A Nice New Building

[Stan Austin]

Folks--- If you have a few minutes and like to watch artists at work stop by the new sight of the Sherwin Williams paint store at Warren and Madison.
This could have been an ordinary or worse storefront.
The Architectural Review Board held the developers to a high degree of integrity for the design.
The results are already evident with the masonry features that are now becoming evident as the building rises.
Check it out!

[Grace O'Malley]

Hmmm.

This appeared on the PD web site this afternoon:

http://www.cleveland.com/newslogs/plaindealer/

Scroll down to about the fifth story.

Lakewood â€â€￾ The city wants new buildings to fit in the with the old; so it’s particular about what bricks are used for new construction.

So particular, in fact, that Lakewood officials have ordered a halt to brickwork on a new Sherwin-Williams store at Warren Road and Madison Avenue.

Now, the issue is in court.

Building commissioner Charles Barrett ordered the work stopped June 28, saying an unapproved brick was being used on building’s facing. The “utility brickâ€Â￾ Visconsi’s contractor was using is four inches longer and an inch higher in size than the brick the city says was approved by the architectural review board.

The Visconsi Cos., the developer, filed suit July 3 in common pleas court asking that the work be allowed to proceed.

The suit says construction drawings and specifications submitted for the city-approved building permit application clearly shows utility brick. The city never required a specific brick size during the permit and approval process, the suit says.

The utility brick is less expensive to install because fewer bricks are needed. Construction workers had erected facing on the rear wall and half of a side wall when the stop order was issued.
In recent years, the city’s architectural review board has insisted on a smaller brick for new construction to match the look and material of the city’s older buildings.

But utility bricks were used on the recently built No. 1 fire station next door. A colored mortar also was used so the larger brick size was less apparent.

By Kaye Spector, kspector@plaind.com

So what happened?

[Stan Austin]

Grace-- We await the judge's ruling. The Architechtural Review Board specified a certain type of brick which will match the proposed Walgreens plans for the building next door.
There are two options-- continue with the existing brick or peel off what was put on and replace with what was specified.

I personally am thankful for the good efforts of the ARB. While we want to encourage and stimulate new building we most certainly do not want to see another Freeze put up.

The ARB has been instrumental in the high caliber of design of the new YMCA as well as our new library addition which could be a destination sight.

Any attempt at a cheap run around offends me.

Stan Austin

[ryan costa]

It isn't...structural brick?

[Stan Austin]

Work is resuming on the Sherwin-Williams building this morning.

According to the forman the style of brick being used will be the same as for the new Walgreens next door. So, the design principle of consistency will be maintained which was one of the intents of the Architectural Review Board.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Work is resuming on the Sherwin-Williams building this morning.

According to the forman the style of brick being used will be the same as for the new Walgreens next door. So, the design principle of consistency will be maintained which was one of the intents of the Architectural Review Board.

Stan

So while we were ready to put the screws to SW we were going to allow Walgreens the cheap build out?

How does that work two blocks from Mainstreet, and/or right in the middle of the Mainstreet project that the city has put money in?


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[Bill Call]

Stan

So while we were ready to put the screws to SW we were going to allow Walgreens the cheap build out?

The ARB is doing a great job. They are asking that new buildings in Lakewood enhance the beauty of the City.

The builder of Sherwin Williams new that the brick he was using was not what was approved. He took advantage of an error in the review process to use construction grade birck. Since the ARB said that the Walgreens brick should be the same as the Sherwin Williams brick both structures will now have cheap construction grade brick.

A gateway to the City that should have been an attractive addition will instead look like crap.