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A hundred construction workers like Kenyata Woods and Tim Sullivan showed up at City Hall Thursday night. They weren’t there on a job. They were asking for one.
They joined what turned out to be a full court press on both sides of a still raging debate over the pros and cons of Yale’s plan to build a new $145 million School of Management.
Yale modified its plan and made nice with neighbors last week; it lopped off r nine feet on the north and south from the Lord Norman Foster-designed building to give residential neighbors more side yard breathing room
Thursday night’s hearing before the Legislation Committee of the Board of Aldermen. showed that opposition remains.
As well as support.
The proposal for a planned development district (PDD) to allow for the 237,000 square foot building has already received approval from the City Plan Commission. Now it’s before the Board of Aldermen for final approval; its first stop was the committee hearing.
The committee, chaired by East Rock Aldermen Roland Lemar, faced a legally complex and architecturally controversial item right out of the gate.
Woods’ view was more straightforward. A third-year carpenter’s apprentice, Woods is a graduate of the city’s workforce training initiatives. He is happily at work on the 360 State Street project. But he said he worries he’ll be laid off in three months. Then what?
“I’m trying to buy a house. How can I do it with an unemployment check?” That’s why he and Sullivan, an organizer with the carpenters union local 24, were there to support Yale’s School of Management project.
In a Power Point presentation, Yale Assistant Vice President Michael Morand made among other arguments an economic one during tough economic times: He estimated the project will generate $242 million in total new spending including payroll, student purchasing power and increased visitors’ spending.
That includes $42 million in direct payroll just for construction jobs. Woods wants one of them.
According to Building and Construction Trades Council of New Haven President Benedict Cozzi, who was one of more than 50 people signed up to give testimony at the public hearing, the unemployment rate among operating engineers in Connecticut is 40 percent.
“I want to urge approval because if it’s delayed any longer, we’re looking at next year, and it’s a crushing blow to people.”
Click here to read a letter of support from the carpenters union.
After having been irked by the initial plan, the Lawn Club on the north signaled its approval with the better delineated bike and pedestrian path along Pearl Street. That is one of the design changes Yale had made in response to recommendations from City Plan.
On the south, however, despite more side yard space provided in Yale’s revisions, Bradley Street neighbore Joseph Tagliarini persisted in calling the design a fiasco. He called the materials and scale inappropriate for a residential neighborhood.
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Morand disagreed, predicting the building would be a contribution to Yale’s architectural legacy. In full placard-bearing mode, SOM Deputy Dean Stan Garstka added that “essential to the credibility for SOM within the university is having a landmark building.”
Tagliarini called it “graceless and a tragic assault upon our fragile community.” He asked for the driveways and the loading areas to be moved to the Whitney Avenue side from residential abutters like his own home, on Bradley.
“As an alumnus, I’m not saying that the SOM should not exist. But it must respect our great city and our neighborhoods. It must co-exist,” he told the aldermen.
Former Alderwoman Nancy Ahern concurred that the building is “hideously out of size for the location.” She suggested the garage be moved to the north side and that the massive central courtyard be reconfigured to interact more with the neighbors and the city.
Ahern urged rejection of the design because it doesn’t meet at least one of the PDD criteria, of harmonizing with the neighborhood. “People need jobs [as] you’ve heard. That has nothing to do with the design Yale is going to build,” she said.
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Anstress Farwell (pictured) of the Urban Design League filed a petition for intervention. If accepted, she will be able to bring expert witnesses and have “standing” in the debate as the hearings continue.
Lemar said the public hearing would remain open and reconvene Feb. 11 at 6 p.m..
Morand submitted a petition of a different kindL more than 200 names he said, ranging from architects to construction workers to neighbors and businesses in support of the proposed SOM. He described the support as “broad and deep.”
“We hope that those who hope to delay or kill this project don’t succeed,” he remarked, “because their success would come at a great price to New Haven.”