The Zoning Board of Appeals approved the planned 52-unit residential building at 108 Water Street on Wednesday night after designers made changes to exterior design of the building, along with some other alterations to the first plan presented in November.
The condo building will have a mix of nine studios, 30 one bedrooms, 12 two bedrooms, and one three bedrooms. Eight of the units would meet the City’s affordable housing requirements. The building is five stories, with the fifth story stepped back seven feet as required in the Watertown Square 2 Zoning.
One of the concerns raised by the board at the first meeting was the look of the ground floor that runs along Water Street and gets taller as the grade goes downhill. The plans presented on Dec. 17 included changes made in response to the ZBA’s comments in November, said Julian Lewis of Eaglebrook Capital.
“We made some design revisions to the northeast corner of the building that should enhance the pedestrian experience there and break up some of the 20 foot wall there that was a little bit towering over that portion of the sidewalk and that portion of the site,” Lewis said.
Alex Brownwell, the architect from PCA Design, said the windows on the ground floor were widened from five feet to seven feet, and the facade on the ground level will have protruding bricks in a pattern, and downlighting to highlight the brickwork at night. Another design change is adding perforated metal elements on top of the dark metal panels, which will have backlighting.
ZBA member David Ferris said he wanted to make sure that the lights on the exterior of the building are dimmable. With the location near the Charles River, ZBA member Sarah Baker said she is concerned that building lights could interfere with migrating birds.
Director of Planning and Zoning Gideon Schreiber said a lighting program has been submitted by designers.
“They’ll ensure that it’ll spill onto the sidewalk to a certain degree, but it will not spill much beyond it,” Schreiber said.
Ferris noted that the light behind the perforated metal is shining against the wall behind it, which will be a dark bronze color, so expects the light to be subtle.
The building will also have a nod to the history of the site, Brownwell said.
“The Water Street site was originally in the 18th century, a distillery, then a starch manufacturing, then an automobile manufacturing for Stanley Motor, and then the Bachrach Inc. photography studio. So the area is referred to as Barker Stanley Bachrach Works Area,” said Brownwell, who added that there will be lettering on the facade referring to the Barker Stanley Bachrach Area, and potentially a plaque about the history could be placed on the building.
Baker said she would like to see a plaque, because without context the words on the side of the building would just be more of a curiosity.
As part of the project, developers plan to remove the utility poles on Water Street and the lines will be buried underground. Lewis said developers have reached out to Eversource about moving the utilities underground, but a fully-engineered plan has not been approved. ZBA Chair Melissa SantucciRozzi said that the City can coordinate with Eversource on the plan.
The board also asked designers to move the door to an electrical room from Water Street to another side of the building. It was moved around the corner.
The building has 26 parking spaces, one for every two units, which is part of the Watertown Square 2 zoning requirements. Developers also agreed to provide a free MBTA pass for each bedroom, increased from one per unit, to encourage people not to drive. Another option for residents is to get a free year of bikeshare program.
Developers will also provide $50,000 to help pay for a bikseshare station.
The new design also includes double doors for the bike parking areas in the building.
SantucciRozzi thanked the developers and architects for the changes made to the designs.
“I want to thank you and your team for going back to the drawing board. I got the packet on Friday and opened it up and said, ‘Wow,'” SantucciRozzi said. “It’s very, very, very impressive. And I think this is just a good example of the Board’s input really sending you back to the drawing board. We can always do more and do better.”
The property is part of the Watertown Square Area Plan, but is not a by-right area so the project required the approval of both the Planning Board and the ZBA. The Planning Board gave its approval in November. On Dec. 17, the ZBA unanimously approved the project with the conditions. See the list of conditions here. The slides from the December meeting can be seen here. See all the project documents by clicking here.