Nine months after the Toll Brothers’ redevelopment of 15 Old Danbury Rd. was announced, the project seems poised to begin its formal review process ahead of the Planning and Zoning Commission’s usual summer recess. Over the last two months, the Architectural Review Board (ARB) has worked to finalize its recommendation on the project, and P&Z has offered two rounds of feedback in non-binding pre-application discussions.
The two main topics of design debate so far have been the massing of the building (how heavy or monolithic the structure appears) and the articulation of the roof (how to bring more visual interest to what is ostensibly a flat-roofed structure.)
The attention that both P&Z and ARB have paid to these elements is driven in part by the prominence of the site itself, which sits directly across from the Wilton MetroNorth train station and is visible from both Danbury Rd./Rte. 7 and Ridgefield Rd.
“This is a key location,” ARB member Samuel Gardner said in the group’s Thursday, May 15 meeting. “It’s a really important gateway building that will in some ways define Wilton for a lot of people. It will symbolize Wilton.”
Within that context, both ARB and P&Z have pushed Seelan Pather of Beinfeld Architects and the Toll Brothers team to break up the mass of the building and bring movement and even “playfulness” to the roofline. Of the two groups, ARB was more direct in its criticism of the current design.
“Those images from Rte. 7 and Ridgefield Rd. drove home that this is a big, ugly box that we’re just going to see the top of,” ARB member Kathy Poirier said, referring to new renderings the applicant team presented showing viewing angles of the building from nearby roads. She also weighed in on the proposed rooftop signage that says ‘WILTON’ calling it, “not right, not right, not right.”
Other members of ARB agreed. “It looks like stacked cubes to me,” Gardner said. “There is no hierarchy to the building.”
ARB Chair Kevin Quinlan called the design “rigorous but monotonous” and “blocky.”
Although P&Z was initially supportive of this second iteration of the design in March, as the pre-application process winds toward its conclusion, concerns have emerged. On May 13, Commissioner Chris Wilson pointed out that the renderings showing a clear rooftop are misleading. In reality, the roof would house a significant amount of mechanical HVAC equipment.
Commissioner Jill Warren suggested that the applicant team consider a clock tower structure to lend more visual interest to the rooftop. Vice Chair Melissa-Jean Rotini brought together Wilson and Warren’s comments and pointed out that a clock tower concept could double as space to house unsightly mechanical equipment that would otherwise be visible along the roof.
One commissioner did praise the design. Commissioner Mark Ahasic said he wasn’t bothered by the flat roof concept and that he thought the design evoked an old New England-style mill that had been adaptively reused. However, P&Z Chair Rick Tomasetti cautioned that he thought the iterative design process was leading toward a building that was “generic.”
The applicant team has stated that the flat roof and blocky design is a necessity given the requirements of the new Transit Oriented Development zoning overlay that P&Z adopted in November at the conclusion of the Greater Wilton Center Master Plan process. On this topic, P&Z seemed open to revisiting its newly-created zoning regulations. The TOD overlay applies to only the handful of sites that lay along the west side of Danbury Rd. between Ridgefield Rd. and Old Danbury Rd.
However, as Gardner pointed out, Toll Brothers’ emphasis on maximizing the development potential of the site is just as large a factor. The project as proposed would be the largest multifamily residential complex in Wilton, with 208 units.
“It’s still too big in my opinion,” he said on May 15. “There’s a desire to put as many units on that site as possible. If they went for fewer apartments, they could potentially break these buildings up more, and allow the light in, allow the landscape to integrate better.”
Looking Ahead
The Toll Brothers application is currently under review by ARB but it is still in the pre-application phase at P&Z. No public comment is accepted in pre-app discussions, but members of the public can submit comments on the architecture and design of the building to ARB now via email to Town Planner Michael Wrinn. When the project begins its formal public hearing process with P&Z in the coming weeks, there will be opportunities to make public comments via Zoom or by email.
The rendering shown of the Toll Brothers proposal in GMW is of poor resolution but the hideous nature of the design still comes through loud and clear. For my money, the project lacks creativity and a complete dismal of the importance of this site as a if nit the major gateway to Wilton Center.
The idea of a complex paying homage to the idustrial past of New England such as a mill buildind design with a clock tower which would br a visual focal point as well as a screen fir HVAC equipment is a tasty idea.
Come in folks, Toll Brothers has no problem besting their corporate chest as a premier developer and builder. Well show us your “A” game.
What you’ve presented is void of respect for the community and something you should have enough pride to know better and not present as an plan to the town fir consideration!!!
The design of the Toll Bros. proposed apartment building is a disaster. Every train rider will view it and the blocky design is too large, too close to the train tracks and not at all representative of the town’s character. It looks like a warehouse. I think Planning & Zoning has gone too far with these large apartment buildings. The two high rise building on Rt.7 in South Wilton. is bad enough.