is “offensive” to the roof lines and sight lines of the neighboring buildings.Member Arlene Tunney stated that the addition had “nothing to do with the existing building.” She also pointed out that the addition is twice the square footage
