Arnold Karp

Town Imposes 90-Day Delay on ‘Red Cross Building’ Demolition

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Town officials last week imposed a 90-day demolition delay on a long-unoccupied house on Main Street downtown. The Historical Review Committee voted 3-1 during a regular meeting held Thursday at Town Hall to delay the razing of  51 Main St.—known locally as “the Red Cross Building,” after its longtime former owner. “What resonates with me is the Stick Style period that was popular around the turn of the century—I think that is the noteworthy aspect,” Committee member Mark Markiewicz said. He added, “I think the Stick Style itself is a very notable architectural direction that took place. I see it as a very kind of regional and especially American style that was born out of ample supply/availability of wood.

Government

Committee Votes 3-0 Against Imposing Demolition Delay at Weed and Elm

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Saying a widely discussed ca. 1928-built house on the corner of Weed and Elm Streets fails to meet the criteria spelled out in a local ordinance, members of a town committee last week voted against imposing a 90-day demolition delay on the structure. 

The Historical Review Committee during a special meeting at Town Hall voted 3-0 to forgo imposing the demo delay at 751 Weed St., site of a planned 120-unit residential development. “My view after hearing what fellow commissioners have said, and my own view of this, is that I don’t see this as a particularly—it doesn’t seem to fit into any of the three categories of the ordinance that empowers this committee and sets forth specifically the criteria that we are supposed to consider,” Committee Chair Frederick Whitmer said during the June 29 meeting. 

He continued, “The first being that there’s some event that’s associated with the building. I don’t see that. Secondly, that it is somehow associated with someone of significance, either state, nationally or locally, to the property.

Amy Zabetakis

Town Committee Imposes 90-Day Demolition Delay on St. Aloysius-Owned House on Maple Street

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Though a representative of the building’s owner said the house at 30 Maple St. is structurally unsound, has no practical use for St. Aloysius Church, is to be razed to make way for an improved drop-off area for schoolchildren and isn’t the defining historic structure on the property, town officials last week voted unanimously to impose a 90-day demolition delay for the structure. The ca. 1906-built “Stick-style” building that fronts Maple Street between South Avenue and Park Street is to be demolished as part of St.

Government

Committee Imposes 90-Day Delay on New Canaan Library’s Partial Demolition

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An appointed town body on Monday voted 4-0 in favor of imposing a 90-day delay on the partial demolition of New Canaan Library. Members of the Historical Review Committee during a special meeting said that the original 1913 library meets criteria of local history and architecture as outlined in Section 12-10A of the Town Code. Citing a letter of objection to the library’s recent demo permit application that was filed by New Canaan resident Mimi Findlay, Committee Chair Mark Markiewicz said, “It’s very clear that the original 1913 building has a very compelling history, both socially in the town and architecturally.”

“It also seems like there’s a great potential to repurpose it, which would become a great cultural asset to New Canaan,” he added at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. “To use its full footprint including the five rooms that originally were built, I think it offers a lot of opportunities for different events, whether it’s exhibits or music venues or whatever. And its central location is also important.

Arnold Karp

‘Your Records Need To Be Better Kept’: God’s Acre Builder Criticizes Appointed Body at Contentious Hearing

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During a contentious hearing last week, two appointed officials abstained from voting to accept the final re-construction of a prominent God’s Acre home. In voicing concerns about the material used for the roof of a portico at 4 Main St., Historic District Commission members Carl Rothbart and Mark Markiewicz drew criticism from the builder who has overseen the widely publicized rebuilding project. 

Arnold Karp of Karp Associates Inc. told them he’s had as many as 3,000 people come through the home since its unveiling in September as the “This Old House” 2019 Idea House. 

Many of those visitors “are architects or people who are involved in historic preservation or architecture in general, including an [American Institute of Architects] event this evening,” Karp said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Thursday at Town Hall. “And not a single person has commented to us on, Geez that is an issue, and we have heard all sorts of comments on the house,” Karp said. According to Markiewicz, members of the Commission in meeting about the project at Karp’s office “discussed about doing a flat roof” there rather than one with a metal standing seam. Rothbart said, “You have done a really nice job in restoring the house and the thing that really stands out—this is why we are making an issue of it—I mean, if you showed that standing seam roof on the drawings and we approved it, so be it.