The Albemarle County
Architectural Review Board
(ARB) met today and spent three hours discussing the
Albemarle Place
development ultimately approving Block C which includes the theater and a 5-story office building along Hydraulic Road. The Albemarle Place project is divided into seven major sections (A thru G) and the remaining sections will be reviewed at meetings on May 1st and May 15th.
Update 4/18/06:
Blocks A & B (south of Sperry Marine and closest to intersection of Hydraulic and US 29) will be reviewed on May 1st. Blocks F & G (between Sperry Marine and old Comdial facility) will be reviewed on May 15th. Block D, the area with the tallest proposed buildings, is on hold. Preliminary plans
for Block D
showed a 10-story residential building that, at 150’ in height, would require a modification to the rezoning.
Block E, directly behind Sperry Marine, is not visible from the entrance corridors and thus will not get ARB review.
The ARB focused their attention on aspects of the project that could be viewed from the Hydraulic Road and US 29 entrance corridors. Details discussed included such items as glass types, brick color, door colors, landscape plantings, and cornice treatments. Burrell Saunders, an architect with CMSS Architects, described the goal of creating a town center with a variety of buildings types and designs. ARB members seemed generally pleased with the form of the development in this section of the project.
While ARB approval was certainly good news to developer Frank Cox, he informed the Board today that he has still not yet submitted an updated
site plan
for review by the planning staff. Thus the ARB worked off of conceptual drawings and preliminary plans for the 12 buildings and parking garage in Block C. Mr. Cox indicated he wanted to get any significant input from the ARB before a new plan was finalized. A final site plan will have to be approved by Albemarle County before the development moves forward.
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Albemarle Place
.
Brian Wheeler
