By Gus Herrera
Recently, construction has been seemingly commonplace around Pasadena. If you drive around the city, you can see several vacant lots and some half-finished, ongoing projects. Like it or not, this development trend is showing no signs of slowing down.
The City of Pasadena’s Design Commission met this past Tuesday, March 22, in order to advise the city’s planning commission on a proposed development (PD) near the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Hill Avenue, right next to Pasadena City College. The project would include two multi-story hotels, one on the north side of Colorado, the other on the south side.
The north parcel, which is located at the northwest corner of Hill and Colorado, measures in at 127,961 square feet (2.95 acres) and was formally used by the car dealership Pasadena Ford. The parcel basically occupies the entire block from Hill to Holliston Avenue. That being said, most of the space is made up of a large parking lot, but the buildings facing Colorado, the antique store at the corner of Holliston and the vacant, former showroom next door, are considered to have historical significance and thus will be implemented into the project’s design.
This site would house a large full-service hotel with, “no more than 400 rooms at 375,000 square feet, and 35,000 square feet of ground floor retail and commercial uses,” according to the staff report. The plans also call for two levels of subterranean parking (up to 700 parking spaces) accessible via a newly constructed alley on the north side of the block.
Across the street, the southern parcel is located at the southeast corner of Holliston Avenue and Colorado. Measuring in at 30,895 square feet (.71 acres), this site is made up of a small building and parking lot, also used for car sales. Unlike its northern counterpart, this parcel does not contain any buildings with historical merit. Here would be a smaller, boutique hotel about three to four stories high, measuring 89,595 square feet, according to the report. This hotel would also have two levels of underground parking but only up to 150 spaces.
Currently, Pasadena’s General Plan Land Use Designation places a restriction on the floor to area ratio (FAR) for buildings constructed on the space in question. According to the city’s staff report these particular sites lie within a “Medium Mixed-Use area,” in which buildings are limited to a maximum of a 2.25 FAR. The proposed hotel on the north side would come in with a maximum FAR of 2.72 and the southern hotel would have a maximum FAR of 2.98, according to the report.
However, there is a special policy (Policy 4.13) that would allow new proposed developments to have a FAR as high as 3.0, given it could be, “demonstrated that the architectural design of the PD is contextual and of a high-quality.” In other words, in order for the city to make an exception to its rules, it must be agreed upon that the project will not only exhibit exceptional design (both aesthetically and with respects to sustainability), but more importantly, be able to naturally assimilate itself into the surrounding context. After being treated to two presentations on the matter, one by staff, the other by Stefanos Polyzoides of the architectural firm Moule & Polyzoides, the design committee was satisfied enough by what they heard to reach a unanimous motion of approval. Given that this project is still in its very early stages and no brand has officially been associated with either of the two hotels, several design commissioners, at first, had a hard time doing so. The committee’s approval ultimately relied on seven principles for the project put forth in Polyzoides’ presentation. These principles each lay out architectural provisions and standards the design commission felt, if adhered to, would maintain the high level of quality necessary to amend the city’s regulations. Polyzoides’ plan emphasizes the need to live up to the tradition of great urban hotels in Pasadena, a notion that particularly resonated with a couple commissioners. His vision for the projects to successfully incorporate public space and maintain a high level of sustainability through both materials and design fell right in line with what the commission needed to hear.
With last Tuesday’s motion of approval, the Colorado-Hill project can continue further development/conceptualization and will eventually be presented to the Pasadena City Council to receive a final green light, potentially as early as this summer. Stay tuned.
For more details, visit: ww5.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/design-commission.
