The exterior design of a new Route 1 housing complex slated to go up next to the College Park Car Wash has sparked the latest debate over the long-embattled project.
Tuesday, developer Mukesh Majmudar and two of his architects showed renderings of the proposed StarView Plaza, an angular glass-covered five-story building set close to the road and equipped with a three-level underground parking garage.
Majmudar said the unique design is intended to be environmentally friendly, but his plans are clashing with some tastes on the College Park City Council and a city ordinance that mandates extensive use of brick in Route 1 facades.
The disagreement is once more putting the project's schedule in doubt, six years after development on the site was first proposed and in the midst of a severe on-campus housing shortage.
The design team is asking the city to waive the brick requirement so it can keep on schedule to open by fall 2009.
"There's a mandate for 75 percent brick. But that mandate was to create a colonial, Georgian-style building that would mesh with the university's architecture," architect Jon Grant said. "But this building has to be somewhat iconic, and brick isn't exactly a green material."
Some council members are uncomfortable with that approach.
"I want to be blunt. I think [the renderings] are ugly," District 3 Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich said. "When we say we want brick, I think it's reflecting a value of traditional design. Sometimes, what architects like and what people who live there like aren't the same thing."
Council members also voiced reservations about the architects' overarching plan for the building's street-front retail strip eventually meeting other new buildings along Route 1.
"My concern is changing the tone of either the sector plan or what we've seen so far coming to the Route 1 corridor," College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman said. "I'm not sure a corridor of these buildings is what people are expecting."
Others on the council were more supportive, such as District 3 Councilman Mark Cook.
"If we're to be the latest community in energy efficiency and all those other things, we have to be willing to stand up and accept a variety in our architecture," he said. "I think the community's vision is changing, as well it should."
"If you can get LEED platinum, I don't care what it's made of," District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn added, referring to the highest level of the national standard for green building. Developers have only pledged to go as high as LEED silver, two levels down from platinum, but repeatedly pointed out that the design is not finalized.
But the controversial design threatens yet another project delay, as the council wants to continue discussing the project next week and then get public opinions from a few monthly civic association meetings. Brayman suggested the process would take four to eight weeks, but Majmudar wants a tighter schedule.
"I think what I want to do is start working on the detailed site plan now. I want to submit it by the end of the month," he said.
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