Yale returned to East Rock neighbors with revised plans for its $145 million new School of Management building.
The new plan calls for a smaller footprint placing the airport-like building farther away from residential neighbors.
Yale Assistant Vice-President Michael Morand outlined the changes to 20 members at the Lincoln-Bradley Association gathered Thursday evening at the Bradley Street home of Joseph Tagliarini. It was a private meeting closed to the public and the press.
Participants said afterwards that the changes were generally well received.
On Dec. 17, Yale received provisional approval from the City Plan Commission for its plans for a 246,000 square foot new SOM campus on Whitney Avenue.
That approval was accompanied by non-binding conditions. The commission urged Yale to address the conditions before the plans go before the Board of Aldermen’s legislative committee for a public hearing.
That aldermanic committee meeting is scheduled for Jan, 28. Thursday night’s gathering was intended to get neighbors on board to smooth the way for that public hearing
In a conversation Friday Morand characterized the meeting as “cordial and productive,” in keeping with years of engaging with the community. He said this was the eighth or ninth meeting with the Lincoln-Bradley Association, in addition to conversations with individual property owners.
While the building’s height and square footage do not change, an extra floor was created, so that the north-south length could be reduced, he said. That allows for greater setback and buffer between the Lawn Club on the north and the Bradley Street homes and offices on the south.
Here are the changes that Morand outlined:
First: the setback on the north side will be widened, as requested by City Plan. The minimum width will be nine feet and, because the line is diagonal, wider at some points. The result will be more space for landscaping and a pedestrian and bicycle passage on the pathway from Pearl Street to Whitney between the new SOM building and the Lawn Club.
Second: “Thanks to the hard work of our design team, the south side yard setback is now from 38 feet to 63 feet to the SOM property line, allowing more space for landscaping and buffering,” Morand reported.
Two other concerns highlighted at the City Plan meeting, the raising of the full $145 million and the prompt beginning of construction within three months of demolition, were not discussed at the meeting. Thus far SOM has announced receiving only one gift of $8 million towards the new building.
“We’re confident the fundraising campaign will finish successfully,” Morand said.
As to the demoliton/construction schedule, he added: “We share with our neighbors throughout town that the site should not be left vacant for enormous amounts of time; that’s a question of working out details.”
East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar attended Thursday night’s meeting. He chairs the aldermanic Legislation Committee, before which the conversation continues on Jan. 28.
In a conversation after Thursday’s gathering, he concurred with Morand that Yale has reached out out to neighbors. And he described a generally amiable atmosphere at the meeting. Yet he cautioned, “I’m not sure everyone is entirely happy or that we solved all the problems.”
Allan Appel Photo
One neighbor who left the meeting feeling not entirely sanguine was Sal Amadeo (pictured). For 15 years he has operated a guest house and urban spa called Amadeus’s Center for Health and Healing at 245 Bradley.
He was not alone in not caring for the aesthetics or mass of the proposed SOM building designed by Norman Foster. But he was resigned to it. “You can’t fight Yale,” he said.
He said he worries about the prospect of loud blasting and drilling that might shake the plaster from his walls or the needles out of the skin of his acupuncture clients.
“People come here to get away from the world. This all depends on quiet. It [the construction] could ruin my business,” he said as he lifted a drape near a window that looks out on the cheek-by-jowl future construction site.
He said that Morand reassured him that Yale would monitor noise levels and that further meetings would be held on those matters after January 28.
Full of praise for what she heard was a teacher who attended the meeting but preferred not to be identified. She described Yale’s revisions as “a vast improvement. They added a lot more buffer space north and south without losing square footage, by utilizing attic space.”
Concerned as Amadeo was about noise and traffic, she added, “Everyone really wants it to get started, so it gets over.”
A new neighbor, Peggy Atherton, said, “I don’t want to argue with Yale. I think they do a good job.”
Had the new revisions to the plan been substantial, Yale would have had to return to the City Plan Commission for approval. Since they were not, Lemar said, the proposal goes straight to his committee.
However, he said some people would like see further accomodations, like more scaling back, buffering, and perhaps softening some architectural detail.
Lemar said he urged Morand to have the modified submission given in detail to the committee and public
“This is a beautiful, wonderful, residential street. I think the public hearing will help delineate a lot of the concerns that should be taken seriously before approving,” Lemar said.
Reached by phone on friday, Jane Jarvis, president of the Lincoln-Bradley Association, said the group does not have an official stance. “Basically the Lincoln-Bradley Association has not taken a position for or against, because it’s clear people are going to be for or against based on where they live,” she said.
“The meeting was civil, informative, people got their questions answered, and they were either happy or unhappy with the answers,” Jarvis said.
The plans have already been modified several times, and they could yet be changed again, Jarvis said. The Legislation Committee will hear the plans soon, and it may have still more changes to suggest, she said. “So we’re not at the end of the road, although I think the project will go forward, but perhaps with other modifications.”