Madison’s Urban Design Commission members approved plans Wednesday for exterior improvements to both the 306 West mixed-use development and the Concourse Hotel, which will include a new Starbucks, as well as provide recommendations for renovations to the Park Hotel.
Commission members unanimously approved amendments to the Concourse Hotel design plans, initially presented to UDC last year, to install a sign on the Wisconsin Avenue entrance with LED-lit wording on a golden-colored background.
The hotel, located on 1 W. Dayton St., will also replace the grill restaurant inside the establishment with a Starbucks cafe as part of its comprehensive design review.
Commission members approved the Starbucks addition and facade improvements at a previous meeting in August. General Manager of the Concourse Hotel Steve Zanoni did not disclose when construction for the project will begin.
Commission members also unanimously approved plans for the 306 West development, located on 306 W. Main St., to add a 10-foot-tall sign to the mixed-use building still under development. The sign is designed to be a double-sided projection less than 25 feet above the ground with LED-illuminated lettering.
Representatives from Destree Architects and Mullins Group, LLC, presented exterior facade improvements to the Park Hotel on 22 S. Carroll Street. The current structure has a pointed corner piece on the ninth floor protruding from the hotel that does not follow the same rounded corners of the floors below.
Melissa Destree from Destree Architects planned to shave the ninth floor corner to a rounded edge and add a three story facade with a dark granite base to contrast a light-colored Biesanz stone among other designs.
Members provided mixed suggestions to improve the hotel plans. While some suggested keeping the ninth floor corner piece, others prefered the rounded edge.
“That’s part of the difficulty we had interpreting the comments,” Brad Mullins of Mullins Group, LLC, said. “There wasn’t a clear directive, but they want us to consider it.”
The city has a facade improvement grant program that provides property owners matching funds of up to $10,000 for every face of a building that owners hope to improve in targeted downtown areas such as State Street and the Capitol Square. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the program has been very popular since it first began in 2000. Many downtown establishments are involved in the program, such as the Orpheum Theater, to provide improvements necessary for dated structures, Verveer said.
Mullins said construction for the Park Hotel is expected to begin in October 2015. Although project planners have not yet decided to be a part of the facade program, Mullins believes the hotel will be eligible.
