North Adams Historical Commission Nixes Park Lighting Scheme
.JPG) The Historical Commission has requested the designers for the proposed Greylock Market use more historically appropriate lighting, similar to the fixtures currently there. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Historical Commission has given a thumbs down on lighting plans for the proposed Greylock Market at Western Gateway Heritage State Park.
The commission, meeting in special session last Thursday, asked that the designers for the project come back with lighting fixture options more in line with the historic venue.
"If we are going to maintain some semblance of what this place was supposed to be ... ," Commissioner Darrell English said. "We know the inevitable is coming down the track but we would at least like to see a vestige of this town's old center maintained to a certain degree."
A private developer, Greylock Market LLC, is finalizing negotiations for a long-term lease with the city to transform the 30-year-old park into a destination artisan market and residential space. Some $6 million in public and private investment is being poured into the park to renovate its buildings and landscaping.
But commissioners agreed that the lighting presented wouldn't fit the former freight yard, whose buildings date the late 19th century and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"The picture shows a modern brick building and a modern bench and it fits beautifully," Chairwoman Justyna Carlson said, referring to an illustration offered by the designers that shows the more modern lighting fixture near contemporary buildings.
It doesn't go, she said, with the park's older buildings.
"I think the main problem with the lights we have now is they were not properly maintained," Commissioner Paul Marino said. "If we got something brand-new like this, it's going to happen again anyway ... can we restore the present lights to their original condition?"
Community Development Director Michael Nuvallie said the current lights are more than 25 years old and in very poor shape. The entrance into the park is being modified to allow delivery traffic to get through so most of the posts will have to be removed anyway.
"They're not worth keeping," he said, adding that any new fixtures would become the responsibility of the tenant. "One of the reasons why the city wants to find a long-term tenant for the park is to keep up the maintenance."
Nuvallie said the lighting choice was less for atmosphere than the acknowledgement that there would be people living in the park who would need good lighting in public areas. The designers believed this option to be the best, he said. "The idea was to make them look somewhat historical."
Carlson pointed out that the widely discussed economic development plans for the city had focused on creating pathways to get people walking between the park, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Berkshire Scenic Railway and the downtown.
"Most of the downtown [lights] are lantern style," she said, wondering if the park could have something similar.
Nuvallie said the goal was a look somewhat between old and new and "to give the park a little different feel from Main Street."
Resident Richard Zona, who attended the meeting, said the selected lighting didn't look very historical.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be an exact replica," he said. "This modernism stuff, it seems to be me it's a little out of place and inappropriate."
The commissioners voted for Marino's motion to be shown more options similar to lights on Main Street before making a decision to approve.
Nuvallie said he would take commission's input back to the designers.
In other business, the commission approved a "simple" safety railing on the roof of the Armory, feeling screening would only attract attention.
The commission also heard a report from Carlson on a meeting of the Western Massachusetts Historical Commission Coalition that had focused on insuring historical properties, disaster planning and groups that will do insurance assessments.
Carlson also spoke on the public meeting held last Wednesday by the Partnership for North Adams on changing the branding of the city, and the commissioners talked about the images presented. They noted that only one of the proposed logos, developed by an outside source, showed the Mohawk Trail and none the river or Hoosac Tunnel.
All the plans, Carlson said, left off the fact that the city was the Western Gateway.
"This was a feeling out of what the public thought," she said, adding that the big thing was that the old North Adams was not the present or the future North Adams.
"I don't think they were in touch with any of us previously ... We'll try to stay on this because this is our job."
Tags: Heritage State Park, historical commission, lighting,
