Williamstown Art Museums Move Through Town Permitting Processes
The new wing will replace the bridge between the Manton Research Center and the original Clark Art building. The giant oak, at left, will be 'well protected' officials said at the unveiling of the plans in July.
The Clark Art Institute on South Street was before the Conservation Commission, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals for permits to enable a 14,725 addition that will complete the connection between the museum's original building and its Manton Research Center to the south.
Officials from the Williams College Museum of Art, meanwhile, also went to the ZBA for an OK for the signage planned for is new museum on Main Street across from Field Park.
The new WCMA is well underway with announced plans to open during the 2027-28 academic year.
It cleared most town regulatory steps before a shovel went in the ground, but the last piece, the exterior signage, required signoff from the Zoning Board, which last year took the place of the defunct Sign Commission.
WCMA Deputy Director Devon Nowlin presented the signage plan at a Thursday hearing of the ZBA.
"The new visual identity is based on the concept of reflection, connection and interaction," Nowlin told the board. "As seen in this rendering, we have a complement of the different signage types that include a building marker. The building marker states the full name of the museum for clarity, and its position as a bench at the bus stop in front of the museum welcomes interaction and promotes public transportation to the museum."
One prominent feature is the new vertical presentation of the museum's acronymic name, which will be etched into the main entrance door on Main Street. Nowlin said the Brooklyn, N.Y., graphic design firm Linked by Air designed the logo.
"Seen on the entry doors behind it is an architectural feature of our logo, where the M is a reflection of our W and the letter forms of C an A are rotated to become a symmetrical design that one passes through as as a form of interaction with the building," Nowlin said.
The ZBA approved the signage for the new museum on a unanimous vote.
Likewise, the ZBA voted unanimously to approve the special permit required by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to enable its new Tavitian Wing, which will replace a long-standing enclosed bridge between the Manton and the white marble museum building.
The Tavitian Wing will include the addition of a little more than 6,200 square feet of gallery space.
In order to facilitate the latest addition to the Clark campus, the museum plans to remove an existing maple tree of greater than 24 inches diameter breast height, which requires a special permit.
Charlie LaBatt of local civil engineering firm Guntlow and Associates, represented the Clark before the ZBA and the other two town panels.
"[The maple] lived a long life, and it's headed in the wrong direction," LaBatt said, referring to the tree's general condition. "We're proposing to remove it and replace it. The big oak tree we're keeping, and one of the smaller trees we're keeping.
"As you know, the Clark's property is huge, but the [building] site is tight. We're trying to make space to do everything in an efficient manner is not always easy."
The ZBA approved the special permit in a motion that called out the Clark's intent to plant new trees as part of the Tavitian Wing project.
The Conservation Commission last week gave the Clark its blessing to install a new water line as part of the addition project.
LaBatt explained that, currently, the museum has a fire hydrant that is served by a line that runs underground beneath the bridge adjoining the two South Street structures.
Rather than build the new addition over the water line, the Clark needs to reroute the pipe, work that involves a temporary impacts on the buffer zones associated with vegetative wetlands on the Clark's campus.
"The work proper is not within the commission's jurisdiction," LaBatt said. "However, some peripheral work required as a part of that is — that being the installation of a new water line."
LaBatt said the new line will be connected to the town's water supply near the corner of Gale Road and South Street in the southeast corner of the Clark's main campus.
Because the installation involves buffer zone work with "minimal disturbances in lawn areas," the Clark asked the Con Comm for a negative finding to the museum's request for a determination of applicability of the Wetlands Protection Act. A "negative RDA," means that a developer avoids the more costly and time-consuming Notice of Intent process.
The Con Comm voted, 7-0, for a negative determination of applicability, finding that the water line work, "will not alter an area subject to protection under the act," and holding the Clark and its contractor to the town's standard requirements for the construction process.
The Planning Board determines whether a development includes adequate parking. Because the Clark's new wing will increases the museum's gallery space, the institution essentially asked the Planning Board to reapprove its parking plan even though the Clark is not adding any new parking spaces with the addition.
"We believe, on behalf of the Clark, that although we're expanding exhibit use, peak use and stuff like that is not going to change," LaBatt told the board. "The Clark already does a lot of parking management for their summer season, their peak use season, which includes, as you know, paved parking, lawn parking, off-site parking at 101 North St., where employees are shuttled back and forth.
"They have this wide array of tools in their tool belt for providing parking at the Clark."
Clark Deputy Director Robin Sher confirmed that the new wing is not expected to significantly increase visitorship.
"Initially, we expect there to be some increased visitors, like a summer exhibit when it opens," Sher said. "But I think, long-term, this will just add some exhibition space, but right now we don't expect it to impact the overall number of visitors. And we have, in recent years, seen a decline in overall visitorship."
The plan to not add more parking spaces pleased Planning Board Chair Kenneth Kuttner, who, in 2024, recused himself from a board hearing on WCMA's parking determination but lobbied the panel from the floor of its meeting to reduce the number of parking spots at the Main Street project.
Planner Cory Campbell, on the other hand, asked the Clark's representatives how the museum will handle it if parking demand spikes after the new addition is opened.
"Let's say, in the best-case scenario, you have more visitors than maybe you can handle, do you have a sense of how that would be communicated when you're at capacity — to visitors just showing up?" Campbell asked.
Sher detailed some of the "tools" that LaBatt referenced, including the employee lot on North Street, which potentially can be used for patrons who would be transported on the same shuttles used by staff, a small lot on the grounds of the nearby Buxton School sometimes used by Clark employees, the grounds of a South Street residence used by the Clark for visiting artists and scholars and grass lots.
"We've tried to manage [parking], and we've done internal management to figure out which lots to fill first before moving to other lots," Sher said.
Kuttner said the board should not approve "an arbitrarily large amount of parking" to make it impossible that lots ever will be full.
Board member Samantha Page agreed.
"I appreciate Cory's line of questioning as well," Page said. "There's always the occasional big event at the Clark that draws a lot of visitors and a lot of cars. But from my anecdotal experience, it seems like those excess parking cases are few and far between, and we don't plan for the extremes in those situations."
The board OK'd the Clark's plan to not change its parking in connection to the Tavitian Wing on a vote of 4-0.
Tags: ZBA, Clark Art, conservation commission, permitting, Planning Board, WCMA,
