One of Wilton’s most notorious commercial eyesores may soon see a new chapter. On Thursday, Oct. 10, the Architectural Review Board heard plans to raze and rebuild 11 Danbury Rd., the former showroom of Palace Rugs. The proposal seeks to retain and bolster the current foundation and footings but replace the structure itself with a building of largely the same size and height, housing two retail spaces.
ARB’s review this week was a pre-application hearing, a non-binding discussion between the project team and the town board on the preliminary elements of the proposal. As Chair Kevin Quinlan explained during the meeting, ARB focuses on the architecture, design, lighting and signage of proposed developments. Should it move forward as a formal application, the project will go before ARB once more, in addition to reviews by the Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands Commissions.
During ARB’s review on Thursday, design consultant Joseph Rousseau explained that the new building will architecturally emulate 19 Danbury Rd., which shares the same owner. The current building includes a second floor, but in the proposal, this floor will be eliminated in favor of a vaulted cathedral ceiling for the two retail spaces below.
Engineer Harry Rocheville described the redevelopment as, “dropping a new building on the existing foundation.” Referring to the current structure, he said, “This thing is a mess. It’s damn near derelict.” The new 11 Danbury Rd. will occupy a slightly smaller footprint after removing the architecturally odd southern section. The basement crawl space will be left unused, apart from flood vents, given the site’s location in the floodway of the Norwalk River.
The goal of the retail build out is to leave the space “as vanilla as possible,” in the words of Hashemi, who explained that tenants would be back to discuss the interior fittings of each retail space once leases were lined up. He indicated that they already have interest from potential tenants but could not disclose the businesses.
The feedback from ARB was largely positive.
“I think you’ve done a great job. We wish you success,” said Quinlan.
“It’s a much improved building from what is there now,” ARB Member Kathy Poirier agreed.
At the suggestion of Assistant Town Planner Daphne White, the applicant team agreed to look into incorporating windows at the back of the building, to allow retail tenants a view of the Norwalk River. They also noted that the next time ARB sees the project, they will have incorporated recent changes to move the mechanicals from the back of the building to the roof.
Before concluding, White noted that the next meeting of ARB is scheduled for Nov. 6 and Hashemi indicated that the team hoped to be back with an application ready for formal review by then.